BibDesk

BibDesk
Developer(s)The BibDesk Team
Initial release2002 (2002)
Stable release
1.9.6 / October 18, 2024 (2024-10-18)
Repository
Written inC, Objective-C
Operating systemmacOS
TypeLaTeX
LicenseBSD
Websitebibdesk.sourceforge.net

BibDesk is an open-source reference management software package for macOS, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. It can also be used to organize and maintain a library of documents in PDF format and other formats. It is primarily a BibTeX front-end for use with LaTeX, but also offers external bibliographic database connectivity for importing, a variety of means for exporting, and capability for linking to local documents and automatically filing local documents. It takes advantage of many macOS features such as AppleScript and Spotlight.

First launched publicly in 2002, BibDesk is under continuing development by various contributors via SourceForge. The original developer was Michael McCracken, and much of the code has subsequently been written by Adam Maxwell and Christiaan Hofman. Also available directly from SourceForge, it is currently bundled with the MacTeX distribution of TeX Live.