Finished up another semester teaching at Columbia and a common question I get is what design and development applications do I use. And, more important for everyone carrying their grad school debt, what would I recommend that won’t break the bank (e.g., Adobe CS3).

What follows is by no means exhaustive, and it’s admittedly light on the PC side since I am and always have been on a Mac.

However, these are applications I’ve come across over the past year or so that range from free to generally less than $75.

If you’re a fan of others, use the comments field below to add to this list. No pimping.

And thanks to members of the WWWAC mailing list who’ve recommended software and solutions over the years.

Mac

  • Pixelmator: Image Editor ($)
  • Acorn: Image Editor ($)
  • NetNewsWire: RSS Reader (Free)
  • MarsEdit: Desktop Blog Editor ($)
  • Ecto: Desktop Blog Editor ($)
  • Transmit: FTP Client ($)
  • CyberDuck: FTP Client (Free)
  • Xyle Scope: CSS analysis and troubleshooting tool. ($)
  • Coda: Text/CSS editor for coding with FTP, with preview built in. ($)
  • TextMate: Text Editor for coding ($)
  • CSSEdit: CSS Editor ($)
  • iMovie: Video editor that comes with your Mac.
  • GarageBand: Audio editor that comes with your Mac.

PC

Mac & PC

  • KompoZer: WYSIWIG site development (free)
  • Audacity: Multitrack Audio Editor (Free)
  • FireFTP: FTP plugin for the Firefox Browser (Free)
  • Picnik: Online image editor (Free)