A Brush With The Elegant Ampersand

Ampersand is one of the very few typographical characters that has been a part of our daily lives since we can remember. It was the uniqueness of ampersand that made designers experiment with the design of ampersand. The end results at times were amazing while sometimes it was hard to recognize the outcome. I might not leave a shiver down your spine when I introduce you to the history of ampersand but believe me, it is worth your time. Today, we will dive into the past and understand how ampersand become what it is today – Ampersand. Also, we will admire some of the most amazing experimental ampersand designs that designers could imagine.

From “and, per se and” to “ampersand”Instead of making this discussion a chapter eligible for history books, let me cut things short:
63 B.C. - Marcus Tullius who was Cicero’s slave started the tradition of including ampersand in his literature. Reciters would pronounce it as “and, per se and” which meant “and by itself [means] and”.79 A.D. - The city of Pompeii showcases the symbol on its walls as part of city graffiti.775 A.D. - The letters E and T (where “et” is Latin for “and”) were being usually written together (shown in image below) to form a ligature. The symbol used for this would soon become our very own ampersand.
Image from Wikipedia
An interesting fact is that if ampersand was not available to be used, usually due to cost involved in designing the same, writers would use the combination of 8 and c as replacement for ampersand.
1111 A.D. - The symbol was unofficially included in the character set by an Anglo-Saxon monk, Byrhtferð.1499 A.D. - Aldus Manutius prints Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili using 25 ampersands on a single page.1837 A.D. - It was the 17th and the 18th century when some primers started to include ampersand as the 27th character of the English alphabet. It was in the year 1837 when dictionaries officially started to include the word ampersand in their list.How to Draw Ampersand?I am not kidding. There are people who get confused when it comes to drawing ampersand. When you look at the symbol Ampersand and compare it with Treble Clef then you might not find much differences.
Please understand that Ampersand is a character used in English Sentences while Clef is a music symbol and Treble Clef is part of the same set of music symbols.

Now, back to drawing an Ampersand symbol. If you see the image above (Ampersand on the left section of the image) then it should be pretty clear as to how you can draw the same. Let me explain the same in words and see if you are in sync with me:
Start from the lower right cornerGo up and slightly to your leftWhen at the top, move towards right and loop downward towards your leftNow curl under up to your right going up.Continue till you cross your original stroke.Practice again!Usage of Ampersand and Important RulesWhile the most important usage of Ampersand is in our cell phone SMSes, there is a lot more to it that we can learn. You might already be aware of what I tell you but I assure you that you might be committing silly mistakes just because you overlooked the rules.
Never replace “and” with & – Usually we make this mistake. While writing English sentences we tend to use “&” symbol whenever we want to use the word “and”. This is the most common and the laziest of mistakes that humans commit. I don’t because my beautiful English teacher scolded me a lot for such mistakes. *blushes*FACT – Did you know that “&c.” can be used as replacement for “etc.”? Well, it can be. Although, I will suggest you to avoid this in your daily life as half of the readers might not understand it.Addressing a couple – Mr. & Mrs. Smith! If you use “&” instead of “and” while addressing a couple then, somehow, it won’t be considered a mistake.Firms dealing law, stock markets and architecture – This is one usage of Ampersand which has kept it alive on the official front. Otherwise by not it might have been limited to SMS language only.Used to indicate a two-part name – Ampersand can be used to indicate a two-part name. An example would be – James, Mr. & Mrs. Jackson, and John.Ampersand for WebmastersWe (the webmasters) know this already. Right? After all this is part of our bread and butter. Anyways, let me go through the same all over again. You know, just in case.
HTML Ampersand Character Codes are usually used to depict symbols that are impossible to type otherwise. See the image below to get a clear understanding of what I mean:

You can get a detailed list of abbreviations here and here.
The ShowcaseWell, that was lot of information for us to consume in one go. Let us ease out our minds by admiring some of the neat ampersand designs.
1. Papyrus Handwriting
2. Regency Script
3. Caviar Dreams
4. Scriptina
5. Hill House
     

An Introduction To Dark Website Design

Dark versus light design has been a long and controversial topic since almost… forever. You probably have read many articles about this matter and you probably have found contradictory facts among them. The truth is that there are no certainties whether you should use a light or dark design on your new layout. However, there are indeed strong indicators that may tell you which version you should be using to provide the majority of your visitors with a better experience.
Since I’m going to give you a personal opinion on how you should build your dark layout, it makes sense for me to first see if you should or should not indeed adopt a dark version for your website.

