Comments on: What is the best graphic design freeware/shareware for OS X?

Question: What is the best graphic design freeware/shareware for OS X?

persona non grata — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:22:17 -0800

My 19-year-old step-nephew is going back to community college to study graphic design this fall and he just saved up and bought his first Mac (a MacBook). What are the best shareware/freeware tools for OS X that he should get?

His mother is going to buy him the Adobe CS (essential for the curriculum) and I'd like to find other OS X tools that a new graphic designer could use and that might help to keep him enthused and creative. He has a digital camera as well. Being a Mac music nerd I can point him to loads of great OS X utilities but graphic design is outside of my purview and I am guessing there are some great tools out there. Any suggestions appreciated. And advice, too: I might just direct him to this thread.

By: tumult

tumult — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:24:12 -0800

Lineform!

By: chrismear

chrismear — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:28:51 -0800

FontExplorer X is an excellent free font management tool from Linotype. Every graphic designer ends up with hundreds of fonts on their machine, and a font manager will help him keep them under control.

By: patr1ck

patr1ck — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:32:48 -0800

Although probably way less than what he needs, I find Seashore to be pretty handy when I just need to make a quick adjustment.

PicturePopPro (Website seems to be down at the moment) is also a cool little utility that makes browsing image files in the finder much nicer.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:38:32 -0800

Wow... they're buying him the CS2 suite, make sure they buy it at educational pricing. It will save them several hundred USD.

These aren't necessarily graphic design related, but still exceptionally useful.

Quicksilver for app launching and all sorts of other good stuff
FontExplorer X for font management
UNO to kill brushed metal
David Lanham's Agua system icon replacement set, best installed with CandyBar
Kinkless GTD and a copy of OmniOutliner Pro. kGTD is a great Getting Things Done implementation using OmniOutliner. And OmniOutliner is extremely versatile, great for taking notes.
iWork '06. Pages for paper writing, Keynote for presentations that will kick PowerPoint's ass.
Camino. Uses the Gecko (i.e. Firefox) rendering engine but wrapped in an excellent GUI.

And get a copy of Quark. I hate to say it, but knowing Quark will open a lot of doors.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:40:44 -0800

One more: iClip

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:48:39 -0800

This isn't software, per se, but should be on his bookmark bar:

DeviantArt
Morgue File

By: daser

daser — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:17:30 -0800

Adobe CS2 will be almost all he needs for graphic design. I can't really imagine doing a lot of graphic design on a laptop, but I guess that is just me. I do all my work on a desktop machine.

Some applications that I find necessary and good (not all graphic design related) that have not yet been mentioned:

TextMate (text editing for web development - I used BBEdit for years but switched to TextMate recently and I love it)
Transmit FTP client
NewsFire (rss reader)
Growl (system notifications, use with Mail and NewsFire, and more)
TextPander

By: lekvar

lekvar — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:17:50 -0800

Artrage is a lot of fun, it's a program that simulates painting, and does so remarkably well.
Cyberduck is the best FTP software available for the Mac, and it's free.
Blender is a vrey powerful 3d modeling and rendering platform.
DAZ 3d has released DAZ Studio, a free figure modeller, similar to Poser, though not as full-featured.

By: armoured-ant

armoured-ant — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:28:25 -0800

Things he'll end up getting anyway:

DivX and xVid codecs, to play the downloaded films he'll share with his collegemates.
VLC to play them on, full screen.
Google Earth because it's useful in a new town.
StuffIt Expander because he'll need to unzip stuff at some stage.

Keeping in touch:

Skype Video Preview to keep in touch with the folks back home (this beta includes video support!).
Adium is better than the MSN for Mac client, by far.

Bits of fun:

tickr is fun to play with.
MacSaber because he has a MacBook, and will want to wave it about to make noises.
Photo Desktop is a cute desktop photo album doohicky.

Also, contrary to nathan_teske's comment about Quark, if he's getting CS, he's getting InDesign and Illustrator too, rendering Quark redundant.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:31:24 -0800

Quark isn't redundant yet. I see quark files all day, every day. InDesign is a great program but it hasn't killed quark by a long shot, and a lot of employers still expect a new designer to know it.

By: Gucky

Gucky — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:39:20 -0800

if he's getting CS, he's getting InDesign and Illustrator too, rendering Quark redundant.

Quark might be useful if he's working for an older/smaller/poorer company during college, but almost every company/printer will be able to handle and probably prefer InDesign.

He'll encounter it at school. There shouldn't be any reason to buy it, especially considering its price and (lack of) support.

If you can find a cheap Wacom tablet for him, they're a highly coveted commodity for people who hand draw.

If you're just looking for things that will help him, buy him a student AIGA membership, Communication Arts subscription or a sketchbook and good markers. The people who can still hand sketch a concept (a rarer and rarer commodity with every graduating class) get respect in the studio in a way that "fresh Quarkmonkeys" don't, no matter their age. Students sometimes let the tools get in the way of the thinking, concepts and ideas at first, so having a good sketchbook might be a fine tool to hone visual ideas.

Or a good color printer that does 11x17 bleed. At $5 a color print in most campus computer labs, those late nights get easier and cheaper if you've got your own printer.

By: waxbanks

waxbanks — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:44:42 -0800

I second the QuickSilver recommendation. Best, most powerful, most weirdly-pleasurabe piece of free/shareware I've ever used. OSX just isn't OSX without it.

I go nowhere without TextMate as well - great bit of software. Learning (in a few minutes) how to do your own snippets will automate your entire life. Remember you can reset the 'days before registration' counter by blowing away the preferences file - unethical but starving artists might need to forego ethixxx a little...

Absolutely fantastic brainstorming/creativity aid: VoodooPad. Essentially an enhanced, friendly, WYSIWYG desktop wiki.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:33:55 -0800

Quark is hardly redundant - he needs to be, at least, familiar with it. Lots of colleges (community, 4-year, or otherwise) are moving toward InDesign-only instruction with only lip service paid to Quark. Quark still accounts for a huge chunk of the industry and knowing it, versus not knowing it, could very well secure him a job.

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:11:01 -0800

Nvu is worth a look as a cheap alternative to Dreamweaver.

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:55:22 -0800

Can't believe no one's suggested GraphicConverter yet.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:47:49 -0800

I specifically didn't mention GraphicConverter because he'd be better off using crayons. GraphicConverter does a horrible job at just about everything, doubly so when compared to Photoshop. I speak from lots and lots of experience.

By: polyglot

polyglot — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:25:05 -0800

Hugin for photostitching.

By: coach_mcguirk

coach_mcguirk — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:48:05 -0800

Not design related at all, but great for keeping his mac running smoothly :

MacJanitor and / or OnyX.

By: nimsey lou

nimsey lou — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:14:24 -0800

software for starving students

By: justgary

justgary — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:15:55 -0800

Cyberduck is the best FTP software available for the Mac, and it's free.

No it's not. But it is free.

By: persona non grata

persona non grata — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 12:46:11 -0800

All great answers, folks. Thanks so much! My step-nephew is coming over this evening for a crash course in OS X and we will hit the links. Cheers!

By: persona non grata

persona non grata — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:44:10 -0800

We had a great time tonight so thanks again. He's good to go. I think he needs more RAM, though... :-)

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:31:59 -0800

I agree: Quark is not dead by a long shot. Every advertising agency I know still uses it (though many also use InDesign).