15 Must Have Apps for Every Web Designer

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So Angry Birds and Fat Booth may have taken the app store by storm, but there are better ways to use your second computer. And for graphic designers there’s a whole world of apps out there to enhance the way you work. Here’s a quick look at the 15 essential apps every graphic designer should know about, and will wonder how on earth they managed before they downloaded them.

1. Photoshop Express

Get access to your photo and video library on the go with Adobe Photoshop Express. This revolutionary app lets you use simple gestures to edit, share, crop and rotate or adjust colours without wasting your device’s valuable storage space.

2. Pinterest

Pinterest is a kind of virtual pin board or scrapbook which allows you to catalogue and share items of interest and inspiration. It lets you browse pins from people and pinboards you follow, pin with images, add locations and comment on your favourite pins.

3. Wallpaper*

As the industry’s leading trend spotter and setter, Wallpaper* is hailed as the number one global design magazine. The app features podcasts, daily design news, reviews, video and picture galleries to keep you up to date with what’s hot in the design world plus travel coverage of the latest off-the-radar happenings and events.

4. Instagram

Instagram is a handy app for photo sharing. Simply snap a shot, choose a filter to transform the look and feel and share it on Facebook, Twitter or Flickr – and the really good news is it’s free of charge!

5. Penultimate

This bestselling handwriting app for the iPad gives you the tangible satisfaction of writing on paper digitally. You can take notes, scamp ideas or share your latest projects without wasting paper – or hours looking for a spare pen. It’s super user-friendly and comes with a variety of colours and realistic paper styles to choose from.

6. Palettes

Palettes is an essential app for any graphic designer. It transforms your smart phone into a portable colour workshop, allowing you to quickly grab colours from sites and images and find corresponding shades to build colour schemes.

7. Zeptopad

Zeptopad is a note and whiteboard application that’s a handy tool for brainstorming. It lets you draw vector images and features several useful handwriting options. It’s a brilliant way to sketch out your thoughts on the go, with classification folders for saving your worksheets. Later versions of the app also allow you to share your work with other iPhone users without Wi-Fi access and manipulate up to three worksheets from the same device.

8. TaskCard

There’s more to being a successful graphic designer than creativity. You also need to be an efficient and able project manager. TaskCard is a virtual desktop organiser that features a wooden desktop with white task cards that you can label yourself. It helps you plan your workload, create to-do lists and manage your time visually and spatially – a much more creative way of never missing a deadline again.

9. Dexigner

Dexigner keeps you up to date with industry news plus the latest up and coming talent and competitions. It’s available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and uses your location to deliver a list of other designers, museums, conferences and exhibitions taking place near you.

10. WhatTheFont

In much the same way as Shazam helps you to identify those pesky songs you can’t quite place, WhatTheFont is a brilliant way to identify mystery fonts. It’s for anyone who’s ever seen a great font on an ad, poster or six-sheet that they would like to use themselves but don’t know the name. Simply snap it on your iPhone and WhatTheFont will tell you what it’s called in matter of seconds.

11. iBlueSky

This mind-mapping and brainstorming application lets you get ideas out of your head into hard copy the moment creative inspiration hits. Collect and organise your thoughts, send your ideas to friends and colleagues in PDF or PNG format or print them out as a PDF.

12. GoodReader

This killer app is a robust PDF reader and the iPad version was best selling non-Apple app in the United States of America last year. It lets you read virtually any document anywhere and will completely transform the way you work.

13. Dropbox

Dropbox is the free app version of the well known online backup service. Instead of taking the gamble with your documents, simply store your important files with Dropbox and you’ll never lose your work, music or photographs ever again.

14. Brushes

Improve your illustration instantly with Brushes, the online painting application. It features an extensive colour palette, a selection of realistic brushes, an intense zoom facility and a user-friendly interface. Brushes transforms your iPhone into your very own portable canvas, ideal for creating original artwork on the go.

15. The Typgraphy Manual

The Typography Manual is an extremely useful tool for graphic designers, with all the features of a hard copy reference book. This pocket resource has a visual type anatomy glossary, a font size ruler, an em calculator and is the go-to app for anyone who works with type.