Mac Tip: 20+ Tools Of The Trade For A Web Designer
As many designers use a mac these days – as do I, here I have put together my top 20 “tools of the trade”. Here you will find all the programs that I use everyday to do design work on my mac, from design programs to coding and even online services here you can find some really helpful programs that you may not have heard of.. it could make something you do one way a lot easier!
Photoshop CS4
Photoshop in my honest opinion is the best design program ever! I use this for everything!
Coda
Coda is light, fast and easy, my first choice coding program! With its ease of use built in CSS editor, preview browser and built-in FTP client this beats sluggish Dreamweaver for me!
TextMate
my second choice coding program like coda, its ease of use is great, it just lacks some features that Coda has.
Xyle Scope
A must for all good web designers, lets you dynamically look at the HTML and CSS of any website – it gives you an X-ray view. It will help you gain a better grasp of raw HTML and CSS code!
Illustrator CS4
Illustrator allows you to make fantastic vector images for the web, professionals use this for icons, logos and even wire web layouts! The best vector program.
Flash CS4
Flash allows you to create fantastic flash content for the web.
Dreamweaver CS4
Dreamweaver is the ultimate coding program, however I find it very heavy and sluggish, programs such as Coda rank-up better in comparison.
Pixelmator
Is a powerful cheaper alternative to the well-known Photoshop, that delivers exactly them same tools – one thing I love about Pixelmator is the magic wand tool, you must try it! I often use Pixelmator for quick projects.
Free Ruler
Free ruler is a free on screen ruler that allows you to scale up against anything on your screen, it’s a quick and easy way to measure the exact measurement in pixels on the spot – rather than taking a screenshot and bringing it into a image editor.
OSX Image Resizer
This is great for editing the dimensions and file size of batch or individual images, catering for JPEG and PNG-24.
GIFfun
GIFfun is a great utility that allows you to quickly make animated frame-by-frame gif images – easier and faster than Photoshop!
Marsedit
Marsedit is a desktop blog client for the mac, it allows you to write, edit and upload blog posts right from your desktop! No need to start up the online interface of WordPress ect. Marsedit caters for all major blogging networks.
Firebug: Firefox addon
Every web designer needs Firebug installed into their Firefox browser, it allows you to edit the CSS file of any page live, and displays the changes within the page itself.. LIVE! you need this!
EditCSS: Firefox addon
EditCSS is very similar to Firebug, a little less complex, sometimes we like things simple.
Cyberduck
Cyberduck is a nice, simple and fast FTP Client – the best one for iPhone/iPod Touch SSH’ng.
Fetch
Fetch is another great FTP Client, you can also install a dashboard widget with Fetch.. very nice!
Fluid
Fluid allows you to turn any website into an application, its great!
Plain Text Editor
Plain Text Editor is exactly what it says the best simple, quick and easy text editor out there!
Simple CSS
Simple CSS is a great little freeware app that allows you to create CSS style sheets from scratch or edit existing ones with its easy clickable interface.
Wufoo
Wufoo is an amazing form creation online service, you can create great looking forms through there browser builder and easily embed theme into your site! I highly recommend signing up to there paid subscription!
PhotoLine
PhotoLine is another great alternative to Photoshop, receiving 5 stars recommendation from ComputerArts.
FoxyCart
FoxyCart is a fantastic way of implementing an easy to setup CMS feature to you website, I have used it on a few of my own projects and clients, one of the best things about it is you can set everything up before you start paying their very reasonable price of $15 a month.
Paparazzi!
Paparazii! is a little utility that enables you to take live screenshots of websites, the best thing about this is it takes them beyond the fold, yes you can have a screenshot of the entire page Click Here to see an example.
There you have it, my list of design programs I use everyday! Let me know what yours are, I’ll gladly add them to the list!
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WOW, This theme is NICE man!, great job man cool tips.
Thanks for the round up, really useful.
Thank you!
I would add PhotoLine to the list of design software – though not widely adapted, it’s very powerful, having 5 stars recommendation from ComputerArts as a viable Photoshop alternative.
Thank you for your recommended program, I have never used PhotoLine, however going on their website and downloading the trial it looks like a very good Photoshop alternative. I will add this to the list!
Great tips. Been looking for something like OSX resizer! thanks :-)
You have the CSS Edit logo for the Simple CSS application.
This is a superb post of useful mac tools. Thanks :)
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Thanks for the positive feedback!
thanks for sharing these sites. The wufoo site is really cool.
Instead of cyberduck I use Transmit (http://www.panic.com/transmit/) now. It is very fast and has some more features.
I’m a blog decorating hobbyist type person but I still enjoyed the ideas. Thanks!