About The Tool Shelf
The Tool Shelf reviews and compares the software creative people use every day: design apps, video and audio editors, 3D tools and the AI models showing up inside all of them. We publish reviews, roundups, how-tos and industry news, written by the seven people below.
The writers
Nora Lindqvist
Nora edits The Tool Shelf and writes whatever the week calls for, from a Figma plugin review to a quick news piece on a model release. She came to software from print layout and still judges a design app by how it handles type on a curve. She keeps a running spreadsheet of every subscription she’s canceled and why.
Jared Andersen
Jared cuts short documentary projects on the side, which is why he tests video editors on real footage with bad audio rather than demo clips. He also writes about color tools and AI upscalers. If an app hides its export settings three menus deep, he will mention it.
Maya Torres
Maya draws on an iPad most days and on paper when the battery dies. She covers drawing apps, brush packs, AI image tools and the licensing fine print that comes with them. Her roundups come back to one question: would she pay for this with her own money?
Owen Fitzgerald
Owen started recording podcasts in a closet lined with moving blankets and never fully left. He writes about audio editors and voice tools, and about anything else with a timeline, since most of his complaints about software come back to scrubbing. He reads changelogs for fun.
Hana Mori
Hana works in 3D and motion, so she has opinions about render times. Her how-tos start from a real project file, and her reviews cover node-based tools and AI texture generators. She tests plugins on a laptop before recommending them, because that’s what most readers own.
Daniel Brooks
Daniel follows the business side of creative software: pricing changes, acquisitions, shutdowns and the terms-of-service updates that land on a Friday afternoon. When he reviews a tool, he usually starts with the pricing page. He’s been known to read an end-user license agreement twice.
Leah Kowalski
Leah builds small websites for friends’ businesses and writes about the tools she reaches for while doing it, from site builders and font managers to AI writing assistants. She’s the one on staff most likely to put five apps side by side in a table. Her test for any tool is whether a beginner can get something on screen in 10 minutes.
How we review
We rank tools by the quality of what they produce, what they cost and how much friction sits between opening the app and getting usable work out of it. Prices come from each vendor’s own pricing page as of the date at the top of the article, and we update a post when a price or a feature changes enough to move a ranking.
We name the catches as plainly as the strengths, from watermarks on free plans to licenses that limit commercial use. Every pick comes with a note on who it suits, so you can skip the ones that aren’t built for you.
Spotted a mistake, or a tool we should look at? Tell us on the contact page.