Sketch

Sketch is a design application built exclusively for macOS that has been a cornerstone of the digital design industry since its launch in 2010 by Bohemian Coding, a company founded in the Netherlands. The application is a native Mac app, not a cross-platform Electron wrapper, delivering superior performance, retina display rendering, and deep integration with macOS features like Touch Bar, Quick Look, and Spotlight. Sketch pioneered the vector-based design workflow that replaced Photoshop and Illustrator for interface and web design, introducing features that became industry standards including shared styles, symbols that evolved into design system components, pixel-precise vector editing with boolean operations, and an extensibility model that spawned an entire ecosystem of third-party plugins. The platform includes a Mac app for design creation, a web-based collaboration workspace for sharing prototypes and gathering feedback, and a synced library system that keeps design components consistent across teams. Recent updates introduced Oklab and Oklch perceptual gradient rendering for more vibrant and accurate color transitions, multi-paste functionality for efficient layout creation, a redesigned prototype player with smoother transitions, and significant performance improvements. Notable users include Sebastiaan de With, designer of Halide and Kino and Apple Design Award 2022 winner, who credits the tool as indispensable to his workflow. Jasper Hauser, creator of Darkroom and Apple Design Award 2020 winner, praises the native Mac experience for designing while traveling. Paul Hudson of Hacking with Swift described it as the first design tool that works the way a normal human being would expect. Requires macOS Sonoma 14.0 or newer.