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POLITE SOFTWARE STUDIO
Software that behaves.
I design and build independent software for people who care about their work—and expect their tools to respect it.
THE STUDIO
An independent practice for thoughtful, demanding software.
I design and build focused products for people who care about their work, their tools and their data.
The work spans photo archives, semantic publishing, long-term memory and document tools. The products are different; the standard is the same: clear information, direct interaction and software that remains calm as the work grows.
BEHIND THE STUDIO
Polite Software Studio is the independent product studio of Nikos Kanellopoulos, a software architect and principal engineer with more than 25 years of professional experience. Based in Athens, Greece, he designs and builds the studio’s products.
THE APPROACH
Capability without ceremony.
Calm on the surface
The work gets the foreground. Controls are direct, legible and quiet when they are not needed.
Deep where it matters
Advanced capability belongs in a product when it makes the real task clearer, safer or faster.
Ownership by default
Your files, decisions and workflow remain yours. Automation should increase agency, not replace it.
SELECTED SOFTWARE
Four products. One point of view.
Each begins with a concrete problem and grows only as complex as the work requires.
DAMN
A native macOS photo archive for navigating, filtering, culling, organising, inspecting and enjoying large libraries in true HDR. No account, no cloud, no subscription.
Alnitak
A semantic publishing system where pages, layouts, headers, footers and reusable styles are structured documents, backed by a self-describing API.
Pragmatic Markdown
A reader and editor for Markdown on Mac, iPad and iPhone. Wide tables, code and diagrams get their own space without compromising portable source.
ChoroChronos
A quiet, offline-first way to remember what happened, where and when—without turning your life into a feed, diary or dashboard.