I wrote this article for the Theme Forest blog.

If you’re new to freelancing or web design/development, then chances are you’ll be picking up applications left and right to accomplish all sorts of tasks. With all the applications available, it can be quite overwhelming to pick and choose the best ones to fit your needs. Often times there is no clear winner, applications can and will be equal, it just depends on what suits you best.

With that being said, here’s the applications I use on a regular basis to get my work done. Hopefully this list can help some of you starting out or even some of you pros.

Continue reading at http://blog.themeforest.net/resources/essential-desktop-apps-for-professional-designers-and-developers/