Surprisingly useful apps for the Mac (and iOS).

Small, native tools that you may find useful. No bloat. No subscriptions.

Featured app

PDF Buddy

Trim, number, stamp, redact and collate your PDFs — on your own Mac, all in one pass. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and the file you started with is left exactly as it was.

Redaction that destroys the text instead of covering it.
Compression that shrinks the pictures and keeps the words selectable.
Trimming that genuinely cuts the margin out, rather than hiding it.

Get on the Mac App Store Download free trial See everything it does

PDF Buddy redacting a filled application form: black bars over the personal details, a tiled CONFIDENTIAL watermark, and the task list alongside

PDF Buddy redacting a form, with a CONFIDENTIAL watermark

ChopShop

Splice audio and video without a project to set up or a render queue to wait on.

ColorPop

Your palettes one shortcut away, over any app, in whatever format your code wants.

CrossHair

A fullscreen crosshair on one shortcut and a circular pixel loupe on another.

DateDrop

Drop a perfectly formatted date, time zones included, into any app with one hotkey.

DeskMop

Stage a spotless desktop for screenshots, then put the icons and resolution back.

FilePop

A fast native file browser in your menu bar. One keystroke and you are there.

FontPop

Every font on your Mac and every font on the web, anywhere you are. Preview, copy, download.

FunFactory

Make shapes, buttons, badges and stickers, packed onto a page with real cut lines.

HotShot

Capture a screen, window or region and mark it up, or record one and trim it.

ImageBuddy

Trim, key out the background, pad, resize and vectorize over a live preview.

InSpec

Click any element, edit it live, and walk away with CSS rules ready to paste.

KeyStruck

Names every keyboard shortcut you fire, and lists the ones an app has bound.

ListenUp

Record your Mac’s system audio, not the mic, then trim it on a live waveform.

MarkWell

A bookmark manager that syncs across Mac, iPhone and iPad. Save, tag, find later.

MoveMatic

Product UI motion with visibility spans, stacked effects and a rippling timeline.

MusicPop

A menu-bar player for your music library. Hit a hotkey, type a few letters, return.

NoteLess

A hotkey scratch pad for fleeting thoughts. Pin a card or it ages out in a week.

PastePlop

Your clipboard as a grid. Hit a hotkey, see everything, file the keepers away.

PDF Buddy

Trim, number, stamp, redact and collate your PDFs in one pass, on your own Mac.

PhotoPop

Your whole photo library in the menu bar. Browse, pin folders, drag into any app.

PicPile

Pile images into a styled grid or frame each alone, then export a sharp PNG.

RoboShop

QR codes for links, Wi-Fi, contacts and more, styled, with your logo, as vector.

ShowRunner

Lay out the clicks once and it performs the whole demo, flawlessly, every time.

StyleBop

A visual CSS editor. Browse stylesheets as a live node diagram and edit in place.

TalkProp

A teleprompter for the Mac. Set a speed, scrub the script, flip to a ticker.

TextBuddy

A plain-text editor with one-click fixes for case, lines, whitespace and quotes.

TopSecret

Black out text and faces in images and PDFs, and export a copy where they are gone.

QuickCrop

Drop an image and it trims transparent and white space down to the artwork.

GhostCursor

A highlight ring you can see while pointing that never lands in a recording.

GitChop

A visual git rebase. Drag-reorder commits, split hunks, reword without a terminal.

SimFriend

Every iOS simulator in one sidebar, with a live screen you can click and type in.

BeautyShot

Promo screenshots for Mac apps: one window or a composite, light and dark at once.

Apps for every occasion.

Surprisingly Useful apps work alone and together to help you in all kinds of ways.

Showing your work on screen

DeskMop KeyStruck HotShot ShowRunner

Clear the desktop, name the shortcuts you press, capture or record it, and script the walkthrough.

Saving a few seconds, often

FilePop PastePlop PhotoPop DateDrop

Your files, your clipboard, your photos and the date, all one keystroke from wherever you are.

Making something to share

RoboShop FunFactory ImageBuddy PicPile

A QR code, a sheet of stickers, a cleaned-up picture, or several of them composed into one.

Putting a video together

MoveMatic ChopShop TalkProp ListenUp

Animate the titles, splice the takes, read your script off the screen, and catch the audio.

Getting the details right

FontPop ColorPop CrossHair QuickCrop

Pick the typeface and the color, line things up to the pixel, and trim a shot to its artwork.

Reading and writing

MarkWell NoteLess TextBuddy PDF Buddy

Somewhere for links, somewhere for stray thoughts, plain text to fix up, and the PDF chores.

Buying more than one? Three bundles, from $20 — up to 27 apps in a single purchase. See the bundles