Programs

For one time fees or for free.

General tools for creatives

• Obsidian (planning and note taking tool+Visual pinboard)
• Pureref (Easy reference image collage tool)
• Shufflebird (Image file shuffle tool for warm ups and quick practice)
• Allusion (Image file organizer intended to work with Pureref)
• Nomacs (image viewer supporting many file formats including .psd)
• VLC Player (File conversion + media player supporting most formats)

• Everything (File searching tool)
• Bulk rename utility (Rename multiple files at once)
• LocalSend (non-Apple AirDrop alternative)
• Proton Pass, Mail, and drive(Free password manager, encrypted e-mail and storage)

• Locale Emulator(easily changes locale when installing jp programs)
• VirtualBox(test compatability or use programs within other platforms/OS)
• Parsec(Remote desktop access)

Stylus/pen and display tools

• Lazy Nezumi Pro (Pen input stabilization)
• DisplayCAL(monitor colour calibration)

• EasyCanvas (Use iPads as monitors+use pc programs with apple pencil)
• Sidecar (Same- but only connects Macs and iPads)
• Parsec (remote access to computers focusing on low latency)

Shortcut and controller tools

• Joy2key (using game controllers for shortcuts/macros)
• Macrodeck (using your old phone for shortcuts/macros)
• VIA (online tool for QMK macro keyboards)

General digital drawing

• Krita (Free)
• Easy Paint Tool Sai(One time fee)
• Clip studio paint(One time fee)

• Procreate (IOS app only, one time fee)
• Affinity

★ Specialized digital drawing

• Aseprite (Pixel art)
• GraphicsGale(Pixel art)
• OpenToonz(Animation)
• Friction (motion design and vector animation)
• Magma (Shared canvas for drawing with friends)

Graphic design

• Penpot (UI design, HTML/CSS prototyper)
• Affinity (formerly Affinity Designer) (vector art)
• Inkscape (vector art)
• Friction (motion design and vector animation)

• Fontforge (typeface/font creation program)
• Pixel Font Converter(pixel font creation tool)

Printing, E-books, pdfs, and text

• Calibre (E-book management and editing)
• LibreOffice (free alternative to Microsoft’s office pack)
• PDF Arranger (Merge, split, arrange and edit pdf files)
• Draw.io(Diagrams)
• Handy STT(Speech-to-text program)

3D Modelling

• Blender (Multi-purpose: 3D models, mock-ups, 2D animation, and more)
• Nomad Sculpt (3D modelling, iOS and Android)
• PicoCAD(simple low-poly models)

• FreeCAD(free open source)
• Plasticity(one-time fee)

• Meshmixer
• TinkerCAD

• Quixel(textures based on scans)
• ArmorPaint(texture painter)
• PBR Painter(texture painter for Blender)

• Unreal engine (3D engine)
• Godot(3D engine)

• Daz3D (posable 3D model character creator)
• Magic poser (free in-browser 3D posing tool)
• Vroid studio (anime styled 3D character creator)
• DesignDoll (posable 3D models)
• Sketchfab(website with many 3D models)

Photo editing

• Photopea (free in-browser image editor)
• Affinity (powerful image editor, one time fee)

Video

• Da Vinci Resolve (Video editing software)
• Blackmagic Design Fusion (VFX program)
• Natron (VFX program)
• Blender (Multi-purpose, including video editing)

• OBS Studio (streaming and screen recording)
• Handbrake (subtitles and video file compression)
• VLC Player (File conversion + media player)

Audio

• Tenacity (Basic recording and editing+File conversion)
• MuseScore (Notation and composition)
• Ultimate Vocal Remover(removes vocals)

• GarageBand (DAW, mac/ios only)
• LMMS (DAW/audio editing)
• Reaper (DAW, one time fee)
• Surge (plugin for DAWs - instrument)
• Vital(plugin for DAWs - instrument)
• Valhalla Supermassive(plugin for DAWs - reverb)

• Pixtone(retro game style sound effect creation tool)
• Pxtone collage(retro game style music creation tool)
• SunVox(Tracker-based sequencer for music)
• UTAU(Vocal synthesis program)