Oneupweb : Essential Developer Resources
One of the best things about being a web developer is discovering new online apps that make my job that much easier. It seems like just about every week there’s a new app I never knew I couldn’t live without. Today, I’m sharing five of my most frequently used bookmarks.
Browsershots
Browsershots is a great way to quickly preview how your website will render across a whole spectrum of browsers. Simply paste in the link you’d like to preview, select the browsers you’d like to compare against, and submit. Although there is a pay service available for increased priority and speed in rendering, the longer wait times for the free versions aren’t much of an inconvenience.
CSS SuperScrub
I dread CSS bloat. Depending on the project, I may end up with a style sheet that is up to 20% larger than it needs to be. In comes iSnoop’s CSS SuperScrub. Drop in a link to your CSS file, and SuperScrub will spit out an optimized CSS document that has eliminated redundancies. My suggestion—use the optimized document to clean up your original. While it’s convenient, I find using it as a starting point for CSS optimization rather than a final solution.
NameThatColor
When coming up with CSS class names based on the type of color it applies, it’s easy to end up with .blue1, .blue2, .blue3, etc. Instead of falling into this trap, I’ll grab my color’s hex value and drop it into NameThatColor’s app. I’m then provided with a better, unique class name to use like .cerulean, .cyan, or .teal.
TypeTester
When working on the typographic side of a website, I frequently get indecisive about which font to use and like to compare my options. TypeTester is a quick and easy way to compare the look and feel of different fonts side by side.
Kuler
Need a quick palette for a web design project? Look no further than Adobe’s Kuler. A fantastic resource for all design work, Kuler is great for building custom palettes. In addition, it has a mother lode of pre-existing palettes created and saved by other users.