Dark vs Light backgroundThere are three crucial indicators that should make your life easier when deciding if you should or should not design a dark layout. Most of them are pretty much common sense and should only take a few minutes to analyse.
1) SubjectAre you going to sell clothes? Is it a blog about weddings? Or a vacation planning site? As you may know, color and contrast are associated to feelings and that’s why a very dark gray background may not be suitable on a website that sells vacation plans to the best beaches during the summer.
2) UserNow you should ask yourself:
Who is going to visit your website more oftenWhat type of personSocial levelAgeThis question is not only useful for the type of contrast and colors you should use on your website or application, it also defines the majority of other question marks like style, minimalism and typography. You may realize that a person in his late 50′s may prefer a light background color, not due to readability (you’ll understand why in the next topic) but maybe because that person is used to visiting light background websites. It’s all about what they do, what they are used to and what they like.
3) PurposeWill it be a store? Just a blog? Someone’s portfolio? A photo gallery? Always remember that every website has a purpose. If you’re going to sell a product to which you need to emphasize colors (this obviously depends on the type of product) a dark background would suit that purpose better than a light background, however if you’re going to have a news portal with plenty of content, a light background may suit your needs better.
Does the use of dark background really affect readability?There are contradictory studies and scientific research so all I can give you is my personal opinion which is no, a dark background does not affect readability.
You may be wondering “What are all those sites and articles talking about when authors say dark backgrounds really affects readability? They even give examples!” To answer your question, readability is affected by the use of wrong text color, wrong line-height, kerning and font size, not by the use of a dark background. In the end it’s all about typography and the elements you use, not the background itself. It’s obvious that you just can’t compare a paragraph of text with a line-height set to 0.5 in a light and dark background – you always need to adjust the element you are using to the surrounding background.
I’ll give you tips on how to design a dark layout focusing on elements, I won’t tell you if you should use a #000 or #111 color for your background – that’s irrelevant. I’m going to tell you how you should use and design the elements on your dark background. Again, is all about how you use the elements.
So let’s get started.
White SpaceIf you have read some of my articles, you know I always touch on this key topic. White-space is there to help in almost every design related topic.
As I said above, you need to suit every element to the condition they are in. In the case of dark layouts, you can actually focus better on each element which gives you the feeling that elements are closer than they really are leading to a cluttering sensation.This is why you need to use white-space effectively. Readability is also favored with more white-space.

