20 Useful Mac Applications for Web Designers
The Mac or Macintosh is a series of personal computers designed by Apple. Although technically speaking it is a personal computer, but Apple seems to differentiate its Mac from a PC because it has many statements on its website saying things like “why get a PC…when you can get a Mac…”
The Mac was the first commercially successful personal computer to have a mouse and a graphical user interface instead of a command line interface. It was a big hit in 1980s but its sales slowly began to decline in 1990s with the advent of IBM PCs that ran on MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. But in 1998, Apple consolidated its multiple consumer-level desktop models into the iMac all in one. This revitalized the Macintosh brand and found success again in the market.
Today Apple’s products are known throughout the world for their stability and durability. I have a relative who is using the iPod from the past eight years. He says it has worked perfectly fine and in this large period has not even once needed any kind of repair.
The most striking feature of the Macintosh is that the hardware and the software are both designed by the same company. If you buy any other PC then you will have to buy the hardware of one company and the software of another one. But in Mac both the things are designed literally for each other by the same designers.
Below I present you with 20 useful Mac applications (or apps) which are specifically targeted towards web designers.
1. BBEdit
BBEdit is the leading professional text, code, and markup editor for the Macintosh.
2. Web Based WiFi Stumbler
A very clean and well implemented scanner using Java that works on Macs and PCs.
3. Things
Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other to-do applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Things instead offers the perfect balance between ease of use and powerful features.
4. Sparrow
Sparrow has been acquired by Google, As the team works on new projects, there will be no new features released for the Sparrow apps, other than minor maintenance and bug fixes.
5. Rapid Weaver
Rapid Weaver makes it ridiculously easy to create stunning websites on your Mac. Whether you’re building your very first website or your fiftieth, Rapid Weaver provides you with the know-how to quickly publish websites to be proud of.
6. Hues
You need to grab a color from an image, make it a little bit darker, and get the new hex value. You don’t want to have to open a design program just to do that. With Hues, you’ll be done before Photoshop has finished opening.
7. Play by Play
Play by Play is your courtside announcer for the popular design community dribbble.com. The app gives you a play-by-play of all the action with customizable notifications. Browse shots by players you follow, popular shots, shots from everyone, debuts, and your activity stream.
8. Xee
Xee is a lightweight, fast and convenient image viewer and browser. It is designed to be a serious tool for image viewing and management, with a sleek and powerful interface.
9. PHP Tester
PHP Tester allows you to enter PHP code and preview the results on the fly. You either simply write code directly into the embedded editor, or you can load any saved php file. Once your code is ready, just switch to the results tab and it will automatically generate a visible webpage.
10. Pixel mator
Pixel mator is an inspiring, easy-to-use, beautifully designed image editor built to help you create stunning new images and edit your existing photos.
11. Transmit
12. JSTalk Editor
JSTalk is a scripting language built on top of JavaScript. You can use it to automate applications on your Mac, or even write custom plug-ins for apps which support JSTalk.
13. Hype
Hype’s HTML5 output works on all modern browsers and mobile devices like I Phones and I Pads. No coding required.
14. Gitbox
Gitbox is a simple yet powerful Git repository manager.
15. Font case
Keep your fonts together with Font case, a font manager with an elegant and powerful workflow to help you perfectly organize and preview your fonts.
16. Color Snapper
Color Snapper is an easy-to-use tool for quickly finding out the color of any pixel on the screen. It is activated via a system-wide hotkey (configurable), giving you a magnifying loupe to easily pick the pixel you need. The resulting color is copied to clipboard in a format of your preference.
17. Base App
All the activity happening in your Base camp accounts, delivered to your doorstep in a lightweight package.
18. Acorn
Everyone needs to edit images at some point, but not everyone has the time to learn super pricey wiz bang image editing programs. This is why we created Acorn. Add text and shapes to your digital pictures. Combine images together to create your own. Work with layers to touch up your favorites or make something new from scratch. Do all this and more with Acorn.
19. A clipboard manager
Clip Menu can manage clipboard history. You can record 8 clipboard types, from plain text to image.
20. CSS3 Toolkit
CSS3 Toolkit is a really simple utility tool to help you create complex decorative CSS3 styles visually.
Let me know in the comments below what do you think about the above collection.
via Web Design Blog, Web Designer Resources http://www.2expertsdesign.com/web-development/20-useful-mac-applications-for-web-designers?source=rss