The Week in Mac Apps: Let your creativity run wild with Krita hands-on drawing tools

From building unique LEGO structures to writing appealing blogs, this week’s roundup of new Mac Apps keeps you all your creative projects covered.

The latest version of Bare Bones Software’s $50 BBEdit 11 brings new features and general tweaks to the popular text editor.

The update introduces changes to the way you resize windows inside the project view, and improves spell checking, project search and replace, and live previews. With its advanced editing tools and syntax highlighting, the app comes with full support for many popular language and formats, and is built to make your next programming project a breeze.

Bringing your next big idea to the web couldn’t be easier with John Saddington’s $21 Desk 3 ( Mac App Store link), a full-fledged text editor designed for the popular WordPress blogging platform.

The app offers a clean interface to help you focus on your creativity, and supports a variety of settings to create the ideal writing environment. With Desk 3, you can write new posts and edit existing one, add embedded media and captions, and keep an eye on your progress with its handy preview feature.

The latest improvements to Ciarlo Software’s $4 Doo ( Mac App Store link) bring tweaks for better integration with the Notification Center and overall updates for a smoother experience.

The app helps you keep track of tasks and to-do lists, notifies you of upcoming events with eye-catching cards and prompt reminders that can be snoozed and repeated, and synchronizes your data across all your devices via iCloud.

Turn your photos into amazing shots with Macphun Software’s free  Filters ( Mac App Store link) and its extensive selection of effects that you can use to turn everyday pictures into everlasting memories.

The app supports a wide range of filters that you can apply and layer over each other to create complex effects using a live preview that gives you instant feedback. Filters works directly insides Apple’s Photos for extra convenience, allows you to export your files to many popular image formats, and even helps you share them via Facebook or Twitter.

Krita Foundation’s free Krita is an open source painting tool designed to help you create beautiful works of art.

Krita makes available an extensive list of editing tools organized in a customizable interface, including brush stabilizers for shaky hands, pop-up palettes, nine different brush engines, and much more. You can also create your very own set of brushes, or download other ones created by other artists from the app’s website.

NeatLab’s $40 Neat Image helps you refine your photos by minimizing noise and reducing blurry backgrounds.

Once you import your pictures into it, the app systematically analyzes them to detect and correct imperfections, with special filters designed to offer great results for shots that were taken in dim conditions or at a fast shutter speed.

Tapbots’s $20 Pastebot ( Mac App Store link) gives you powerful tools for managing your Mac’s pasteboard.

The app lets you organize copied items from its main window, apply powerful transformation, and automatically sequence them for pasting at a later point in time. Additionally, you pasteboard items can be synchronized across all your devices via iCloud.

Slack Technologies’s popular office messaging app ( Mac App Store link) now lets you talk with your team members face-to-face with its new video chat feature.

You can quickly start a video conference with any of your colleagues and add more participants on the fly. Like before, Slack comes with a powerful suite of team communication tools, and continues to supports third-party conferencing services like Google Hangouts and Zoom for extra convenience.

BrickLink’s Stud.io (free during the open beta) helps you bring your next LEGO project to life with its handy brick designer.

Stud.io features a full suite of brick design tools and a photorealistic editor that allows you to admire your creations as they come to life right on your screen. Once you’re happy with the result, the app can save a screenshot of your work, and produce a bill of materials with every last brick you’ll need to build it. Thanks to its integration with the popular BrickLink marketplace, you may even be able to order all the parts without leaving the app!