Avoid cluttering more than everConsequently related to the white-space topic above, cluttering is something to avoid when you’re using a dark background. Remember that a dark design is more sensitive to content spacing so what may sound enough on a light background may not be the case on a dark one. If you have low to medium content you always need to make efficient use of white-space, however, if you have too much content you should consider separating it through subpages/sections or changing to a light background.
Typography
Typography is the most sensitive element in any design but especially while using a dark background. It clearly needs to be carefully planned otherwise you will see more and more articles stating that dark backgrounds are bad for readability.
In order to improve readability,  the first thing you can do is increase font-size, line-height, kerning and write in small paragraphs. You may have noticed that all these text options are still related to white-space. Having this said, your second concern should be with the font itself. Should you use sans-serif or serif fonts? Serif fonts are not clean which makes it harder to read with small sizes. This means you should use serif fonts for bigger sizes like titles and sans-serif fonts for small text like paragraphs.
ContrastI could have written about contrast on the Typography topic above, however, what applies to typography also applies to every other element on your page except for imagery.
So you wake up and you suddenly look up to the sky with a very bright sun-light… you know the feeling right? The same applies to the contrast use on your screen. Using pure white text on pure black background (or vice-versa) will somehow be unpleasant to your eyes. The first basic rule is to never use pure-white/black on the opposite color. Using #ddd for your text and #111 will be more preferable than  #fff text color on #000 background.
Content emphasis
One big advantage while using a dark background is the ability to easily apply emphasis on a desired element like text or image. That’s because in a darker background the focus will be completely transferred to the main elements. You also have more ways to do it than in a regular light background. You could achieve great emphasis using reflections and different blending modes for vivid colors or gradients which are possibilities that would be very difficult or almost impossible to get with a light background.
Background elementsIf you’re going to use a dark background, one thing you can do is to make use of background images, textures or patterns. On most cases, images/textures and light backgrounds don’t make a perfect match. Nevertheless, be sure to avoid making your background distracting, focus needs to be on the content.
ConclusionI believe that everything should be used according to the surrounding elements, so a dark background can have real benefits over light backgrounds when the elements are properly adjusted to it. Some people prefer reading and using light backgrounds and others not so much, as I said there are no certainties so all you can do is to check competition, make some research on your end-user and conclude which option is the best for your business.
Good luck!

Three Great Decades: The Interesting History Of Apple

Apple is the brainchild of one of the greatest innovators of history, Steve Jobs. His passing was unexpected and early; but he has left us with enough wealth in knowledge. Steve Jobs changed the way we listen to music, communicate with people and interact with our gadgets. Apple created a new way of thinking… no, Apple created a whole new way of living.

Humble BeginningsApple was founded by the ‘two Steves: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They were two very different teenagers, but both are geniuses in their own way. Both Steve’s grew up in San Jose, California– now better known as Silicon Valley.
Before they became billionaires and founders of the coolest company in the world, they were teenage outcasts. Three decades ago the two Steve’s were mere college dropouts, Jobs from Reeds and Wozniak from Berkeley. The two Steve’s met at Hewlett-Packard, while Jobs was working as a summer employee and Wozniak as a calculator manufacturer.
The Woz was an especially gifted engineer of his time, making and selling illegal devices that he made. One particular device allowed users to make free long distance calls (which was a big deal in the 1970s  when long distance calls were expensive). Wozniak had done so by hacking into AT&T’s long distance network. An ironic beginning if you think of it, since AT&T is now perhaps one of Apple’s most important business partners.
Later on, Jobs convinced Wozniak to make self-made computers with him. While Steve Wozniak merely enjoyed creating machines, Jobs had always seen the marketability of personal computers. To start their own company, they sold their most precious possessions. Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus and Wozniak sold his programmable HP calculator. They gathered $1,250 and started their business in Jobs’ basement.

Start of the Great CompanyIt was in Steve Jobs’ tiny basement that they invented the first personal computer. On April Fool’s Day, 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak released the first Apple I computer and started the company Apple Computers.

