Best new open-source, reading and design resources: 20 October

The directory additions from 20 October were thirty free tools and websites and ten open-source projects from GitHub. This roundup groups them into writing, reading and calmer browsing, directories for finding more, design, open-source and self-hosted tools, and everyday utilities. Features and pricing change, so check each tool's own page before you commit to one.

Writing, reading and calmer browsing

FocusWriter is a free, open-source word processor for Windows and Linux that hides its menus until you move the mouse to the edge of the screen, with themes, live statistics and daily word goals. DeepL Translator translates text and documents between dozens of languages; the free version has limits on text length and file translations, and DeepL Pro raises them and adds stronger data security. Doodle helps a group find a meeting time with a shared poll, and its free plan covers polls and calendar connections, while reminders, branding and removing ads need a paid plan.

For reading the web, Inoreader gathers blogs, news sites, newsletters and podcasts into one feed, with a free plan that caps feeds and shows some ads. NetNewsWire is a free, open-source RSS reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad with no ads, tracking or account requirement. SumatraPDF is a free, open-source reader for Windows that opens PDF, EPUB, MOBI, comic book and DjVu files almost instantly, with a portable version that needs no install.

In the browser, Session Buddy is a free Chrome extension that saves open tabs and windows as sessions you can restore after a crash, and Vimium brings Vim-style keyboard shortcuts to Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Dark Reader turns websites dark with controls for brightness, contrast and sepia; it is free for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, while the Safari version is paid. Zen Browser is a free, open-source browser built on Firefox with vertical tabs, workspaces, split view and a compact mode, and Firefox extensions still work.

Directories for finding more

Class Central is a free search engine and review site for online courses, with filters for subject, provider and price. Desmos is a free graphing calculator that plots functions, inequalities and data as you type, with scientific, matrix and geometry tools. Privacy Guides is a nonprofit, community-run site that recommends privacy-respecting software against published criteria, and European Alternatives lists European providers of digital products, showing where each one is based.

selfh.st is a free directory of self-hosted apps with a weekly newsletter and a free icon library. AI Valley is a free directory of AI tools and ready-made prompts that you can filter by free, freemium or paid pricing. Public APIs is a community-maintained GitHub list of free APIs that notes the authentication method and HTTPS and CORS support for each entry, and TOOOLS.design is a curated directory of design tools and resources that has been updated weekly since 2019.

Design

Pattern Monster creates repeatable SVG patterns you can recolour and resize, then copy as SVG or CSS. Animista is a free library of CSS animations where you adjust duration, easing and delay before copying only the code you need. Colormind uses deep learning to generate five-colour palettes, lets you lock the colours you like and can extract a palette from an uploaded image.

Font Squirrel collects free fonts licensed for commercial work, and it is still worth checking each font's licence before you download it. HyperUI is a free, open-source set of Tailwind CSS components you copy straight into a project. Humaaans is a free illustration library by Pablo Stanley for building people from separate parts, released under a CC0 public domain licence. Simple Icons offers free SVG icons for thousands of popular brands with their official colours, and Mixkit, from Envato, has free stock video, music, sound effects and templates under the Mixkit licence, downloadable without an account.

Open-source and self-hosted tools

Atuin replaces your shell history with a searchable database, shows each command's exit code and duration, and can sync history between computers with end-to-end encryption. Ferdium combines services such as Slack, WhatsApp, Gmail, Telegram and Discord in one desktop window, with workspaces and Do Not Disturb. Deskflow lets one keyboard and mouse control several nearby computers over your network, across Windows, macOS and Linux, with encryption on by default. scrcpy shows an Android phone's screen on your computer and lets you control it over USB or Wi-Fi, with no root or app needed on the phone.

Glance is a self-hosted dashboard that brings RSS feeds, subreddits, Hacker News, YouTube uploads, weather and calendars into one page, set up in a single YAML file. SilverBullet is a self-hosted notes app that keeps pages as plain Markdown files, with wiki-style links, queries and Lua scripting. tududi is a self-hosted task manager with areas, projects, recurring tasks, CalDAV sync and Telegram capture, and changedetection.io watches web pages and sends alerts when they change. The self-hosted tools need a server or Docker setup of your own to run.

Everyday utilities

Notepad++ is a free, open-source text and code editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, tabs, regular-expression search and plugins. Ninite installs or updates popular Windows apps in one download and skips bundled extras; it is free for home use, with Ninite Pro for businesses. Ventoy turns a USB drive into a bootable stick that can hold several ISO, WIM, IMG or VHD files at once; as with any tool that prepares a drive to boot, back up anything on the drive and double-check which one you pick first.

Ente Auth is a free, open-source app for two-factor authentication codes with end-to-end encrypted backups across mobile, desktop and the web; because it holds the keys to your accounts, keep its backup set up and safe. Fast.com is a free internet speed test from Netflix that also shows upload speed and latency, and Vocaroo records audio in your browser and shares it with a link, with no account needed.

These forty additions sit alongside everything else in the directory. Browse the full Best Productivity Resources directory to compare them with other tools in each category.