CSS Tools on Speckyboy Design Magazine

CSS Filter Toolbox – Libraries, Web-Based Apps & Tutorials

Paul Andrew — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 21:12:32 +0000

CSS filters allow you to apply a wide variety of effects directly through the browser, eliminating the need for external image editing tools.

From blurring to color adjustments and adding shadows, they can enhance the look and feel of your photos and web elements, making them more engaging.

This article is a curated collection of CSS filter resources, including CSS filter libraries, JavaScript plugins, web-based apps, and tutorials.

You might also like these toolboxes: CSS Flexbox, CSS Animation, Styleguide Tools, or Tools for Formatting CSS.

CSS Filter Libraries

Collections of pre-designed libraries and classes that you can use to apply various CSS filter effects to photos or any web element.

colofilter.css

A library of CSS filters to recreate Instagram-like color overlays directly in your web designs.

Instagram.css

A library for adding Instagram filters with CSS classes, perfect for quick photo styling.

CSSCO Filters

A collection of CSS filters that mimic vintage film effects, ideal for adding a nostalgic touch to images.

filters.css

Provides a set of creative CSS filters for enhancing web images with artistic effects.

SassyFilters

Offers Sass mixins for easily creating customizable, complex CSS filter effects.

CSSGram

A library that allows you to apply Instagram-like filters to images using CSS, enhancing visual storytelling.

CSS Filter JavaScript Plugins

These plugins will extend CSS filter capabilities, allowing for more dynamic and interactive effects through JavaScript integration.

tiltShift.js

A jQuery Plugin library for applying the tilt-shift effect to images, creating a miniature scene illusion.

Philter.js CSS

Offers customizable CSS filters and transitions for creating visually striking web elements and images.

Image Editor with CSS Filters & jQuery

Demonstrates practical applications of CSS filters, showcasing their potential in web design.

picBeautifier 3000 Javascript Library

A fun JavaScript library to apply various CSS filters to images, experimenting with visual effects.

CSS Image Filter Web-Based Apps

Web-based tools and applications where you can experiment with filter effects and generate CSS code in real-time.

cssFilters.co

A popular tool for testing and learning about CSS filters, with real-time previews.

Filter Blend

A web-based and interactive tool for blending images with CSS filters and blend modes.

CSS Filter Generator

Simple web-based tool for generating and customizing CSS filter effects with live previews.

CSS Image Filter Generator

Simplifies the application of CSS filters, offering a straightforward UI for creating effects.

CSS Filter

A nice tool on CodePen for live testing CSS filter effects.

CSS Filter Generator

Online tool for creating and customizing various CSS filter effects.

CSS Filter Tutorials & Guides

Educational resources, guides, and how-to articles focused on teaching you how to create and implement CSS filter effects manually.

CSS filter on MDN
Detailed documentation on CSS filter usage and properties.
Filters on web.dev
Tutorials and best practices for using CSS filters effectively in web projects.
Filters & Blend Modes for Beginners
Beginner-friendly lessons on creating ‘magic’ with CSS filters and blend modes.
How To Add Filter Effects to Images
A tutorial from W3Schools for learning how to apply basic CSS image effects.
Complete Guide to Using CSS Filters with SVGs
Explore the integration of CSS filters with SVGs for advanced web design techniques.

The Simplest CSS Filter Tutorial

With just a few lines of HTML and CSS, you can quickly create a dynamic effect that changes a photo to black and white when you hover over it. This simple technique can add an engaging element to your web projects.

First, we need to set up the HTML structure. This will include just a basic container for our image. Replace your-image-url.jpg with the path to your image.




    
    The Simplest CSS Filter Tutorial

Next, the CSS to style the image and apply the grayscale() filter on hover. Create a style.css file and add the following CSS code:

.image-container img {
    width: 100%;
    transition: filter 0.5s ease;
}

.image-container img:hover {
    filter: grayscale(100%);
}

The CSS does two things:

It ensures that the image fits within the container by setting its width to 100%.
It adds a transition effect so that the change to grayscale happens smoothly over 0.5 seconds when the mouse hovers over the image.

