Freeloader Friday Download of the Week

Shareware Alternatives to Expensive Creative Suites: Web Design

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Pro web design suites haven't evolved much in the last few years and, like office applications, have become expensive and bloated. Fortunately, the Mac programming community has responded with powerful, lightweight applications that get you closer to your design with the right tools and without superfluous features or price-tags.

There are Open Source application with similar feature sets, but they can be slow and don't take advantage of Mac and cocoa features. I think you'll find the joy of fast, slick Mac-made applications worth the small price tag.

Warning: This week's picks are not free, but are so much less that their alternatives, they represent a bargain.

WYSIWYG Editors

Coda ($79)

Code is a unique, new HTML editor with a fast interface and Mac-specific features. Code has a built-in terminal, text editor and CSS editor.

The one-window interface keeps you focused and fast. And the integrated file browser and preview is great to.

Shareware alternative: RapidWeaver ($49) Freeware alternatives: Taco HTML Editor,

Image Editors

Acorn ($39)

This simple but very powerful image editor is GPU-powered. That means your effects will render in real-time.

Acorn supports all the standard features you're used to including layers, vector drawing tools, gradients and opacity tools.

Shareware alternative: Pixelmator ($59) Freeware alternatives: Skitch (beta), ImageWell

Text Editors

TextMate ($58)

Realizing that some of us prefer to code by hand, TextMate hits that spot with a versatile text editor that includes code formatting as well as unique extras like built-in FTP.

Complete with macros, collapsable code blocks, text edit even has a clipboard memory.

Freeware alternative: TextWrangler

We owe a big thanks to the OS X developer crowd for the unique and powerful Mac-only creative apps out there. Many of them aren't free, but are worth the small price.

Brian

  


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