Here are 15 handy web developer tools. Some are very well known others not so, however, one thing they all share is they are very useful when developing websites.
1. Adobe Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop family of products is the ultimate playground for bringing out the best in your digital images and transforming them into anything you can imagine.
2. GIMP
Very much a Photoshop esc application but free. GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
3. Adobe Dreamweaver
Quickly and easily design, develop, and maintain websites and web applications – from start to finish – with Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 software. Built for both designers and developers, Dreamweaver CS3 offers the choice of working in an intuitive visual layout interface or a streamlined coding environment.
4. Color Cop
A very handy tool for capturing colours anywhere on your screen. Color Cop makes it quick and easy in those situations where you need to know what colour is being used.
5. Firefox web developer toolbar
The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. It is designed for Firefox, Flock, Mozilla and Seamonkey, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
More about Firefox we developer toolbar…
6. Internet Explorer Toolbar
The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides a variety of tools for quickly creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages. This version is a preview release and behavior may change in the final release.
More about Internet Explorer Toolbar…
7. Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
8. Watchfire Bobby
Watchfire Bobby is a web accessibility desktop testing tool designed to help expose barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, including Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act and the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
9. JsUnit
JsUnit is a Unit Testing framework for client-side (in-browser) JavaScript. It is essentially a port of JUnit to JavaScript. Also included is a platform for automating the execution of tests on multiple browsers and mutiple machines running different OSs.
10. Xenu
Xenu’s Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.
11. Vischeck
Vischeck is a way of showing you what things look like to someone who is color blind. You can try Vischeck online- either run Vischeck on your own image files or run Vischeck on a web page. You can also download programs to let you run it on your own computer.
12. Feng GUI
Find out how people View your website or image and which areas are getting most of the attention.
The ViewFinder Heatmap service, is an artificial intelligence service which simulates human visual attention and creates an attention heatmap.
13. Fiddler
Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, and can be extended using any .NET language.
14. BrowserCam
Browsercam provides “Cross-Browser Screen Captures and Instant Remote Access”, meaning developers can fully test a websites appearance and functionality across multiple web browsers (I.e. Internet Explorer 7, Firefox etc) and operating systems (I.e. Windows XP, Windows Vista etc) ensuring the quality of our sites are as high as possible.
This solution offers three main services:
• Screen Capture Service
• Remote Access Service
• DeviceCam
15. RegexBuddy
RegexBuddy is your perfect companion for working with regular expressions. Easily create regular expressions that match exactly what you want. Clearly understand complex regexes written by others. Quickly test any regex on sample strings and files, preventing mistakes on actual data. Debug without guesswork by stepping through the actual matching process.
comments
These are just a few handy web developer tools. If you have any handy tools that you want to share post them at the bottom of this article.
70 Comments Received
good post! i’m a web developper and while i knew about most of these Feng and Firebug i had not heard of and i love ‘em! thanks for the tips!
Yeah, just 2-3.000 $ of software for starting…
What about open source version of this post???
Ok that sounds like a challenge.
I’ll give it a go and post on here with my findings..
What about:
IE:
DebugBar JSCompagnion (similar to FireBug, although less powerfull)
Images:
XNView
Colors:
Colorzilla in FF, Developer toolbar in IE
RegExp:
Try RegExpCoach
Editing:
Notepad (non-visual, but with syntax coloring)
NVU for HTML only, WYSIWYG.
Helping with the challenge
uh, just two stuff suddenly pop in my mind:
Pixeur – also nice everywhere colorpicker
Inkscape – opensource vector application, it can trace, edit create what you can imagine….
Some of those are for M$ only what about Quanta
Nice article. Would be fantastic if you can find some more open source alternatives.
when you say beginners and then you mention a product like Photoshop, all I can think of is what the heck is this list all about… considering an actual copy of Photoshop is not cheap. Go with Paint.net as a starter, it’s free and has most of the functionality of Photoshop, and if you’re comfortable working with graphical software, then Photoshop is something you might like and continue using.
I’m not a big fan of Top “xyz number” of lists, as there are tons of valuable resources out there and it really all depends on the user at the end of it.
You could easily use Gimp entirely, instead of PS and Gimp.
I would have to say I included GIMP for the reason that I understand that Photoshop is expensive. GIMP can more or less provide everything that is required for a beginners needs. I think if you take Dreamweaver out and add in something like Aptana you have a very reasonable list.
Here are a couple more free tools that could be added:
WebXACT – http://webxact.watchfire.com/ (Free online accessibility tool)
Aptana – http://www.aptana.com/ (Free downloadable IDE)
BrowserCam could be replaced with a cheaper alternative such as:
Sitevista – http://www.sitevista.com/signup.asp ($29 a month)
I think that with more open-source alternatives on the list – it could be a winner.
I don’t mind having commercial applications in there because (as an example) Photoshop is far superior to GIMP in every way (apart from the price) so it only makes sense to have the best tools for the job listed. But for those of us who wish to keep things free (and legal), more open source alternatives would be good.
Good list otherwise.
