Fire Studios

As a web developer, I've gone through my fair share of programs for me to do my work in, and not all Apps are made the same. So here's a list of the best software and tools that help you get the job done, and get it done right.

Coding

phpDesigner 2008 (Windows only) ~ Free or $55

phpDesigner is the best editor i've ever used and I have no intention of ever switching to a different IDE. Don't just take my word for it, check out the feature list:

• Lighting fast and easy to learn and use!
• Full-blown PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript editor
• Intuitive, customizable workspace with theme support
• Syntax highlighting for PHP, HTML, CSS, JS etc.
• Code explorer, code completion, and code tip
• Project manager and project workspace
• Find declarations in projects in an intuitive way
• Debug and profile PHP code with Xdebug
• Live error detection for PHP, HTML and CSS
• Remote ftp editing
• Advanced search and replace
• Code snippets library and templates
• TortoiseSVN support
• Fast code beautifier for PHP, HTML and CSS
• Show matching and missing brackets and tags
• Learn PHP with integration of the PHP manual

Download the Latest Trial Version
Download the Free Version (older)

Alternative: Coda (mac only) ~ $99

If I wasn't on a windows machine and using phpDesigner, I'd be developing in Coda.

Download Coda

Designing

Photoshop CS4 (Win/Mac) ~ $349/$999

Photoshop is the industry standard graphics editing program, and for good reason. Photoshop is the most feature rich drawing program on the planet. If you don't use photoshop then either you never touch interfaces, or you're not good at what you do.

Get the Trial

Alternative: GIMP ~ Free

GIMP is the wanna be Photoshop. Good News is: It's able to run on every OS and it's free. Bad news: It's not photoshop...in the least.

Download GIMP