Design and media apps for Mac: editors, players, converters
Ten macOS design and media apps installable via Homebrew: Figma and Sketch, Affinity Designer, image compression, colour picking, video players, transcoding and audio editing.
Two halves that share a page because they share a workflow: something gets designed, then something gets compressed, played or converted before it ships.
Design: the subscription question
Figma, Sketch and Affinity Designer differ less in capability than in how you pay and where the file lives. Figma is browser-first and collaborative, with the file on their servers. Sketch is macOS-only with a licence that keeps working after the subscription lapses. Affinity Designer is a one-time purchase and works offline entirely.
For a solo designer the deciding factor is usually collaboration: if nobody else opens your files, the offline options cost less over three years. For a team, Figma's multiplayer editing is the feature the others do not have.
The two small tools that pay for themselves
ImageOptim strips metadata and recompresses PNG and JPEG losslessly. Running a folder of exports through it before deploying routinely removes a large share of the bytes with no visible change — and it removes EXIF, which is a privacy consideration as much as a size one.
Sip is a colour picker that keeps a history and exports in whatever format your code wants. It replaces the Digital Color Meter that ships with macOS, which shows a value and offers no way to keep it.
Media: playback and conversion
IINA and VLC both play everything. IINA is built for macOS and looks it — native controls, dark mode, Force Touch. VLC looks the same on every platform and has been playing broken files since before IINA existed. Having both is not redundant: when IINA refuses a file, VLC usually does not.
HandBrake transcodes. It is the answer to "this video is 4 GB and needs to be 400 MB", and its presets cover most of what people actually need without touching the codec settings underneath.
Audacity is the multi-track audio editor for recording and cleaning up voice. It is unglamorous and it has outlived most of its competition.
Each entry below lists its licence, its brew token, and the alternatives worth comparing.
Figma is the interface design standard: components, auto-layout, prototypes, and Dev Mode for developer handoff. The desktop client adds local fonts and tabs. The free plan is generous; team features come with a subscription.
brew install --cask figma- Designs open from a link: a developer needs no licence and no install to read sizes and colours
- Dev Mode hands over spacing, tokens, and ready CSS snippets straight from the file
- Real-time collaboration with comments pinned to the design
- Components and variables keep the design system in one place
Why install the app when the browser version exists?
You do not have to, but the native client is faster on heavy files, uses local fonts without the helper agent, and does not get lost among a hundred browser tabs.
Is the free plan enough for a developer?
For viewing other people's files, reading values, and commenting, yes. Payment starts with the number of editable files and team features — a design-team concern.
Sketch is the app that started the Mac UI design era: native, fast, with symbols and libraries. After Figma's expansion it positions itself as the offline alternative with local files and privacy. Subscription or a no-updates license.
brew install --cask sketch- A native macOS app: fast, gesture-aware, with no browser layer in between
- Files live locally — your work does not depend on connection quality
- A mature plugin ecosystem built up over the years before cloud editors arrived
- The inspector hands values to developers through a web link, no Sketch install needed
Sketch or Figma in 2026?
Figma wins on collaboration and cross-platform reach, which is why most teams are there. Sketch remains the choice for people who value native speed and local files and who have a plugin library that works.
Is there a Windows version?
No, the app is macOS-only. Other platforms can view designs on the web, but editing happens on a Mac.
Affinity Designer is a professional vector editor: seamless switching between vector and raster, artboards, export at any resolution. The killer feature — a one-time purchase instead of an Adobe subscription. Covers icons, illustrations, and UI graphics completely.
brew install --cask affinity-designer- A one-time purchase instead of a subscription — the core difference from Adobe Illustrator
- Vector and raster in one document, switching modes without exporting
- Opens and saves PSD, AI, and SVG, so exchanging files with an Adobe team still works
- Stays fast on files that make Illustrator hesitate
Is it a full Illustrator replacement?
For icons, illustrations, logos, and layouts, yes. Specialist areas like advanced prepress and parts of the Adobe automation ecosystem stay with Illustrator.
Do I need a subscription for updates?
No, the licence is bought once per major version. The next major version is a separate purchase, but the one you own keeps working indefinitely.
ImageOptim is the pre-commit image optimizer: compresses PNG, JPEG, and SVG with no visible quality loss, strips EXIF and other junk. Essential for the web: site images go through it before deploy. Free and open source.
brew install --cask imageoptim- Compresses PNG and JPEG losslessly — the file shrinks, the image looks identical
- Strips EXIF, so geotags and camera models do not travel with images to your site
- Drop a folder in and it batches hundreds of files, replacing them in place
- Free, open source, and entirely local
Is the compression really lossless?
By default yes: only format redundancy and metadata are removed. A lossy mode is available separately and cuts size several times over — often a fair trade for web graphics.
Can I use it in a build pipeline?