List of all the CSS Filters

CSS filters offer a range of effects, from color adjustments to blurring and shading. Here's a closer look at each filter:

blur(): Adds a blur effect, simulating a lens out of focus. The intensity is adjustable in pixels.
brightness(): Makes an image brighter or darker. Values over 100% increase brightness, while below 100% decrease it.
contrast(): Enhances or reduces the difference between the darkest and lightest tones in an image.
drop-shadow(): Applies a shadow behind an element, customizable in color, size, and direction.
grayscale(): Converts an image to shades of gray, with 100% being completely gray.
hue-rotate(): Rotates the hue of an image around the color wheel, measured in degrees.
invert(): Inverts the colors of an image. 100% inversion swaps all colors for their opposites.
opacity(): Adjusts the transparency of an element, with 0% being fully transparent.
saturate(): Controls the intensity of colors, with values over 100% enhancing saturation.
sepia(): Applies a sepia tone, making the image look like an old photograph.

The post CSS Filter Toolbox – Libraries, Web-Based Apps & Tutorials appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

CSS Animation Toolbox – Libraries, Tools, Snippets & Tutorials

Paul Andrew — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 04:11:42 +0000

CSS animation can bring websites to life, making them more interactive and engaging for users. They play a crucial role in modern web design, allowing elements to move, change, and grab attention in ways that static pages simply can’t match.

This collection aims to offer a comprehensive array of resources – a CSS animation toolbox for web designers. Whether new to CSS animations or looking to expand your skills, you’ll find valuable libraries, snippets, web-based tools, cheatsheets, and tutorials to help you create incredible animated web experiences.

You may also like these toolboxes: CSS Flexbox, SVG Workflow Tools, Styleguide Tools, or Tools for Formatting CSS.

CSS Animation Libraries

These CSS libraries will help save you time by providing a wide range of animation effects, from simple transitions to complex keyframe animations, suitable for enhancing user interfaces and improving user experience.

Motion UI Sass Library

A Sass library designed for building custom CSS transitions and animations. It allows for smooth integration and customization across various web projects.

Animista CSS Animation Library

A web-based tool and library that lets you create, customize, and export CSS animations with an intuitive and interactive interface.

Animate.css Library

A library of ready-to-use, cross-browser animations for use in web projects, making it easier to integrate stunning CSS effects.

CSShake Library

Offers a collection of CSS classes designed to ‘shake’ elements, perfect for drawing attention or indicating activity on a webpage.

Repaintles CSS Animation Library

A CSS library for creating high-performance CSS animations, minimizing repaints and reflows for smoother animations and better performance.

AnimXYZ CSS Animation Toolkit

A powerful toolkit for creating animations using CSS variables, enabling complex, multi-step animations that are both customizable and scalable.

Animatelo Web Animations

A port of Animate.css for the Web Animations API, offering a wide range of animations that are easy to implement in modern web projects.

Rocket Animation Library

Provides a visually stunning, ready-to-use CSS animation of a rocket blasting off, ideal for loading screens or transition effects.

Quirky CSS Animation Library

A quirky, fun CSS animation library that focuses on subtle transitions and text animations, perfect for adding personality to any site.

wickedCSS CSS3 Animation Library

A collection of attention-grabbing CSS animations that can add a unique flair to any website, with easy implementation.

AnimTrap CSS Framework

A CSS and JavaScript animation library that offers a range of animations to enhance user interfaces.

Saffron Animations & Transitions

A lightweight CSS animation library for creating subtle, yet effective, animations, aiming to add polish without overwhelming the design.

Copy & Paste CSS Animation Snippets

These are straightforward, ready-to-use animations. With a simple copy-and-paste action, you can quickly implement engaging animations into your sites.

CSSWAND

Offers a collection of easy-to-use hover effects and animations. Just click to copy the CSS code.

CSS Animo

A tool for creating and customizing CSS animations with a user-friendly interface. Select and copy the code.

