Media & Design is our most eclectic category. It spans terminal emulators, developer Swiss-army-knife utilities, AI media generation, and Git workflow tools. The connecting thread is that these tools shape how developers interact with their environment and create things. Here's what deserves your attention.
Terminal Emulators: Kitty vs WezTerm
Your terminal emulator is the application you stare at most. Picking the right one matters more than most developers admit.
Kitty is GPU-accelerated and fast, with features that other terminals are still catching up to. The Kitty graphics protocol lets you display images inline in the terminal -- useful for previewing plots, screenshots, and diagrams without leaving your workflow. It's extensible through "kittens" (small Python programs), supports ligatures, tabs, splits, and remote control via IPC. Configuration is file-based and deep.
WezTerm takes a different approach: Lua-based configuration that makes your terminal programmable. It's cross-platform (truly -- Windows, macOS, Linux with consistent behavior), has built-in multiplexing that rivals tmux, supports image rendering, and the Lua config lets you do things like dynamic tab titles, custom key bindings based on context, and even programmatic theme switching. Written in Rust, so it's fast.
Pick Kitty if you're on Linux or macOS and want the graphics protocol and kitten ecosystem. Pick WezTerm if you need cross-platform consistency or want Lua-scriptable configuration.
Developer Utilities: DevToys and Raycast
Every developer has a collection of "I need to quickly decode this Base64 / format this JSON / generate a UUID" moments. These tools make those moments frictionless.
DevToys bundles 30+ offline utilities into a single app: JSON formatter, JWT decoder, Base64 encoder/decoder, UUID generator, hash calculator, regex tester, color picker, image converter, and more. Everything works offline with a clean native interface. It's the developer equivalent of having a well-organized physical toolbox -- nothing fancy, just everything in the right place.
Raycast is a launcher and productivity tool for macOS that goes well beyond Spotlight. The extension ecosystem includes developer tools (color pickers, UUID generators, API clients), system utilities, and integrations with GitHub, Jira, Linear, and dozens of other services. The clipboard history and snippet expansion alone are worth the install. If you're on macOS, Raycast replaces three or four standalone utilities.
AI Media Generation
Two tools stand out in the AI generation space for developers.
FramePack generates video from images and text prompts, running locally on consumer hardware. It's not a cloud API with a meter running -- it's a model you download and run. The quality is impressive for a self-hosted solution, and being able to iterate on video generation without per-request costs changes how you approach the tool. Useful for creating demo videos, social media content, or prototype visualizations.
Spark-TTS handles text-to-speech synthesis with natural-sounding output. Running locally means no API latency and no per-character billing. For developers building voice interfaces, generating audio content, or adding narration to documentation or demos, having a capable local TTS engine removes a significant friction point.
Both tools represent the same trend: AI media capabilities moving from expensive cloud APIs to local execution. The quality gap between local and cloud is narrowing fast.
Git Workflow: lazygit
lazygit deserves mention in every category it touches. It provides a full terminal UI for Git: staging files, resolving merge conflicts, cherry-picking commits, interactive rebasing, and browsing diffs -- all with keyboard shortcuts. Complex Git operations that would normally require remembering arcane flags become visual and approachable.
If you use Git (and you do), lazygit transforms the experience. The conflict resolution interface alone is worth the install. Pair it with Kitty or WezTerm for the full terminal-first development setup.
Utility Spotlight: dust
dust is a more intuitive version of du -- it shows disk usage with a visual representation that makes it immediately obvious where your storage is going. Written in Rust, it's fast enough to scan large directories without waiting. A small tool, but the kind you use weekly once you have it.
Building a Media & Design Toolkit
The diversity of this category is actually its strength. A practical developer toolkit from these picks:
- Terminal: Kitty or WezTerm as your daily driver
- Utilities: DevToys for quick conversions, Raycast for macOS productivity
- Git: lazygit for terminal-based Git operations
- AI generation: FramePack for video, Spark-TTS for audio
- Disk management: dust for understanding storage usage
None of these tools overlap. Each handles a distinct part of the developer workflow, and together they cover the full spectrum from writing code to creating media.
Explore all tools in our Media & Design Tools category, or search for something specific.