10 tools
Tokens Studio
tokens.studio
Tokens Studio is the standard Figma plugin for design token management — it lets designers create and organize tokens for colors, typography, spacing, and shadows, then sync them to GitHub, GitLab, or other repos as JSON. It fills the gap Figma Variables leave open: semantic mappings, theme logic, portability to code, and version control. Also maintains Style Dictionary V4 and is expanding to Framer.
Zed
zed.dev
High-performance code editor built in Rust with GPU rendering via a custom GPUI framework — genuinely faster than VS Code with 0.5s startup, 120fps scrolling, and 2.5x lower power draw. Native multiplayer editing baked in from day one. Agentic editing, open-source Zeta model for autocomplete, and multi-model AI panel. Open source under GPL; Windows support arrived in late 2025.
Penpot
penpot.app
The first open-source design and prototyping platform, built on actual web standards — SVG, CSS Flexbox, and Grid — rather than proprietary formats. Native design tokens, real-time collaboration, self-hostable, and free. The developer-friendliest design tool available: Code Inspect outputs real HTML and CSS, not approximations.
OpenPencil
openpencil.dev
Open-source, local-first AI design editor that reads and writes .fig files and exports directly to production code.
Gimp
www.gimp.org
GIMP is the leading free, open-source image editor — the practical alternative to Photoshop for anyone unwilling to pay subscription fees. Version 3.0 (released February 2025 after seven years) added non-destructive layer effects, multi-layer selection, improved CMYK support, and native Wayland support. The plugin ecosystem is large but some older plugins broke in the Python 2 to Python 3 migration.
Open Design
open-design.ai
The official open-source, local-first Claude Design alternative. Generate decks, landing pages, dashboards, and brand systems using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, or Qwen — driven by composable skills and portable components.
Inkscape
inkscape.org
Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor that uses SVG as its native file format — not an export option, but the actual working file — making it the only major vector tool whose output is web-standard code. Its feature set now genuinely rivals Illustrator: bezier tools, boolean operations, bitmap tracing via Potrace, a Shape Builder tool (added in v1.3), and advanced typography. No subscription, no AI upsell, no file hostage-taking.
RYBitten
rybitten.space
A color tool and library for exploring painterly, RYB-inspired color mixing on the web. Experiment with gamut presets, palette generation, and color relationships that feel more like paint than pixels.
Avnac
avnac.design
An open-source, local-first browser design editor for posters, social graphics, and layout work. Avnac is a Canva alternative built on React and TypeScript — your files stay on your machine by default. There's also a native desktop version (Avnac Studio) built with Go. No cloud sync unless you want it.
AudioCss
www.audiocss.dev
A CSS-like declarative stylesheet language for binding sounds to UI events on the web. Write selectors and cascade rules for audio the same way you already do for visual styles.