Each application listed below is tagged with one or more of the following tags to provide additional context.
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
#android |
Runs on Android devices |
#browser |
Runs in a web browser |
#chrome |
Runs on Chromebooks and/or Chrome browser |
#education |
Offers an educational discount |
#free |
Offered at no charge, but is not open-source |
#freemium |
Some features are free, others require payment |
#ipados |
Runs on iPad |
#ios |
Runs on iPhone |
#linux |
Runs on Linux |
#macos |
Runs on macOS |
#open-source |
Open source software offered at no charge |
#paid |
Must be purchased in order to use |
#trial |
Offers a free trial period. |
#windows |
Runs on Windows |
- Accessibility
- Collaboration
- Graphics
- Productivity
- Screen capture
- Text Editors
- UX Design
- Video editing
- Writing
- Colorblind Web Page Filter – allows a web page to be rendered as it would be seen by people with specific color vision anomalies.
#free#browser
- ClickUp - offers an online workspace with tasks, documents, chat, and project boards.
#freemium#browser
- Adobe InDesign – a full-featured print design and layout package.
#paid#trial#education#windows#macos - Affinity Publisher – a newer, but capable, entry in the desktop publishing space.
#paid#trial#windows#macos#ipados - Scribus – an open source desktop publishing suite.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos
- Adobe Illustrator – one of the most popular graphic design tools.
#paid#trial#education#windows#macos#ipados - Affinity Designer – a professional graphic design tool with an approachable price point.
#paid#trial#windows#macos#ipados - Canva – offers a number of tools and templates for creating presentations, documents, social media posts, marketing material, and more.
#freemium#browser - Clip Studio Paint – a digital painting package that's widely acclaimed by artists.
#paid#trial#windows#macos#ios#ipados#android#chrome - Inkscape – an open source illustration tool for creating images in scalable vector graphics (SVG) format.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Krita – an open source digital painting package suitable for illustration.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Procreate – a popular, full-featured digital painting tool for iPad and iPhone.
#paid#ipados#ios
- Adobe Photoshop – one of the most popular graphics and photo editing tools.
#paid#trial#education#windows#macos#ipados - ezgif.com – converts videos to animated GIFs and offers various editing and optimization features.
#free#browser - GIMP – a powerful open-source image editor with a large feature set.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Paint.NET – a free photo and image editor.
#free#windows - Pixelmator Pro – a powerful image editor for Apple devices with an approachable price point.
#paid#trial#macos#ipados#ios
- AutoHotkey – a scripting automation tool for defining hotkeys for the mouse and keyboard, remapping keys, and performing text expansion/replacement.
#open-source#windows - Espanso – a text expander that detects when you type a specific keyword and replaces it with something else.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Karabiner-Elements – a customizer for remaping keyboard keys and mouse buttons.
#open-source#macos - QuickLook – brings the macOS “Quick Look” feature to Windows.
#open-source#windows
- asciinema – records terminal sessions and allows them to be played back in the browser as animated text rather than videos or GIFs.
#open-source#linux#macos - Camtasia – a popular all-in-one screen recorder and video editor.
#paid#education#windows#macos - Kap – an open source screen recorder that can export as GIF, MP4, WebM or APNG.
#open-source#macos - KeyCastr – displays the keyboard keys being pressed when creating screencasts, presenting, or just sharing screens with others.
#open-source#macos - Loom – a minimalistic screen recorder and video sharing platform.
#freemium#windows#macos#ios#ipados#android#chrome - OBS Studio – this popular open source software is designed for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Snagit – a popular tool for capturing and annotating screenshots as well as capturing screen recordings.
#paid#education#windows#macos
- Asciidoc FX – an AsciiDoc editor with a live preview and built-in support for generating graphic diagrams and charts.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - AsciiDocBox – an AsciiDoc editor that provides a live preview of the HTML output.
#open-source#browser - Dillinger – a Markdown editor that can save files to Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.
#open-source#browser - ghostwriter – a robust Markdown editor that supports multiple Markdown flavors and has numerous export options.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - iA Writer – a minimalist Markdown editor with a built-in writing style checker.
#paid#windows#linux#macos#ios#ipados#android - MacDown – a minimal Markdown editor specific to macOS.
#open-source#macos - Obsidian – technically a knowledge management tool, but it uses Markdown files to store content. It has a feature-rich editor and a vibrant community that creates useful add-ons. It is free to use, but syncing content between devices requires either iCloud or a subscription to Obsidian's sync service.
#free#windows#linux#macos#ios#ipados - Oxygen XML Editor – a tool aimed at editing XML documents and content components.
#paid#education#windows#linux#macos - PanWriter – a minimalist Markdown editor with numerous import and export options.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - StackEdit – a Markdown editor that can save to Dropbox, GitHub, and Google Drive. It can also publish to Blogger, WordPress, and Zendesk.
#open-source#browser - Typora – another minimalist Markdown editor.
#paid#windows#linux#macos - Visual Studio Code – a powerful and highly extensible open source text editor from Microsoft. Some extensions useful to technical communicators are listed in the subsection below.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Zettlr – a feature-rich Markdown editor built for researchers, journalists, and novelists.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos
- Dendron – a note-taking and knowledge management tool that helps keep information organized.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - LTeX – LanguageTool grammar/spell checking – an offline tool that detects grammar, spelling, and stylistic errors in LaTeX, Markdown, reStructuredText, and XHTML documents. This tool is fully offline, and nothing gets uploaded to the internet.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - Markdown All in One –adds a number of useful Markdown tools including math equations and the ability to generate a table of contents.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - markdownlint – checks the syntax of Markdown files (headings in the right place, blank lines in the right place, etc.).
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - VS Code for Writers – this collection of extensions is geared toward fiction writers, but many of the tools are also useful for technical writers.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos - vscode-pandoc – renders Markdown files to PDF, Word, or HTML using the pandoc command line utility.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos
- Adobe XD – supports creating realistic mockups for web, app, and game design.
#paid#trial#education#windows#macos - Figma – a powerful and extensible UX design tool with collaboration features.
#freemium#windows#macos#ios#ipados#android#browser
- Adobe Premiere – one of the leading video editing tools.
#paid#trial#education#windows#macos - DaVinci Resolve – a video editing suite used in many video production studios.
#freemium#windows#linux#macos - Final Cut Pro – a popular video editing tool from Apple.
#paid#trial#macos - Kdenlive – a free and open source cross-platform video editor.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos
- Zotero – a tool to help collect, organize, cite, and share research sources.
#open-source#windows#linux#macos#ios