For one-off asset passes it is ideal. For CI, wire the same libraries in through npm packages: ImageOptim is a GUI app, not a pipeline component.
Sip is a professional color picker: any pixel on screen in any format (HEX, RGB, HSL, Swift UIColor), palette history organized by project, and contrast checking. Pays for itself in a week for front-enders and designers.
brew install --cask sip- The picker grabs a colour from anywhere on screen — a design, a screenshot, someone else's site
- Output formats are configurable: hex, rgb, hsl, Swift values, CSS variables
- History of picked colours and exportable palettes
- Lives in the menu bar and answers a hotkey in half a second
How is it better than the built-in Digital Color Meter?
The system utility shows a value but is awkward for daily use. Sip answers a hotkey, copies the colour in the format you need immediately, and remembers the history.
Is a subscription required?
Core picking is free; advanced features are subscription or one-time purchase depending on the current policy. For "pick a colour, copy the hex" you pay nothing.
IINA is a player that looks like part of macOS: built on mpv so it plays everything, but with trackpad gestures, online subtitles, Picture-in-Picture, and dark mode. Supports plugins and streaming URLs. Free and open source.
brew install --cask iina- Plays everything QuickTime will not: mkv, any codec, external subtitles
- Built for macOS and looks like a system app rather than a Linux port
- Picture-in-picture, trackpad gestures, and proper dark mode
- Free and open source, on the mpv engine
IINA or VLC?
IINA looks better and integrates with macOS more deeply. VLC wins on tolerating broken files, network streaming, and being everywhere at once. Plenty of people keep both.
Does it use hardware acceleration?
Yes, decoding runs through the Mac video engine, so watching 4K does not drain a laptop the way software decoding does.
VLC is the survivor player: opens exotic codecs, broken files, DVD menus, and network streams nothing else touches. The interface is conservative, the reliability absolute. Even if IINA is your main player, keep VLC around as backup.
brew install --cask vlc- Plays practically any file, including damaged and partially downloaded ones
- Opens network streams from a URL and can broadcast one itself
- The same player on macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android — habits transfer
- Completely free, with no ads and no telemetry, for over twenty years
Why VLC when IINA exists?
For resilience with broken files, network streams, conversion, and broadcasting. As a daily player IINA is nicer; as a Swiss army knife, VLC.
Can VLC convert video?
Basic conversion is built in, but the interface is clumsy and quality control is limited. For deliberate compression, use HandBrake.
Desktop Spotify: the same playlists and podcasts, plus global media keys, queue management, and quality without browser compromises. Doubles as a remote for playback on other devices. The free tier includes ads.
brew install --cask spotify- A catalogue that answers almost any request, plus algorithmic mixes that match a working mood
- One queue across Mac, phone, and speaker — switching devices does not interrupt the track
- Collaborative playlists for a team and podcasts in the same app
- The client is keyboard-driven and honours the Mac media keys out of the box
Is the app resource-hungry?
It is an Electron client: a few hundred megabytes of memory in the background is normal. On a weak machine the web player is sometimes lighter.
Do I need a subscription?
The free tier works with ads and skip limits. A subscription removes both and adds offline listening.
HandBrake is the reference video converter: presets for iPhone, web, and Telegram, batch folder processing, subtitles, and chapters. Squeezes maximum quality per megabyte out of H.265. Indispensable for screencasts and family archives.
brew install --cask handbrake- Shrinks video several times over with no visible quality loss — essential before sending a screen recording
- Device and platform presets: you get a decent result without learning bitrates
- A batch queue: a dozen files start overnight with one button
- Free, open source, with hardware acceleration on Apple Silicon
Which preset should I use for a screen recording?
Start with a fast 1080p preset and check the result: screencasts have little motion, so they compress unusually well. If on-screen text goes soft, raise the quality a couple of steps.
Why does encoding take so long?
Software encoding gives the best quality per bit but hammers the CPU. On Apple Silicon, switch to the VideoToolbox hardware encoder — several times faster for a slightly larger file.
Audacity is the free audio editor people have used for decades: records from the mic, removes noise, normalizes volume, cuts segments, and exports to MP3/WAV. Not a music DAW — a workhorse for podcasts, interviews, and quick audio trimming.
brew install --cask audacity- Records and cuts audio without learning a professional studio — open it and work
- Noise reduction and normalisation get a podcast recording presentable in a couple of steps
- Multi-track editing and batch processing through effect chains
- Free, cross-platform, and over twenty years old
Is it enough for a podcast?
For recording, cleaning, and mixing spoken content, comfortably. Music production with virtual instruments and MIDI belongs in a full DAW like Logic or Reaper.
What about telemetry?
The project had a loud controversy after changing owners. In current versions data collection is optional and offered on first launch — if this matters to you, check the privacy settings right after installing.