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Web Developer Essential Tools

Foreword

The following highlights what I believe to be the best tools for web development and best of all, they’re all free.  This is a living reference which will be updated as new and better tools are found.  Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

The List

Google Chrome
Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Light, extremely fast, jam packed with features and a debugger that makes short work of CSS and JavaScript.  The ability to right click inspect an element, change CSS values live in the DOM using up, down arrows or by entering values directly make this an essential tool for web development.

Get Google Chrome

ColorPic
ColorPic

ColorPic

Fantastic color picking tool which allows for obtaining the color values for anything on the screen.  Creation and loading of palettes, values can be slider modified for easy lighting or darkening of tones.  Shortcuts make color selection a cinch.  A must have tool.

Get ColorPic

Tape: Google Chrome Extension
Tape: Google Chrome Extension

Tape: Google Chrome Extension

You know that problem you have in CSS where you’re trying to line up elements either horizontally or vertically and you end up using paper to see if the alignment is correct, well you can forget about doing that ever again.  The Tape plugin allows you to easily place lines on the screen, then you can adjust your CSS to match.

Get Tape Extension

XML Tree: Google Chrome Extension
XML Tree: Google Chrome Extension

XML Tree: Google Chrome Extension

Display XML, RSS any form of node tree in a collapsible human readable format.

Get XML Tree Extension

Awesome Screenshot: Google Chrome Extension
Awesome Screenshot: Google Chrome Extension

Awesome Screenshot: Google Chrome Extension

Quickly screen grab what’s being displayed in the browser, draw, blur, annotate, write, etc. all from within the browser. Save when you’re done either locally or in the cloud.

Get Awesome Extension

LightTable
LightTable

LightTable

LightTable is one of the most robust and unique editors I have ever used.  Extremely powerful, easily customized with more features than I can list here.

Get LightTable

GIMP
GIMP

GIMP

If you’re used to Photoshop, it will take a little bit of a learning curve to get used to GIMP’s shortcuts and approach to image manipulation. However, once you get used to the shortcuts and image editing as a whole, you won’t want to go back. Select an area, resize the selection area by mouse or by shrink or grow amounts, copy then shortcut paste into a new image frame, fast. No more, click save, select extension type from a drop down, confirm, confirm, confirm. Instead, shortcut for save, enter filename with the extension (.png, .jpg, .gif, etc.), hit enter, enter, done. Made for rapid manipulation of images, tons of plugins, filters, great tool.

Get GIMP

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