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.
Download
Blender
Blender, the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.
Download
Colorate
Colorate is a donationware utility for creation of harmonic color palettes, aimed from hobbyst to professional designers.
Comipro Plus
Comipro Plus is a very nice tool designed to help you create cartoons.
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.
FotoFlexer
FotoFlexer is the world’s most advanced online image editor. Completely free access to hundreds of fun and powerful features.
GIMP
One of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around, the upgrades make the GNU Image Manipulation Program eminently comparable to Photoshop.
Gnuplot
Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting program.
Goldberg
Goldberg is a freeware image and movie viewer with image editing capabilities and support for applying QuickTime and other effects.
Google SketchUp
You can use Google SketchUp to create, modify and share 3D models.
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.
Image Tricks
Image Tricks – transform your images to unimaginable extent.
Inkscape
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable.
iPhoto
Use iPhoto to create custom books, cards, and calendars featuring your photos.
Lego Digital Designer
This is LEGO Digital Designer. The program that lets you build with LEGO bricks on your computer.
Monolingual
Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space.
NIH Image
NIH Image NIH Image is a public domain image processing and analysis program for the Macintosh.
Paparazzi
Paparazzi! is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of webpages.
POV-Ray
The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics.
Scratch
Scratch: a programming language for everyone. Create interactive stories, games, music and art – and share them online.
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.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.
Xee
Xee is a lightweight, fast and convenient image viewer and browser.
thanks for the list some of them unknown to me
Glad you liked it.
gimp sucks it is NOT comparable to Photoshop by any means.
This list features only freeware applications.
…. but for “free”, Gimp doesn’t suck as bad as the $600+ price tag for Photoshop !! So I guess I can deal with GIMP’S drawbacks because I don’t trust any “torrent” copies of Photoshop !! :)
I personally prefer Photoshop over GIMP, but if its about budget, then I would have surely preferred GIMP.
Totally agree :-)
I find GIMP really difficult to use. It is quite user unfriendly!
shitty post. Many apps not for designers, some fo the apps are really shit.
Sorry to hear that. Can you help improve us?
Screenshot Plus widget for Mac. I’m not sure how I’d live without it.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Using App Cleaner and Quicksilver and like both of them very much. Don’t make use of the other mentioned
Sorry my wrong there. Thanks for the mention though.
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.
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”
Sure got your point. Thanks for correcting there.
Thanks Buddy
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.
Thanks much for your suggestions. Really appreciate it.
Thanks factalfrog. Some of these are great. I tried Lyn and Kuler desktop.
You have there a lot of suggestion and they’re kinda good. Thanks for the resource.
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
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 :)
Thanks for your confidence. Really appreciate it.
Umm, if NIH Image is a Mac program then why is the screenshot in Windows 95?
Oh, sorry for the screenshot, fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.
This is a great collection of apps! Thanks for sharing.
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Nice one…Thanks for share…
Great list of mac apps which are really useful for designers. I think I will try some apps and comment in the next weeks a little review.
Thanks, great list for a budget.
Are these apps usable on an iPad ?
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.
I will surely give a try to google sketchbook it looks awesome software.
Great collection of free mac apps for graphic designers.