The first Apple machine made use of a TV as a display system–a great addition since most machines of the time had no display at all. Text was faster than teleprinter at that time, typing at 60 characters per second. It also had a bootstrap code on ROM for easy start-up. Like a car, the Apple I computer had a hood that the owner could open up and tinker with the machine. Users were encouraged to open and tinker with the computer; to make it better, to make it faster and to add some features.
Byte Shop, a local computer shop, offered to buy 50 of the computers if it came fully assembled, paying US $500 each. The two couldn’t afford to pay for the components, so Jobs approached Cramer Electronics to get components on 30 day terms. With that, the two Steve’s spent days on end building the computers, delivered it on time and paid his supplier with a neat profit for their efforts and for the next order.
Steve Jobs invited Ronald Wayne, a 41-year-old former colleague from Atari to join in their Apple start-up. Jobs offered Wayne 10% of the company, although he kept his job at Atari and worked for Apple at night. The partnership with Ronald Wayne didn’t last long, though. Twelve days after Apple’s release, Ronald Wayne sold his 10% share for US $800. A meager sum if you consider the fact that Wayne’s 10% share would’ve been worth US $35.3 billion today.
1977 – 1980s: Fast GrowthAfter Apple I, Wozniak now thought about making a bigger and better machine. Since they now had the money from the sales on their first computer, Wozniak moved on and made an improved version, the Apple II. The computer was presented on April 16, 1977 during the West Coast Computer Fair. A Japanese chemist named Toshio Mizushima became interested in the Apple II prototype, and later on became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan.
Image from Old Computers
The Apple II, also known as the Apple ][, became known as the most popular computer of all time. The TV interface was completely redesigned. It could handle text, graphics, and later on, color. It became more ready-to-use than its predecessor, since the Apple I required you to plug parts together & type the code to run the program.
Image from Tony Olsen
By this time Apple needed more money to grow as a company. The solution came from an angel investor named Mike Markkula, who was referred to him by Don Valentine and in turn was referred to by Regis McKenna. Valentine, after first meeting the young and unkempt Jobs, told McKenna: ‘Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?’ He was uninterested in funding Apple, but recommended Markula. Jobs visited him and convinced the would-be investor the market potentials of personal computers. Markkula invested $92,000 in Apple and a bank loan of US $250,000.
Markkula held a huge influence particularly in the formative years of Apple. Wozniak even credits Markkula for Apple’s success more than himself. He provided the adult supervision to the young Jobs and Wozniak. He served as a mentor to Jobs teaching him the the ins and outs of business and management. Aside from helping the company obtain credit and capital, he brought in Michael Scott to be the first president and CEO of Apple. He promised his wife to stay at the venture for four years, he eventually stayed for two decades. Markkula is responsible for recommending the floppy disk drive, after Markkula discovered that the checkbook balancing program he had written was too slow on the data cassette.
Apple’s most famous success is the famed Macintosh. It was the first computer to successfully use a graphic user interface and mouse. The series was thought of by Jef Raskin, an Apple employee who envisioned a low-cost, user-friendly computer for the everyday customer. Macintosh was named after Raskin’s favorite type of apple. Jobs was working on his own Lisa computer during this time, but immediately took over the Macintosh project when the failure of Lisa was clear and the future of Macintosh was bright. See the 1984 Macintosh ad here.
Image from Quality in Print
By 1980s Jobs was still young and unexperienced. He made many marketing mistakes that greatly affected Apple sales. Jobs still lacked the discipline to run the company . Thus Jobs lured Sculley away with the pitch: ‘Do you want to sell sugar-water for the rest of your life or come with me & change the world?’
Jobs and Sculley during their 'friendlier' days
 Sculley was believed to be the perfect choice into bringing business success, stability and management know-how into the company. He raised the Macintosh price from US $1,995 to US $2,495, to use the extra money for advertising campaigns.
There was an internal power struggle in Apple–Sculley and Jobs regularly clashed. Sculley was traditional, but Jobs was more non-linear: he held meetings after midnight, and called new meetings early in the morning. In the end, the board of directors including Mike Markkula sided with Sculley. Jobs left Apple consequently, his pride in tatters.
The Era of Apple without Jobs
Come 1990s, the IBM PC was now dominating the operating system industry. Apple tried to battle the PC threat by introducing Quadra, Centris and Performa. The new Macintosh computers failed miserably, partly due to poor marketing, plus too many models introduced with minor differences in the tech specs. Aside from the computers, Apple released an early personal digital assistant or PDA (they coined that term, in fact) called the Newton. The venture failed, but it would later be the inspiration for future handheld devices such as the Pocket PC and Palm Pilot.
Image from Tony Olsen
By this time, Apple was considered ‘one of the worst managed companies in the industry’. John Sculley was then replaced by  Michael Spindler, and in turn by Gil Amelio. Stock value was low, and the company was losing billions of dollars. There was no visionary to lead them. How could Apple survive when the founders are no longer active?
Meanwhile, Jobs acquired Pixar, a visual effects and animation company. Soon afterwards he founded another company called NeXT. The computer venture did not succeed because of its high price, but it later became the basis for the Mac OS X. It also became the initial platform for Tim Berners-Lee with inventing the World Wide Web concept.

