over 4 years ago from Adil Majid, Product Designer
Some of my favorites on my Mac. For personal use: Evernote, Pocket, Twitter, Day One, OmmWriter. For work: Slack, Sketch, Monochrome, iTerm, Sublime, Cyberduck and iWork.
Anything awesome I'm missing out on? What are some of the apps you can't live without?
As an OS X user, I cannot live without:
Plus some more basic apps like Dropbox, and you know...
Thank you for this amazing list! I've downloaded so many applications off of this. Time to go learn some new hotkeys I guess!
HyperDock is amazing. How does one change the appearance of their tabs in Sublime so that they match the previews on the Spacegray website? https://kkga.github.io/spacegray/
My tabs currently look like those pictured here: http://www.antonoffplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Sublime-Text2.png
There are special tabs settings in the documentation (e.g., "spacegraytabsnormal": true). https://github.com/kkga/spacegray/blob/master/README.md
Thank you! :-)
Alfred can also do simple text expanding.
What I really love is the "Clipboard History" feature.
Great list! Just got PopClip and licecap - thanks for sharing!
Keka is cool too, but man oh man that icon! http://www.kekaosx.com/en/
Bartender.
Hi. This is my favorites on Mac.
Design pack: Adobe CC, Skala Preview, HiFivicon and ImageOptim. Code pack: Brackets (before Brackets I used Sublime too), Yummy FTP Lite and sometimes CodeText.
What are some of the benefits of Brackets over Sublime? I had it installed for a while but have never really checked it out
I really love the Live preview in browser. Also Brackets have tool to working with psd and layers (live convert to css). But I don't use this feature. :) One day I decide try Brackets, now I don't want back off to Sublime anymore.
I use Brackets as well, and I don't think I could go back to any other editor.
Atom, Slack, Evernote, Things, Next, Transmit, Vox, Clear and Alfred.
Menubar: Infinit, Sip, Spectacle, Caffeine, Bartender
I just don't think Atom is there yet.
Why not? I found it to be much better than Sublime. Haven't tried Brackets yet but certainly happy I made the switch from Sublime / Coda to Atom.
I love how it shows Git modifications out of the box and how the snippets are easier to write than Sublime's XML like snippet creation. Plus, the package manager and theme manager is a lot easier and more user friendly than Sublime.
I really want to move to Atom, but last I checked predictive text wasn't there yet. Once that happens, I'll be willing to try the move again.
You should check here : https://atom.io/packages/autocomplete-plus
Made the switch 2 weeks ago and don't plan to roll back :)
Good to know! Gonna give Atom another look.
Welp, time to give Atom another try!
Atom is pretty solid now. I used it for a while and really liked it. I still prefer Chocolat though for speed and features.
a coworker loves Chocolat. care to share what those features are you so love?
It's lean, fast and simple. I can rapidly find files I need and it offers all the cool stuff similar to Sublime like multiple cursors and selections.
One of the main things I like is the inbuilt browser so technically I can have just Chocolat' open with the file bar on the left (which can open and close easy) numerous files open and a browser along with inspect element open all within the one app.
Granted it doesn't have anywhere near as many plugins as Sublime but seriously, who needs all of them and it caters for all the main ones I need.
I strongly recommend taking it for a spin - Chocolat'
Been using it for the last couple of months and I've found it to be very stable. They update it nearly every other day, so it's really improving on a weekly basis. They still have to get rid of the file size limit (1 or 2Mb, can't remember) but I think that's planned for v1.0.
I was just thinking the other day that I can't imagine computer life without Divvy — I'm not sure if there is another program people use to achieve the same thing (keystrokes that organize your windows), but I can't imagine working without it.
Moom (http://manytricks.com/moom/) seems to be a bit cheaper while having same/better functionality. And yes, when you have smth like that, its a small things but saves a lot of time.
I LOVE Moom! Tried all the others and keep coming back to this one.
Spectacle is a great free (and open source) alternative to Divvy.
BetterTouchTool also has the ability to organize windows by dragging them to the edge baked in, and it's free! :)
Tweetbot, Evernote, Chrome, Sunrise Calendar, sketch3, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, FontExplorer X, Sip, LiceCap, App Zapper, Utorrent, VLC, and Transmit.
Some Mac apps I use that I haven't seen listed yet:
Pathfinder - It's basically a way better Finder that integrates well with OS X. It's good for the power user and it's got tons of settings atypical of most Mac apps.
Jumpcut - A super simple plain text clipboard history saver. I use this constantly.
Codebox - Synced code snippets
Colorsnapper - Menu bar eyedropper
Picasa - Underrated personal photo management app by Google
Miro video converter - Kinda shitty but the only thing available for converting videos to .ogg and .webm for html5 video.
I would argue that TotalFinder is the best Finder app out there.
Path Finder does everything Totalfinder does but also has batch renaming, folder sync, command line, etc etc.
batch renaming? command line? makes me want to check it out.
Wunderlist, Alfred, Pocket, Codekit (!), PHPStorm, Tweetbot, Day One, Sketch 3, Sublime Text, Ember (my inspiration stash), Messages.app so I don't have to take my phone to send SMS/iMessage, Kaleidoscope, Sequel pro, ImageOptim , ... oh and QuickCast
OS X apps I use on a daily basis: Design & Development - Adobe CC apps - Sketch - Skala Preview - Transmit - Brackets - ImageOptim
Management/planning - Things - 1Password - MindNode Pro - Dropbox
Why do people use tweetbot over free twitter client?