UI Animation Snippets

Provides a variety of animated CSS snippets for buttons and link hover effects.

CSSFX CSS Effects

A curated collection of simple and beautiful copy and paste CSS animations and effects.

Web-Based CSS Animation Tools

These tools will allow you to create custom animations through a graphical interface. You will be able to adjust parameters like duration, delay, and timing functions, and viewing the results in real time.

Ceaser CSS Easing Animation Tool

A CSS easing tool that helps to create smooth animation. It offers customizable timing functions to refine the animations.

Keyframes.app

Web-based app for creating and sharing CSS animations. Design animations visually, then export the code.

WAIT! Animate

Provides a simple way to calculate CSS animation delays, making it easier to sequence animations.

CSS Animation Kit

Online tool for building and customizing CSS animations with a user-friendly interface.

CSS Animated Loaders & Spinners

Focused on improving the user’s wait time, these libraries and web-based tools will allow you to create flawless loaders and spinners.

Three Dots Loading Animations

A lightweight collection of CSS loading animations made with just a single element. Click to copy the CSS.

CSS Spinner Animations

Provides a collection of copy and paste CSS spinners and loaders. Very easy to implement into any project.

CSS Loader & Spinner Library

A CSS library of simple and engaging loading animations. Easy to install.

Simple CSS Loaders

Offers unique, creative CSS loading animations. Uses one DIV and pure CSS.

CSS Animation Cheatsheets

These cheatsheets provide quick references to CSS animation properties, keyframes, and syntax. They are invaluable resources for both beginners and experienced designers, offering shortcuts and tips for efficiently coding animations.

CSS Animations & Effects Cheat Sheet
A comprehensive guide that covers keyframes, transitions, and animation properties, making CSS animations easier to understand and use.
The CSS Animations Cheatsheet by Kirupa
A comprehensive guide that covers keyframes, transitions, and animation properties, making CSS animations easier to understand and use.

CSS Animation Tutorials

These tutorials offer step-by-step guidance on creating CSS animations, from basic to advanced techniques. They are great for learning and mastering the art of animation, helping you better understand animation principles and how to apply them to your web projects.

Learn CSS Animations on web.dev
A guide offering basics to advanced techniques in CSS animations, helping you create dynamic web experiences.
Using CSS Animations on MDN
Provides detailed instructions on implementing CSS animations, covering everything from keyframes to animation properties.
Create Advanced Animations With CSS
Explores complex CSS animation techniques for creating sophisticated visual effects on web pages.
Interactive Guide to Transitions & Hover Animations
Breaks down CSS transitions, showing how to use them for smooth, gradual changes in style.
Interactive Guide to CSS Keyframe Animations with @keyframes
Offers an in-depth look at CSS keyframe animations, teaching you how to craft detailed, timed animations.
Getting Started with CSS Animations
An introductory article for beginners on creating basic CSS animations, with practical examples.
CSS Animation 101 Free eBook
An open-source ebook that covers all aspects of CSS animations, from theory to practice, for web developers.
Simple CSS Transition, Transform & Animation Tutorials
Tutorials and examples to master CSS transitions, transforms, and animations.

The UX Benefits of Animation

By carefully planning and implementing CSS animations, you can significantly improve the UX of the websites you build, making them more functional and user-friendly.

CSS animations can offer several user experience benefits that can significantly enhance how users interact with your websites. Here are some key advantages:

Improved Engagement: Animations can capture a user’s attention more effectively than static images or text, making websites more engaging and interactive.
Visual Feedback: CSS animations provide immediate visual feedback to users’ actions, such as hovering over a button or loading content, which helps in creating a responsive and interactive environment.
Guidance & Direction: Animations can guide users through a website’s flow, subtly directing their attention to important actions or content, improving navigation and usability.
Enhanced Aesthetics: Well-designed animations add a layer of polish to a website, contributing to a positive first impression and overall aesthetic appeal.
Reduced Perceived Loading Time: Animated loaders and progress indicators can make waiting times less noticeable, improving users’ perception of website speed and efficiency.
Increased Conversion Rates: By drawing attention to call-to-action buttons and other conversion points, animations can effectively guide users towards taking desired actions, potentially increasing conversion rates.
Emotional Connection: Thoughtful animations can be emotional, create a sense of delight, and foster a stronger connection between the user and the website.