The best tools for the job are almost never required when first starting out. Putting Photoshop on the list of tools for beginners is like putting a $300 Million Airbus A380 on the list of what you need when leaning how to fly.
I understand what you are saying but I think that’s a little bit harsh. The best tools for the job are undoubtedly the best tools for the job because they do just that. To say that beginners do not need them just sounds silly to me as you should remember professionals do not need them but we still use them. I think tools like Dreamweaver and Photoshop actually simplify the foundation steps of web development. Yes they have more advanced features, however, these can be learnt over time.
>Nick
I find your analagy slightly concerning. Photoshop is the best tool for the job and therefore some beginners will want that information. However, if you look ever-so-slightly beneath that you’ll find GIMP – which is free and decent enough.
Some people will want to start on the right foot and that sometimes involves having the best tools. This list seems to cover a big price range so I wouldn’t say that your comment even needed to be made.
I just stumbled upon an interesting website: http://www.osalt.com/
Alternatives not only for Windows, in several groups including web development and graphic applications.
Thanks for the comment Mark thats a good link you’ve found..
cheers andrew, we are honored to be in one list with the other tools.
We will continue improving the ViewFinder heatmap service at http://www.feng-gui.com as the world’s first public digital cortex.
Must Have web developer tools for Advanced users:
vim or jEdit
Gimp
Firefox w/WebDev Toolbar OR Firebug
good post, although Flash should be included in this 15 softwares list, It is one the most important tool to put some interactivity to the web site…
Respectfully, I’d like suggest you’ve overlooked one of the basics. It’s called Inspiration Software. The basic edition will cost you some 70 bucks and the business (International) edition is about $150 – well worth the difference in cost. This software is a must have for IA layout and communication your ideas with colleagues or clients, or even (yes) keeping yourself on track. It’s been around for about 25 years and it’s a super add to your web arsenal. More about it at http://www.mindservegroup.com
If you’re in college or know someone who is. You can get an academic discount on photoshop and most other web developer software at a serious discount. The programs the same it’s the liscense that’s different. http://www.creationengine.com I think has the best prices, or you can have a college book school store order it for you.
How about FTP programs? Filezilla, WS FTP, etc.
I recently wrote a set of comparison tutorials for Gimp and Photoshop. Pshotshop is of course the best but The Gimp did a great job. The tutorials are for photo manipulations but they should give a very simple way round both programs. You can read or download them for free at Goingmanual.com
hi thanks for the post
i woke up recently and decided that i had to learn more about building websites,
this is going to help me make a start about knowing what i need to know
i am starting with photoshop CS2, its a huge but fun learning curve
cheers
NTS
http://notstraight.wordpress.com/
In Fireworks, Macromedia took everything good about Illustrator, ImageReady, and PhotoShop for web developers and packaged it together. And now with Adobe CS3, you get Fireworks functionality with Adobe graphics quality. Definitely worth it.
The Color Schemer is a “hard to live without tool.” Colourlovers.com has tons of helpful color schemes.
I have found Aptana’s code completion annoying, and prefer basic PHPEclipse. Search google for “download yoxos eclipse” and find everything you need for coding web sites in one easy download.
When it comes to graphics programs, you get what you pay for. But you can code happily all day and night with open source software.
Free browsercam.com alternative: http://browsershots.org
… maybe it all depends on what sort of beginners you have in mind. Jumping into Dreamweaver when you’re starting out is a big mistake. jEdit is FANCY when you have to learn how to do stuff by hand. You would be extremely surprised how much harm Dreamweaver can cause when one is starting out. It still does some goofy things with code and I’ve seen people get really really upset and frustrated when Dreamweaver was not behaving as they though it ought to! The second they had to look under the hood ‘development’ wasn’t much fun anymore. Simple HTML has its learning curve and if that’s enough to discourage someone from ‘developing’ all the better for them. It doesn’t get any easier later.
Komodo Edit is a nice editor for starters as well.
On the art side check out ArtRage. It has a free version ( ‘full’ version is only $20.00 with some really nice features). This one specializes in ‘fine art’ tools as Painter would, except it’s super easy to learn and emulates paint and drawing tools very well.
Instdea of spending all this money on software, go to a local Comm. Col. and take a design class or such. That’s if you’re talking about someone having to be both a developer and an artist at the same time.
… oh, and one more thing. Try Cyberduck for a FTP agent. It’s free as well.
————
ps – right on about the 380, start out with the Katana or the good old c-172
If you are going to foot the bull for Dreamweaver maybe Flex Builder is a better alternative for the long run – no nasty cross platform issues. Maybe someone will come up with an open source alternative to Flex builder – now that would be sweet.
Yupz… i agree with u ^,^
you need Pixie for a good colour picker. fast and furious color picking.
I will also ad Filezilla to the list and a good (free) css editor like TopStyle Light (http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/Default.aspx)
Thanks for mentioning Fiddler! Note that the new version, Fiddler2 (http://www.fiddler2.com) also supports display and modification of HTTPS traffic.