Apple’s Renaissance
Since Steve Jobs’ comeback, Apple regained its former enthusiastic spirit. From 1998 to 2000, their sales were slowly but surely rising. One of Jobs’ first moves as CEO was to develop the iMac, with the integrated CRT display and CPU in a clean, streamlined design. The computer was a huge success, selling one million units a year. There was a resurgence of Apple products and the company started to focus on the design and aesthetics of its products.


Later on, the company would introduce other innovative products like the iBook and the Power Mac G4. It also introduced the new operating system Mac OS X, which had been based on NeXT.
But the boom of Apple’s success today can be traced back to one gadget: the iPod. It was released on October 23, 2001 The iPod can store ’1,000 songs in your pocket’. It was Apple’s first venture in digital music players, a gamble that paid off so well that it led to other innovative products: the iPod Mini, Shuffle, Classic, Nano, and later the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad.


In fact, Apple revolutionized the music industry. It created a new music download service, the iTunes Store, with music downloads of only $0.99 per song or $9.99 per album. The iTunes Store was launched in 2003, and garnered 2,000,000 downloads in 2 weeks, all purchased on Mac computers. Apple later released a Windows version for iTunes, further expanding their market base.

The iTunes Store did not stop at that. They later provided free and paid videos and applications for downloads for the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Today’s Apple products are simple, clean and minimalist. Everything is simplified: all the unnecessary features are taken out and only the essentials remain. And because of its style and simplicity, Apple created a huge fan following and has grown exponentially over the decade.
On May 26, 2010, the stock market of value of Apple overtook that of Microsoft. It was the only time in 20 years that Microsoft was lower than Apple, which would’ve seem ‘unimaginable’ 10 years ago.

On August 25, 2011, news went out that Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO of Apple, and would be succeeded by Tim Cook. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away due to complications of pancreatic cancer.
The Bright Future of Apple
What are Apple’s most recent plans? The iPhone 4S, the Mac OS 5 and the iCloud, for starters. The iPhone 4S is quite exciting, especially the Siri feature. Siri lets you use your voice to command various functions: send messages, make calls, schedule meetings and more. Siri can recognize your voice, understand what you say, and can even talk back. If you don’t believe us, you can see the video here.

Before Jobs’ death, he recently unveiled Apple’s plans for their new headquarters in Cupertino. The modern and futuristic building allows room for 12,000 employees. It is environmentally friendly and will use renewable energy sources and trees will be abundant in the area. The company hopes to move to the new headquarters by 2015.

Indeed, the passing away of Jobs was too early and too unexpected. But the timing couldn’t have been more right–the iPhone and iPad were a huge success that it surpassed the company’s expectations in revenue and profit. Apple can finally stand on its own, ready to conquer the future without the help of Jobs’ regular involvement. After Jobs, Cook is now the CEO as design genius Jonathan Ive and marketing mastermind Phil Schiller, and they will continue to surprise and inspire us.

Everything You Need To Know About DNS

DNS. Three letters that can make or break your website. A fault with DNS and your website can go down for 24 to 48 hours. What is DNS? From where does this 48 hour delay come from in the age of super fast Internet and high-speed technology? Why hasn’t the ever evolving technology replaced the age-old DNS and the frightening 48 hours delay? This discussion will shed some light on most of the queries about DNS. I hope that you will see DNS from a completely different perspective after this writeup.

