My Web Design Toolbox – 25 Tools
In this post I want to showcase all the applications that are very important in my web design & development process. From commercial applications to Firefox plugins, this post will cover all my favorite web design tools.
1. Adobe Photoshop
When it comes to web design, graphic design, photo manipulation and many other things – Adobe Photoshop is the best tool.
2. Adobe Illustrator
From time to time, when I have to make some icons I use Adobe Illustrator. It has some great features and with the latest releases I can set the interface to look like Photoshop – which is very helpful.
3. Google Picasa
Although I’m not a Google fan, for graphic files management Google Picasa is the best free choice.
4. Microsoft Visio
For wireframing and flowcharts Microsoft Visio is the right tool. Of course that you can do it with a pen and a paper but this is an alternative.
5. Notepad++
I know that there are many users of Adobe Dreamweaver, but I’m not one of them. I prefer Notepad++. This open source application is the best code editor from my point of view. It has many features and additional plugins.
6. Intype
An alternative to Notepad++ is Intype. This editor is free and it has the best snippets bundled with the application. Great for productivity.
7. EasyPHP
EasyPHP is a complete package that includes an Apache server, a MySQL database, PHPMyAdmin as well as easy development tools for web sites and applications.
8. Firefox
This is my browser of choice, not only because it is fast and reliable, but because it has the best plugins.
9. Firebug
The first plugin for Firefox installed on my PC is Firebug. It is a powerful debugging tool for websites.
10. Web Developer Toolbar
Like Firebug, this is another debugging plugin for Firefox. It has additional features to Firebug and that is why I have both installed.
11. Opera
When you want to see the flaws your site has, Opera is the best tool. From my point Opera renders the site the right way.
12. Safari
Being one of the most popular browser Safari must be a first priority tool. You will want to test your site on Safari since it has around 8% or the browser market share.
13. Xenocode Browsers Sandbox
This tool is for testing purposes: it enables you to test your site on most important browsers without installing them.
14. W3C Validators
The HTML and CSS validators are very important because from time to time I check for my code compatibility with the standards.
15. CleanCSS
This is a site that optimizes and helps you compress your CSS code based on several options that you can select.
16. A List apart
Please tell me that you know this site. This is the foundation site for web designers.
