25 Top Free MAC Apps For Graphic Designers

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There are also many free applications out there that can do the same kind of job that Photoshop could do for you. This article rounds up the best 25 free Mac Programs for Graphic Designers. Some of these applications can even do stuff that can’t be achieved using Photoshop, or are much more simple to use. Keep your wallet in your pocket, since all these programs will cost you nothing.

App Cleaner

AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.

App Cleaner MAC
Download

Blender

Blender, the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.

Blender MAC
Download

Colorate

Colorate is a donationware utility for creation of harmonic color palettes, aimed from hobbyst to professional designers.

Colorate MAC
Download

Comipro Plus

Comipro Plus is a very nice tool designed to help you create cartoons.

Comipro Plus MAC
Download

DAZ Studio

DAZ Studio is a feature rich 3D figure modeling, posing, and animation tool that enables users of any skill level to easily create stunning digital imagery.

DAZ Studio MAC
Download

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is the world’s most advanced online image editor. Completely free access to hundreds of fun and powerful features.

FotoFlexer MAC
Download

GIMP

One of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around, the upgrades make the GNU Image Manipulation Program eminently comparable to Photoshop.

GIMP MAC
Download

Gnuplot

Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting program.

Gnuplot MAC
Download

Goldberg

Goldberg is a freeware image and movie viewer with image editing capabilities and support for applying QuickTime and other effects.

Goldberg MAC
Download

Google SketchUp

You can use Google SketchUp to create, modify and share 3D models.

Google SketchUp MAC
Download

HyperEngine-AV

HyperEngine-AV is a true multimedia editor that lets you combine seamlessly video, photos, sounds and text to create slide shows, family movies, business presentations, or your own feature films quickly and easily, with full DV quality.

HyperEngine-AV MAC
Download

Image Tricks

Image Tricks – transform your images to unimaginable extent.

Image Tricks MAC
Download

Inkscape

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable.

Inkscape MAC
Download

iPhoto

Use iPhoto to create custom books, cards, and calendars featuring your photos.

iPhoto MAC
Download

Lego Digital Designer

This is LEGO Digital Designer. The program that lets you build with LEGO bricks on your computer.

Lego Digital Designer MAC
Download

Monolingual

Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space.

Monolingual MAC
Download

NIH Image

NIH Image NIH Image is a public domain image processing and analysis program for the Macintosh.

NIH Image MAC
Download

Paparazzi

Paparazzi! is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of webpages.

Paparazzi MAC
Download

POV-Ray

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics.

POV-Ray MAC
Download

Scratch

Scratch: a programming language for everyone. Create interactive stories, games, music and art – and share them online.

Scratch MAC
Download

Seashore

Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s Cocoa framework. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes.

Seashore MAC
Download

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.

Quicksilver MAC
Download

Xee

Xee is a lightweight, fast and convenient image viewer and browser.

Xee MAC
Download

36 COMMENTS

  1. Some of these are great, but not all of them are for graphic designers. Some of them are just good all-around utilities that have nothing to do with graphic design.

    The 3D rendering apps caught my eye but I’m no artist and I have no patience to learn, that comic book sketch-up app caught my eye though.

    • We tried to cover as many good free apps as we could. Glad some of them caught your attention. Appreciate your reply.

  2. Some decent apps.
    But, the title “…for graphic designrs” is a bit missleading, not self respecting graphic designer would use programes such as gimp.

    The title should be, “…for new designers”

  3. Like previous commenters noted, not all of these apps are for designers only and I think it would be helpful to divide the list in two – dektop apps and webbased apps.
    No matter though, I am sure that beginning designers will find some useful stuff in this list.

    A few more suggestions:

    Contrast-A (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.offering&marketplaceid=1&offeringid=10763)
    An app to check the contrast between different colors. Not the most exciting app maybe but vital for checking that your designs are accesible and usable.

    Lyn (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/33371/lyn)
    A a lightweight and fast image browser and viewer. I have a very extensive library of textures, images, patterns, icons etc. and Lyn allows me to browse through these with lightning speed.

    Kuler desktop (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.offering&marketplaceid=1&offeringid=10162)
    Adobes excellent color utility

    BrushViewQL (http://brushviewer.sourceforge.net/)
    A QuickLook plugin for Photoshop Brush Files. A must to quickly browse all your Photoshop brushes

    EPSQLPlugIn (http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/epsqlplg/index.html)
    Another QuickLook plugin but this one is for EPS and AI files.

  4. found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later

  5. Excellent list! Nice to see things like this to help separate the good from the dodgy! I can trust this site and its network, so i will be sure to download most of these! Thanks :)

  6. I always used windows and using it now also never had a chance to try a mac so i didn’t knew about these graphic designer apps thanks for giving such a great knowledge to me. I loved it and want to have it more.

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