Tools we use to maintain BIG Images’ web site.

A friend of mine inquired via email: “What program did you use to design BIG Images’ website?” As I typed out my reply I realized that BIG Images is not the “normal” large format print company. I mean to say we do not just buy the Adobe CS suite because its what everyone else has; we aren’t satisfied with a solution just because it works. We experiment constantly. The workflows we develop, for example to build and maintain our web site, are very unique in our industry.

Our entire web site is home grown and maintained by BIG Images. We are major supporters of the Macintosh shareware community, as well as the free & open-source software community. Often these solutions are:

1. an order-of-magnitude less expensive than their more established competitors
2. are more reliable
3. exhibit faster and more personable customer service

Here is some of the software we use on a weekly/monthly basis to create and maintain our web site:

Web Development Tools

• RapidWeaver
  
  • $49.00
  • BIG Images’ entire site has been built and maintained with RapidWeaver for the past 2½ years
  • One of the beautiful aspects of RapidWeaver is the VERY active community at their forums. Often I can ask a question and have an answer within the day.
  • RapidWeaver has alot of plugins ($5.00 - $20.00 each) that enhance its functionality, and I have used most of them throughout the site. You can find a list of the plugins here.
  • YourHead software is one of the premier plugin developers. Their products are awesome.
• TextMate
  
  • $63.00
  • Ideal for custom html/php/javascript coding.
  • Incredibly customizable, so it adjusts to your coding style.
• CSSEdit
  
  • $29.95
  • For writing and editing css there is no better tool.
  • Instant live-previews make experimentation a snap.
  • This is also a great tool for reverse-engineering other sites to see how they created their effects.
• Coda
  
  • $79.00
  • A great all-in-one tool for site management and ftp. I do not use this on BIG Images site specifically, but it has been indispensable for other projects, especially on projects that require collaboration with other developers.

Graphics Tools

Of course there is the ubiquitous Adobe CS Suite. However, here are some alternatives that can replace the CS Suite for many tasks and will save you alot of money.

• Pixelmator
  
  • $59.00
  • A great Photoshop competitor.
  • A very clean and elegant interface.
  • Almost every filter and effect occurs in real-time, making experimentation much more fluid and natural.
• VectorDesigner
  
  • $79.00
  • A great Illustrator competitor.
  • It has a much simpler and more honed interface so it is often more intuitive that Illustrator, but less versatile.
• GIMP photo editor
  
  • Free
  • Comparable to Photoshop, but free and open source :)
  • Certainly not pretty to look at, but free and very stable.
• InkScape
  
  • Free
  • Comparable to Illustrator, but free and open source :)
  • Once again this is not a pretty application, but it is free and works quite well.

Other random apps that I find quite useful

• xScope
  
  • A ruler for your screen
  • Provides an overlay for viewing the usable real estate for any screen size
  • Provides screen guides akin to Adobe Illustrator’s or Photoshop’s guides
• OmniGraffle
  
  • Great for flowcharts and documentation
  • Quick and easy tool for documenting the css box model of a web site
  • Very easy to learn.
• Interarchy
  
  • A full-featured ftp application
  • Integrates very well into OS X
  • Has nice features for keeping a local folder synced with an ftp directory
• CyberDuck
  
  • A free ftp app with fewer features than Interarchy, but still quite nice
  • Cyberduck benefits from being free and open-source - updates are released quite often.

If you’re a PC user, you’ll have to wait a month for Ben Lawless’ next article, titled “What am I doing with my life?”

Tags: tips, technology, jon beebe, web design, software, design