Top 10 free iPhone apps every designer must have
The iPhone is such a great productivity tool, but there are so many apps, it’s hard to know which ones to choose. Here is a list of ones I use all the time. They’re a great help if you’re a designer, and best of all, they’re free!What follows is a list of my favourite free apps for the iPhone. As a graphic designer, they make life easier, more fun and generally shinier! Please let me know if there are any free iPhone apps you find invaluable as a designer.
1. WhatTheFont
What an amazing little application. It can help solve an everyday design problem—you see a font you like and can’t identify it. Snap a pic with your iPhone, upload it to WhatTheFont, and providing the image quality is good, it will do a pretty solid job of identifying it for you. Nice.
2. Cool Iris
Not only is this a free app for your iPhone, you can also install it in your web browser. It speeds up image processing when you’re browsing images or videos on the web, not to mention the cool “image wall” interface. A must have.
3. Bill4Time mobile
If you’re billing for hours, as most designers do, Bill4Time is a great little app that tracks your time spent on various jobs. Enter time and expenses while away from your PC. There is no need to “sync” the device as all entries are wirelessly uploaded. You’ll have to sign up for a free Bill4Time account online, but well worth it.
4. TED
If you haven’t seen a TED talk, you’re missing out. Some of the world’s most interesting people speak at the TED forums and this handy little app lets you view all the videos of the talks for free. They get updated with new ones every few days.
5. Wordpress
How can you live without access to your Wordpress blog while on the run? Update your site whenever suits you.
6. From a Twisted Mind
Sure, this app won’t increase your productivity, but they’re pretty cool illustrations. Just right for a bit of light relief and inspiration. Episode 2 is as yet unavailable on the app store, but 1 and 3 are.
7. Dictionaire
Essential for every graphic designer. If you publish work with spelling mistakes, it reflects badly on you as a designer, even if they’re someone else’s fault. Use a spellchecker and use a dictionary!
8. Evernote
Almost a classic in the world of iPhone apps. Take notes in whatever form you find most comfortable. Use text, photo or audio notes to help you remember and recall anything of interest that happens during your day.
9. SimpleMind Xpress Mind Maps
A great visual aid if you’re tapping your creativity, brainstorming and mindmapping. Collect ideas and structure your thoughts visually, reorganize them and reformat them.
10. Twitterfon
Make Twitter posts while on the go, but more importantly, check-in with your Twitter feed and see what others are inspired by. You never know when someone might post a new link to a site when you’re desperately in need of inspiration.
I’d love to hear what you think of this article, please make a comment below.
Share the love
19 Responses
I love the new site, and thanks for linking to us! I look forward to seeing what other stories you have to share.
Thanks ladies. I’ve got lots of other ideas in the pipeline. I think the comments feature is going to be a good way to see what people are interested in reading about, otherwise I’ll just write about what I’m interested in and hope for the best!
wow, nice new site, beatiful design keep posting dominique
Hey Dominique, I caught your comment on Web Appers.com and decided to stop by and check out your blog. I really love the site design, its open, clean and inviting. Best of luck with your blog, I’ll stop by again!
Thanks @joella and @mupet for your encouraging words. Much appreciated.
Love this post Dom! very nice. I shall be checking Dictionaire out 
oh! This website is kickin’! <3
Thanks KT. I’ve been reading your blog too. Your writing is awesome. Keep it up.
jesus lady, you shouldn’t have mentioned whatthefont. it’s a program i’ve needed for years… and now i must cry that i can’t get an iphone until next year as i’m locked in my current mobile contract. damn you modern shackles of consumer slavery!
Hahaha, it’s alright, they have an online version for non iPhoners. http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
great list, i don’t have an iphone yet (new macbook pro is next on my list), but i have an ipod touch – shame I can’t use the WhatTheFont app ’cause the touch don’t have a camera – dammit! thanks for these though!
Hello, i am new to the blog. I think that this post is great!
Twitter: http://twitter.com/STWebDesign
Thanks for posting, very, very useful! I work for a specialist image library and am researching he possiibilty of developing an app for the design indutries – this stemmed from a designer friend of mine who said that it would be great to be able to present images in a meeting frmo our archive ont he iphone – I would love to have any feedback on what other designers would like to see from an image library app! thank you, nolan.browne@bridgemanart.co.uk
For those app developers that don’t know Objective-C and Cocoa Touch and don’t want to outsource development, check out localbeacon (an iphone app builder) at http://www.bigforge.com. Great for those who want to build just one app or developers interested in white label.
Thanks for that Eileen
I will check it out as I’m quite interested in building apps myself.
You might also like Font Combinations App. You can quickly experiment with typefaces to see how they relate. You can see why some font’s work as a body copy for a Helvetica header and some don’t by just swiping the examples in and out, mix and match style. It’s also good for becoming familiar with the top fonts most graphic designers use. Nice typography too.
http://bonfx.com/font-combinations-app
Thanks Douglas, I’ll check it out.
Great list. Thanks for putting it together.