LR plugins vs. presets

[sharaff]

Need a short explanation in simple words:

What's the difference between presets and plugins in LR? Is a plugin used only for sharing pics while a preset is smth to edit pics with?

Sorry for a stupid question, feel a bit lost...

[DanK]

A preset simply remembers a setting, to make it easier for you to use it again. A plugin is another piece of software that you can add and that is the accessible from inside lightroom


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[MaryWilliams]

Plugins are the supporting software which we can add and access from Lightroom itself. (enfuse, imagenomic, etc.)
Presets are the one, where we can save our settings (color, export settings) and use it for future works.

[Mike Buckley]

Another distinction about a preset is that it can exist in any software such as Lightroom or a plug-in to Lightroom; whereas a plug-in is a complete software application, a preset is only part of a software application whether that application is a standalone application or a plug-in that requires being hosted by a standalone application.

[Mike Buckley]

After reading your first post again, it occurs to me that you might be thinking that plug-ins are used only for their file-sharing capabilities. My guess is that relatively few are used for those purposes.

Plug-ins are designed to be hosted by a standalone software application and they are used for several purposes, depending on what they were designed to do. They include:

• Doing something that can't be done using the host program;
• Doing something with better results than can be produced using the host program;
• Doing something easier than can be done using the host program; or
• Doing something easier and with better results than can be done using the host program.