ritchie's portal: tools

Daily drivers

Tools that I use most often for creative projects. Only free options are linked.

Software

• Clip Studio Paint EX 2.0 perpetual license. Recently upgraded to 4.0.
• LibreOffice for formal writing and making very simple zines.
• Also: Obsidian Sync for notetaking across all of my devices.
• Also: Google Docs (currently moving off it).
• Affinity Publisher 2.

Hardware

• Hardware: XP-PEN Innovator 16 (anniversary edition), on either a Parblo PR-100 stand or a laptop stand mounted on an ergonomic monitor arm.
• Print shop for booklets: Mixam.

Useful programs

• Sumatra PDF, a PDF reader.
• Calibre, e-book manager.
• Mullvad VPN, don't use any other VPN but this.
• Media players: MPC-HC x64 (video), foobar2000 (audio and radio streams).
• VB-CABLE, virtual audio device. Win10 allows you to adjust volumes of individual programs but I still prefer the virtual cable for convenience (e.g. sending all non-voice audio to it).
• Workrave, for reminders to take breaks (mitigate eye strain, RSI, etc.)
• Brackets, open-source HTML editor.
• ClipX, a tiny clipboard history manager.
• Feeder, RSS feed aggregator for Android.
• Tusky, Mastodon client for Android.
• Elk, Mastodon client for web.

Web-based tools

• Convert Case, eponymous utility.
• Tip of My Tongue, find a word that you just can't remember.
• Citation Generator by Scribbr for MLA/APA/Chicago/etc. papers.
• cobalt, save anything from social and media websites.
• RSS Guide, a simple, to-the-point guide on making a RSS feed for your website by hand.