What is DNS?That is the customary question that we got to answer when we are discussing something as vast as DNS. Basically, DNS (Domain Name System) is responsible for translating human friendly website URLs like www.1stwebdesigner.com to computer readable IP addresses like 148.68.30.27 (just an example). You know, our mind cannot remember combination of such digits so we devised a system which helps convert these IP addresses to English names and vice versa.
Please understand that DNS isn’t a localized system where all the IP addresses corresponding to every website present on this planet is stored. If that was the case then an unimaginable amount of care would be required to keep such a huge database working. Also, having a localized DNS would be against the distributed character of the Internet.
Rather, DNS is a distributed service which is actually a collective group of name servers (which we call as “nameserver” in Internet lingo). These nameservers constantly refer to each other in order to stay updated with the changes that are rolled out every now and then. The process sounds simple but it is quite complex.
So, every website has a nameserver?Well, technically speaking, yes! Though it’s a different case that one nameserver will be used for multiple websites. Otherwise, we would end up having 100 million nameservers for 100 million domains – which makes no sense. Like, I host a domain of mine on DreamHost.com. So, they give me nameservers like ns1.dreamhost.com, ns2.dreamhost.com and ns3.dreamhost.com. Now, DreamHost is giving these nameservers to almost every client that they have. So, these three nameservers basically have almost all the IP address to URL details of every DreamHost client.
A basic flow of request on the InternetWhen you type Google.com in your browser then a lot of stuff happens behind the scenes before you get to see the Google homepage. The image below tries to explain the flow of request.

Let me try to make it bit more clearer:
When you visit a website URL via your browser then Windows will look for the corresponding IP address stored in the nameservers of your ISP.If the IP address is found then the request is directly sent to that IP address henceforth reducing the execution time.If the IP address is not found locally then the request is sent to the cloud of Internet and your browser waits for the virtual world to do its job.Every website has a nameserver associated with itself. Henceforth, that particular nameserver receives that request and sends it to the respective IP address.If that nameserver does not have the IP address details then it communicates with other nameservers and they with others. The request flows in the Internet till correct IP details are attained.Once the IP address is known then the request is sent to the particular IP address and data is served.What is “48 hours delay”?Usually, when you are about to change the nameservers for your domain or when you are hosting a fresh domain then your hosting company will tell you that it might take up to 48 hours for the information to be updated. Technically speaking, they are correct. It might take up to 48 hours for all nameservers on this planet to connect with every other nameserver and keep themselves in sync. You see, it’s a huge virtual world out there. But, my personal experience says that it usually takes less than 24 hours for the global update to complete. Still, you should consider the 48 hour delay in your time plan before you make any changes.
The below image via Wikipedia will give you an idea of hierarchical DNS, organized into zones, each served by a nameserver.


How and when does caching occur?Nice question. You got the information for Google.com request that you had sent some time back. Now, that information is saved in the local ISP’s nameservers so that next time your request isn’t sent to third-party nameservers. But, after a stipulated time period these nameservers contact other nameservers so that their information isn’t outdated. This is where the term TTL comes into play.
What is TTL?TTL (or Time To Live) is the time period that comes in along with the IP address info. This time period information is sent by the third-party nameserver along with the IP address. The value is usually in seconds and it is more like a suggestion from the third-party nameserver that you can stay away from me for X seconds and still stay updated. Come back after X seconds and I will pass on the latest information.
Usually the TTL value is 12 hours or 24 hours. This can be set to a custom number as and when required to reduce traffic.
Other types of DNS lookupsOnce DNS started to serve the IP address lookup (as discussed above), then it was time to expand. DNS was later on used for other type of lookups, two of which we will discuss below:
A Record – A Record lookup is something that we have already discussed. The IP address lookup is actually the A Record lookup for DNS.MX Record – MX (which is acronym for “mail exchanger”) is used for email address lookups. Usually when a tool tries to send an email to mail box related to your domain then it will look for MX record of your domain. This MX record will have another domain (something like mail.yourdomain.com) as its value. Now the A Record for this MX record will be checked to get the target IP address.CNAME Record – CNAME (stands for Canonical Name Record) is actually an alias for another domain name. This comes in handy when you want to use your own domain and data from another website. Like, during the ancient Internet Age (when blogspot.com was luxury), blogspot.com had a feature (they still have it) where you can use your own domain (yourdomain.com) instead of using the bogspot’s sub-domain for your blogspot hosted blog. In this case all that Google would do was ask you to change the CNAME of yourdomain.com to your blogspot’s sub-domain and the job is done. Whenever one would visit yourdomain.com then the data from your blogspot’s sub-domain will be delivered although the sub-domain won’t be visible in address bar.Other usage of DNSOther then the three lookups that I discussed above, DNS can be used for many other functions like:
As I discussed before, domain names and nameservers do not have a one-to-one matching. This gives the hosting companies the chance for shared hosting and save a lot on money invested. Here, multiple domains can result into one IP address. This means one machine can host many websites. Additionally, one domain can point to multiple IP addresses. This helps in redundancy and high availability.The DNS system can be used to save and share IP addresses of blacklisted email hosts. Such databases are available for free in order to fight spam.These days software makers save the version of a software in the DNS database. This way the client machine connects to find out the latest version of the software available. It connects to the software maker’s server only if a new version is available. This helps in reducing the requests that client machines get.

