Some tools I use

Just for fun I wanted to jot down the various programs I utilize for my regular designing, writing, coding, research and so forth. And if you have your own special programs you use, drop in a comment. I’d love to see what you like to utilize yourself. While I predominantly use a Mac, I also work on a PC on occasion. Some of these programs are only on Mac, others will be cross-platform.

And let me be clear. I’ve used these programs (including open source and freebies) for professional work. You do not need the high and mighty, latest and greatest from Adobe, or this and that commercial install to do any sort of design work or basic research and writing. Maybe on another post I will list the tools I use for Scripture studies and translation work.

Research, Reading, Writing

• Of course a yellow pad and a pen, preferably a Paper Mate Flair pen.
• Skim: for reading PDF files. Free program I like using far better than the commercial Acrobat. I still use Acrobat for compiling PDFs, but Skim is sleek and fast. (Mac Only)
• Bean: for writing RTFs and DOCs. Very fast and has exactly what I need. Sure, programs like OpenOffice offer a lot more features and capabilities, but that’s well beyond my needs for writing. Bean opens and runs very quickly, and I can easily work through my piece. Great for jotting down and gathering notes. (Mac Only)
• InDesign CS2: for desktop publishing, magazines, posters, mailers, brochures, newsletters, and various other materials. I am going back to using Scribus, however. Scribus is very different than InDesign, takes some getting used to, but has been much more gentle on my machine than the memory sucking Adobe programs.

And that’s it. Not much to it.

Image work

• Photoshop CS2: for general image creation and editing, posters, etc. I would rather use the non-commercial, open source program GIMP on a regular basis, but GIMP is severely lacking in two major areas that I sorely need: colors for print media, and a top quality type manipulation element. Until they fix that, I’m going to use the tried and true professional’s choice.
• Illustrator CS2: for vector imaging, logos and my type posters. I’m starting to learn Inkscape more, the open source vector program of choice, and it seems to have what I need. It will just take time to adjust.
• Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet: this truly is fun. Here’s an image of the one I picked up. I can sketch, draw, edit, etc. as if I was using a pen or pencil. I am so glad my wife allowed me to pick one up earlier this year. It’s been extremely beneficial in many ways, especially in helping the hand not get so stuck on the mouse. Eventually I hope to get a Cintiq 12WX or the 21UX, but at the current price tags I can so wait.

Web Related

• Firefox: no need to say more. But, make sure you use the FireBug plug in. That should be a requirement.
• Komodo: coding CSS, HTML, PHP and pretty much any other coding you want to do. It’s a great simple TXT editor as well.
• Pixus: an Adobe Air application that lets me quickly check the dimensions of elements on my screen.

Various other tools

I also use various other tools like Klok, for keeping track of time I spend on projects; Blender and Google SketchUp for 3D work (I’ve been working on a young adults room redesign for our congregation using SketchUp); Jing for sharing screenshots and video captures; FontForge for fonts I’m working on; Miro for videos; and then Skype and Adium (Mac Only) for instant messaging.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. Hopefully it’s somewhat useful to someone. And, again, I would love to see what tools you use, free or not.