Did someone say free Flash? While I have found only one open-source alternative for animation (no scripting capacity), which is called pencil (http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/index.php), the only open-source Flash tool I could find for interface development is OpenLaszlo (http://www.openlaszlo.org/).
Pencil (Windows XP/Mac 10.3.9 /No Linux) will export vector animations as SWF files, but be aware that if you are not familiar with traditional animation techniques, such as in-betweening, and do not wish to take the time to develop your animations using those techniques, Pencil may not be for you.
OpenLaszlo (Win/Mac/Linux) is a code-based flash interface development tool. Using the LZX (XML-based) language and pre-built graphic components, you can develop interfaces using this tool. For those who don’t mind shelling out the $80.00, a more proprietary tool that I have used and can recommend (that works almost exactly the same way only with the XML code generated in the background by the software’s GUI) is Xtivity (Windows only/www.tivity.com).
For static illustrations that one might wish to generate as SWF files, there is OpenOffice Draw (www.openoffice.org).
And finally, before Uncle Bill reads this and rips it down, there is a fully-featured beta version of Creature House Expression v.3 (the real software that Microsoft has based their entire Expressions suite of design tools on) available on the web. It can be found at http://www.macupdate.com for the Mac version (OS 9-10.4), but for the free Windows version, you have to go to the Microsoft Expressions web site and burrow around until you find the “Creature House Expressions v3 beta” link after which you have to sign your life away to download it. The beauty of this software is that it will create SWF interactive buttons and a whole host of other stuff.
Hope this helps,
the geek
good info thanks
For a color identifier that is free and puts the rgb numbers in the mix and remains on top of most documents, Eyedropper has served many purposes for me. Google it and you will find ver. 3.1 or something like that. I think that vickman software has a free graphics editor along with other freeware that I use. I also use paint and spruce up images with anything free that I can get my hands on. Sourceforge is a good place to explore. Microsoft GIF animator works but you need a graphics editor to do what you want. If you need transparent background in your gifs you may have to buy or upgrade to a better program for editing. good luck
C
I loved the one that lets me get a color anywhere on the screen. Been needing that for a while. Thanks for the list.
I agree with those who have said that Photoshop (and many others on this list) are not necessary for beginners. The expense is one thing, but I also think that beginners do not need the level of functionality these programs offer. Free alternatives are perfectly fine. And, for HTML, beginners should be learning to code by hand before working with a WYSIWYG anyway.
As far as being a professional tools – that’s true, but many people starting out with web design will never become professionals. In fact, I would say that most will never get to the point where Photoshop is really necessary. Low cost tools like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements and even some of the free tools out there would be perfectly fine. They all work more or less the same way, so anyone should be able to transfer their skills to Photoshop if necessary.
I’m also hesitant to recommend the Gimp to beginners just because the interface tends to be a bit challenging. Other low cost tools are easier to work with when you don’t have any experience with graphics programs.
In addition, I’m afraid that telling beginners that they need Photoshop will lead to either giving up because they can’t afford the tools or pirating the software. Not necessary. IMO, Photoshop is in no way a “must have” tool for beginners. Nice to have, sure, but certainly not a necessity. One of the reasons why so many people get involved in web design is because it’s so accessible. Mandating expensive programs (that also require a lot of computing power!) doesn’t do much to encourage people to get involved.
Oh, wait wait wait! You said “developer”!! I’m sorry, I’m completely off base here. Developers shouldn’t need anything beyond the most basic graphics editor if anything. What they do need is a really good text editor, a good testing platform, some coding references, and a help community.
I’m going off on a rant here and I don’t mean to be rude. The list was well intentioned but off in quite a few ways.
Nice article, you should start an RSS feed, I’d subscribe.
Nice article, I like it.
I use photoshop and notepad to do my themes. Works well for me too. When I’m in a theme’ing mood of course. xD
Just a note, a good web developer might (should IMO) be using Linux or BSD Unix (e.g. Mac) so Photoshop and anything to do with IE should be out of here!
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Thanks for the great information.
I am learning how to be a web developer.
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wow way cool I didn’t use a couple of these tools before hand now I do!!
I really wouldn’t consider any of these things a necessity. I learned web development coding HTML in Notepad… All the bells and whistles are nice and all, but really, you don’t need them — especially not beginners.
Also, I really don’t recommend Dreamweaver to novices. The code generated by the WYSIWYG features is painful to look at, especially since it has zero support for CSS-based layouts (and tables are far more than outdated). It’s also very easy to become overwhelmed with unnecessary options.
No, for a beginner, try Notepad++ (I think Windows only, but runs flawlessly in WINE for me on Linux… And I honestly don’t care about what runs and doesn’t run on Mac) or one of the million others out there (e.g., Scite, Notepad2, EditPlus).
It wasn’t until I started coding in C that I realized just how much of a waste of time web development software is.
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“Must have”?
Hardly. I’ve not needed to use most of those in my time as a developer never mind as a beginner. Even looking at the first two why would a beginner need Photoshop AND GIMP even if they “must have” one of them?
aaaa
These are some very helpful tools. http://www.factopo.com
Pretty sure if you have #1 you dont need #2
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