20 Mac Apps For Everyone To Help Increase Productivity

 Every hardworking employed or self-employed individual strives to be more productive at work. However, a resolution to be more productive is easier said and done. There are plenty of temptations in the office, especially for home-based workers. Sleep, idling around and even playing games are just a few clicks away. Of course, being less efficient at work will result in less quality output and in turn a smaller paycheck.
Thankfully, there are plenty of Mac apps out there to keep you in check. Here are our top 20–to do lists, documents, spreadsheets, task management and other productive office applications. The Macbook is a great innovation (thanks to Apple and the late Steve Jobs, bless him). Many of these applications aren’t free though, but we know that good things are never free these days although these apps are worth more than what you pay for.

1. Apple iWork
This is the first Mac App (or Apps, for that matter) you should purchase. It’s the Mac version of Microsoft Office, albeit cheaper and more ‘Mac’ compatible. iWork includes the following apps:
Pages – a text editor with rich word processing and page layout features. The app has hundreds of templates to create newsletters, stationery, invitations and resume. A helpful tool for both students, teachers, professionals and everyone in between. Export files into doc, pdf, and ePub files.Numbers – a spreadsheet app that can organize numerical date to tables, charts and graphs. It can perform various calculations with mathematical formulaKeynote – an application to create and play professinal presentations. It has plenty of beautiful and professional templates, transitions and effects to choose from. Best of all, it supports many file formats, and can be exported to Powerpoint, Quicktime (iPod, iPad and iPhone), HTML and PDF. It can be opened directly to iTunes, iWeb, iDVD and YouTube.Price: US $79.99 (or $27 each for Pages, Numbers and Keynote when bought separately)
2.PDF Pen
Probably one of my most favorite apps in the list. I’m a frequent user and reader of PDF files, so the PDF Pen is a great tool when reviewing and taking notes for PDF text. Make corrections, edit scanned documents, erase information and so much more. You can even scribble your singature on a PDF contract via the PDF pen.
Price: $59.95
3. 1Password
Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you’ll never have to again. 1Password is a password manager, that’s both secure and convenient. It provides maximum anti-phishing protection via a web form filling and automatic strong password generation. Keep all your confidential information of your online accounts, credit cards, ATM cards and other identities.
1Password is the best password manager out there–take our word for it. 1Password is available for your Mac, iPhone, iPad and even your PC and Android phone.
Price: $49.99
4. Paperless
In today’s highly digital world, everyone is going Paperless. Today’s generation rely on digital documents, because it is faster, more efficient and more economical. You need an app of the same name to manage your digital documents. Paperless is a great productivity app, and it’s good for the environment too. It’s a win-win situation here.
Price: $49.95
5. OmniFocus
OmniFocus is a task manager to ensure you are at your most efficient by providing the right tools and features. Capture your thoughts by storing, managing and processing them in the app. It stores both your personal and professional tasks, and help order them according to importance. OmniFocus gets things done.
Price: US 79.99
6. Transmit
Transfer files quick and easy through Transmit. Transmit is currently Mac’s top 1 FTP Client. Transferring files across the FTP or SFTP server is amazingly fast–thanks to the Transmit Twin turbo engine, transferring files is now up to 25 x faster.
Price: US 39.99
7. Skype
Skype is a necessary application, a communication tool for family, friends and clients on a higher level. Hold meetings with clients and colleagues without the need to travel (or dress up in a suit).
The latest Skype app now offers clearer and sharper video calls, through their HD video call feature. Group videos are now also possible–so talk with up to 10 people online at the same time!
