Open source software are freeware that permits the user to use, design, modify, improve and redistribute in modified or unmodified forms. An open source application would not only help in saving money but also provide access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities as it is developed in a collaborative manner. 
Here we are listing some useful open source applications every web designer can use to enhance his creativity and productivity.
Text Editors & WYSIWYG Editors
Aptana- This is a free open source application, which provides editors for CSS, JS, PHP, HTML etc. Similar to Adobe Dreamweaver, it has an in built site manager enabling you to make edits to your copy and then synchronizing for instant gratification.
Notepad2 – Another open source application to edit text and can also be used as Windows Notepad. This application can easily run without installation, and does not touch your system’s registry.
Bluefish Editor- It is a useful open source application for web designers and programmers. It allows you to write websites, scripts and programming code. It supports many programming and markup languages, and it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites.
Amaya- It is a free open source web editor and web browser developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It started as an HTML/CSS editor and now it is supporting number of XML applications such as the XHTML family, MathML and SVG. It also allows all those vocabularies to be edited simultaneously in combined documents.
Selida HTML Editor- Another free open source application that works as an HTML editor. It offers a lot of features that make it easy to edit Web pages such as HTML validator, text HTML editor, WYSIWYG editor, color coding, tag completion etc.
Graphics image/ video editor
GIMP- This open source application is really popular among web designers. Similar to Photoshop, GIMP is an image editing application providing features including channels, layers and masks, filters, effects, tabbed palettes, editable text tools, perspective clone, improved printing, and color operations etc.
Avidemux – This open source application is a simple video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports files including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs.
Cinelerra– This open source application is the most advanced non-linear video editor and compositor for Linux. It provides a huge list of features such as compositing, editing, still image panning, audio effects compressing, video effects editing , HDTV Standards conversion and more.
Inkscape- Another open source vector graphics editor application, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It supports advanced SVG features such as markers, clones, alpha blending, etc. It enables you to edit nodes, perform complex operations, trace bitmaps and much more.
Paint.NET– Included in the list of “Top 100 products of 2007 by PC world”, Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It supports common image formats–JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and others–but not high-resolution RAW files. Also includes tools to crop, rotate, resize images, adjust colors, and create collages.
File sharing & FTP Clients
FileZilla - This open source application is a very popular FTP client. It allows you to transfer files easily and instantly. It supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol. Its features include site manager, transfer queue, drag & drop support, configurable transfer speed limits, filename filters, directory comparison etc.
FrostWire– This application is a completely open source peer to peer client. It allows you to make use of its interesting features such as community chat room and itunes integration.
Ares – An open source file sharing application that lets you share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc. You can easily publish, share and download files using its network.
Cyberduck- This is an excellent open source FTP client for the Mac OS. It allows you to browse through a large folder structures and you can quickly preview files with Quick Look feature. You can also edit files using several external editors and change content quickly.
WinSCP – It is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. It enables you to copy files between a local and a remote computer.
Other utility applications
ColorMatch Remix- An online opens source application to choose color and also to generate several colors complementing the main color. You can also export your color palette as a Photoshop or Illustrator file.
CSS Creator – This open source application helps in generating the framework for your CSS based layout. You can create fixed or fluid column layouts that have even three columns, a footer and header. You can give specifications of values using percentages, ems or pixels. It supports JavaScript enabled DOM capable-browser.
Firdamatic – Another open source application for creating CSS layout that can be used for either 2-column or 3-column layouts . It is a table less layout generator that allows you to create and customize layouts easily only by completing forms.
ColorPicker- This open source application allows you to pick colors from photos and other images. It can output colors in either RGB mode or hex, which is useful for us CSS designers.
AllChars – It is a useful open source application for creating accents like é Ü ç î æ and special characters like ƒ ² ‰ © £ ± ß ° 1/2 ¿ « » ™ „ in most Windows programs.
Now use these open source applications to maximize your growth and productivity as a web designer. Please share with us your feedback and suggestions as always.
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This is a good list of open source applications… As a web designer, I was aware of some but there are several I didn’t know of. Thanks!
Thanks a lot for your feedback! We would definitely try to come up with more information on open source applications in future. So stay tuned!
This is very good list. Some applications might run well but honestly some don’t. I’ll try this one and see if will work out just fine. Thanks