+1 for NValt, although it seems that the developers dropped it.
I use nvALT pretty frequently to store credentials for sites I'm working on or quick snippets of commands to run (moving databases from one server to another, etc).
I just took a look at SimpleNote and while the design is better, I wasn't terribly impressed (couldn't find a preferences dialog to set a global shortcut and the editor didn't have support for basic formatting).
I haven't been able to find something that works better than nvALT yet, though I would certainly be open to switching if someone finds a better one :)
Photoshop, Illustrator, Skala preview, Sublime (but now I'm learning Vim) iTerm.
Non desktop app: Python to write my own design scripts and javascript to write photoshop scripts.
F.
You learned JavaScript so you could write photoshop scripts? That's different.
All of the plugin interfaces in Photoshop are for JS, actually.
right, but to learn js just for photoshop...
My favs:
All the usual design applications and my daily must-haves:
Hues 2 Beta, LittleIpsum, Icon Slate, Alfred, Skitch and Telegram.
[Hazel.](www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php)
Holy crap do I use the heck out of Hazel to automatically process my files.
A work horse. I'll create droplets that do a bunch of things to rename my files (e.g. getting rid of Photoshops onerous and unavoidable layer comp numbering when using the "Layer Comps to Files" script). Then I'll use Hazel to automatically run files in a particular folder through that renamer droplet.
Moom, Ulysses, 1Password, Stache, and Things. Can't function without them!
Many of these have been said but I'll repeat them for the +1 effect: (OS X)
Personal: Rdio (music), Kuvva (wallpapers), Mailbox (gmail), Wunderlist (to-dos), Sunrise (personal calendar), Evernote (notes), Steam (games), Popcorn Time (movies), Found (utility), Caffeine (utility), Dropbox (cloud storage), TweetDeck (social)
Work: Adobe CC apps (design/illustration/photography), Brackets (code), Filezilla (FTP, need to switch to transmit), Airmail (exchange e-mail), ImageOptim (compress images), Scout (for SASS & Compass, moving to CodeKit soon)
Why do you need to switch to transmission?
It has some really nice features that seem worthwhile: http://panic.com/transmit/
The mounting "favorites" feature is especially appealing. But Filezilla does everything I need for now.
Another unpolished workhorse. This basically lets you record mouse and keyboard actions and then play them back via hot key. It has a ton of other options, but that's the core and how I use it. It lets me automate so many otherwise unautomatable things.
Nice online radio player — Radium
App to save web pages in PSD, split into layers by css class names — Layers
Asset management — Pixa (more functional than Amber and supports Sketch, thou not the last versions yet)
Cheap and functional online backup — iDrive
Program that forces you to stop each hour (or as you want) and meditate (or like that ;)) — Time Out
Best tool to make screen casts — ScreenFlow
Window manager — Moom
All others seem to be already mentioned ;)
Link to Layers?
Sounds intriguing.
As you can probably tell from the website and Twitter account it doesn't looked like Layers is being developed anymore so you might want to check out a similar app called Page Layers instead.
By the way, Acorn has the ability to take layered screenshots and Screenflow can do the same with screen captures.
Yea, actually I was talking about Page Layers, just got a mistake in its name.
I swear by Time Out, it has saved my eyes
Yeah definitely, it saves a life in total ;) For me it helps to go out of computer and some exercises or just unwind and meditate.
Processing.
Have not found a single person here who messes around with it though.
You're not alone – I've been using Processing to create interactive installations with Arduino and it's awesome!
Used to back in the end of Flash days. Circa 2007 / 2008 I believe.
Cool suggestions.
Bookmarked ✓
Tweetbot and Tower!
DockPhone for OSX Yosemite
Illustrator - An obvious choice, but I couldn't survive without it. I've tried Sketch on numerous occasions and it just don't feel "right".
Alfred - By far my most-used app. My dock is essentially for monitoring status now; everything gets launched with Alfred.
Sip - Easily the best color picker I've ever used. Being able to send colors to AI with a keyboard shortcut is fantastic.
Little Ipsum - Real content is always best, but this is great when you need some quick filler for something.
Bartender - Enables my OCD and keeps the menu bar nice and clean.
Here mine my favorite app
Evernote Pocket Wunderlist Scala Preview Slack Promodoro One Ember Sketch
Adobe CC, Scrivener, Ulysses, Brackets, 0xED, Wunderlist.
Also Steam and OpenEmu for the days off.
Didn't see this listed here:
Omnifocus (rolls-Royce of task management apps)
In my dock: Mailbox, Chrome, Spotify, Messages, Hipchat, Photoshop, Sketch, Framer Studio, Sublime Text 3, iTerm 2, Wunderlist, licecap
In the background (but equally indispensible): Flux, Sip, Dropbox, Kuvva, 1password, iaWriter
If I have to code or design, these are my favorite apps:
For writing:
For reading and collecting ideas:
For communication:
I'm using many of the same apps as others have noted here: 1Password, Alfred, Dropbox, Adobe CC, etc.
Here's a few that I've found useful that haven't been listed so far:
Sequel Pro is pretty great, and SourceTree is a staple for my everyday workness.
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