UI/UX Designers

figma

The undisputed operating system for digital design in 2026. Beyond just UI, Figma now powers the entire product lifecycle with 'First Draft' (AI text-to-design) and native code generation that outputs production-ready CSS and React snippets. It allows for real-time collaboration that feels instant on Apple Silicon, serving as the central hub where all other assets in this collection eventually land. The Dev Mode feature bridges the gap between designers and developers by providing automatic redlines, spacing measurements, and asset export in a developer-friendly panel. With support for variables, conditional logic in prototypes, and branching workflows similar to Git, Figma has become less of a design tool and more of a full product development platform.

cleanshot x

The ultimate visual communication tool for design professionals. It replaces the native Mac screenshot tool with a powerhouse that can record screen video with audio, create GIFs with controllable frame rates, extract text from images via OCR, and annotate screenshots with arrows, boxes, and blur regions instantly. Its ability to add professional gradient backgrounds, device frames, and combine multiple screenshots into a single composition makes your design feedback look polished before you even open Figma. The cloud sharing feature generates instant links for Slack or email, and the scrolling capture can grab entire long web pages in a single image. For design teams, CleanShot X eliminates the need for separate screen recording software for most feedback workflows.

shottr

For when speed and precision are paramount. Shottr is a lightweight utility that launches instantly. It excels at scrolling screenshots and 'pixel-peeping'—measuring distances between elements on your screen with a built-in ruler. It complements CleanShot by being the forensic tool for developers and designers checking implementation accuracy.

inkscape

A powerful, completely free vector editor that has matured significantly with the 1.4+ updates. It handles complex SVG manipulations, icon design, logo creation, and technical illustration tasks that don't require the full weight of Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape's path operations, node editing, and extension system give you fine-grained control over vector geometry that even Figma cannot match for certain specialized tasks. It is the perfect companion for prepping SVGs before importing them into Figma or embedding them directly on the web. The built-in SVG optimization features ensure your exported files are clean and lightweight for production use.