Price: Totally free, but Skype Premium account at US $4.99 a month.
8. Pixelmator
Pixelmator, a powerful image editing app for the Mac. It’s a lot like Adobe Photoshop–wonderful interface, layer-based image editing, and basic tools like cropping, transform, fill, stroke and so much more. It has more than 130 filters and 14 color correction tools. Pixelmator allows easy access to your photos from your iPhoto or Aperture library.
Price: $29.99
9. Espresso
Espresso is the ultimate application for the web designer. It has a built-in CSS Editor, the well-known CSSEdit3. See your web site updates in real time through Live Styling and inspect your web layout with X-ray. The Quick Publish or Sync features allow you to automatically publish or apply changes to your server. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth more than you pay for.
Price: US $79
10. Sparrow Productivity
Sparrow mailing app is a light mail application and a great addition to your productivity apps. The app’s interface is easy and well-organized. Get your mail in a few clicks. It even has the Facebook Connect feature, to get instant notifications and your friends’ pictures are shown to immediately see who the email was from.
Price: US $9.99
11. Things
Things is a simple task management application, it’s so easy to use–but with very powerful features. It can make the most basic to do list, and even handle a complicated GTD workflow. Things is an award-winning Mac App because of its clean interface, user-friendliness and great flexibility.
Price: US $49.99
12. Billings
Billings manages client accounts and invoices beautifully and effortlessly. Choose from 1 of their 30 professional templates or create your own, and send statements in a single click of a button.
Price: US $39.99
13. Coda
Coda provides an all-around application for web developers. It has a fully featured file transfer, text editor, integrated file browser, CSS editor, SSH terminal and complete set of references–all in one, clean and streamlined workflow.
Price: US $99
14. MarsEdit
Browser-based blog editors are slow, unpredictable and require internet connection. Sure, browsers are great for browsing the net, but not so much for writing a blog. If you’re really serious about blogging, you’ll need a blog editor app like MarsEdit. With MarsEdit you can write, publish and preview your blog posts on your desktop.Price: US $39.95
15. Adobe Kuler
Adobe Kuler has a mobile app that A must-have app for web designers and developers. The application generates color palettes and themes to inspire. Create, explore, experiment. and save color palettes and use it on your next project.
Price: US $9.99
16. RDM Desktop Lite
The application allows you to control your other devices even if they are far away. It can connect through your Macbook, iPhone and iPad. Internet connection is not required, and control as many devices you want wirelessly.
Price: Free
17. Phone Log
PhoneLog is a great app for keeping tabs on your calls, having a quick record of important conversations–such as calls from your clients, utility companies, financial institutions, etc. Store details of your calls, who called, when the call was made, and what the conversation was about. Now you’ll never forget a single call again!
Price: Free
18. Whistle Phone
Whistle Phone provides free inbound and outbound calls in the contiguous United States destinations through your Mac.
Price: Free
19. DropCopy
DropCopy is a charmingly easy application, and a great timesaver. If you need to send files quickly to multiply destinations to recipients across your network, just drag the files to the destination in a popup window. It’s not fussy, and get things done hassle-free, without the need to input any password, dialogues or confirmation.
Price: Free for the lite version, that can carry 1-3 devices. There is a Pro version at $4.99 for 1-10 devices, and a site license to cover unlimited devices.
20. Remind Me Later
Remind Me Later is a to-do app, very fast and very easy. If you need things to be done, just open the app, type in the reminder and you’re done. The application automatically add events to iCal in just two clicks. You can also sync the reminders to your iPhone via MobileMe, to take your reminders with you anywhere.