The post CSS Animation Toolbox – Libraries, Tools, Snippets & Tutorials appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

100 Tiny CSS Tools & Apps for Web Designers

Paul Andrew — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:52:46 +0000

Each of these free web-based tools and apps have been built by web designers for web designers. They all offer a time-saving solution to some of those monotonous or even complex CSS tasks you may need to perform from time to time.

Without needing to install anything, all you have to do is bookmark, and save them for that day when required.

From assessing your website’s accessibility to generating sophisticated flexbox or grid layouts, refining typography, choosing the perfect color scheme, copying and pasting CSS animations, to beautifying code screenshots, this collection covers a broad range of web design needs.

No matter what kind of CSS time-saver you’re searching for, you’ll likely find it here. Keep these tools at your fingertips to make your CSS workflow quicker and that little bit easier.

CSS Grid Tools

These tools will allow you to construct grid CSS layouts quicker. They offer interfaces for defining columns, rows, and areas, making layout adjustments straightforward and code generation instant.

CSS Grid Generator

Create CSS grid layouts with a simple visual interface, allowing for adjustments to columns, rows, and areas.

CSS Grid Layout Generator

Another tool for designing CSS grid-based layouts, offering a straightforward visual editing experience.

Grid Layoutit

Interactive tool for generating CSS Grid layouts, featuring drag-and-drop grid template areas and code output.

Grid Cheatsheet

Visual guide to CSS Grid properties, offering quick reference to grid-related CSS properties and values.

Compound Grid Generator

Demonstrates complex CSS Grid layouts, showcasing advanced grid features and layout techniques.

Griddy

Simplifies the process of creating CSS grid layouts with a visual interface and generates the corresponding code.

Angry Tools CSS Grid

A user-friendly tool to design CSS grid layouts, providing visual feedback and code snippets.

CSS Animation Tools

These CSS animation tools offer user-friendly interfaces to define keyframes, animation timing, and other effects, enhancing user engagement without needing JavaScript.

Easings

Provides a collection of easing functions for smooth animations, complete with CSS and JavaScript code snippets.

Keyframes

Online tool for generating CSS keyframe animations, offering a user-friendly interface for creating complex animations.

AnimatiSS

Use this collection of readymade CSS animations in your web projects.

Animockup

Use this tool to create free animated mockups of popular devices.

CSS Spinner & Loader Tools

These tools offer various types of copy and paste spinners and loaders that can be easily integrated into your web projects to maintain user attention during loading periods.

OneDivLoaders

Create CSS-only loaders with a single div, offering a variety of animations for loading screens.

Loadership

A vast library of CSS and SVG loading animations, customizable for any web project’s needs.

CSS Loaders

Collection of simple, reusable CSS loading animations to enhance user experience during page or content loading.

SpinKit

A collection of loading indicators animated with CSS, providing a variety of designs for web projects.

LDRS Loaders

A set of playful, lightweight loaders and spinners with customizable colors and sizes for web interfaces.

Spinners

Collection of CSS spinners and loaders, offering various styles for web design projects.

CSS Box Shadow Tools

These tiny tools will help create depth and emphasis on elements through shadow effects. With easy-to-use sliders and color pickers, these tools will generate the CSS code for soft shadows, glows, and more.

Custom BoxShadows

Tool for designing and customizing CSS box shadows, with live preview and code snippet.

Smooth Shadow

An advanced shadow generator for creating realistic, multi-layered shadows in CSS.

Shadow Gradients

Unique tool for creating gradients that mimic shadow effects, adding depth to designs.

CSSmatic Box Shadow

Interactive tool for visually creating CSS box shadows and generating ready-to-use code.

Box Shadow Generator

Provides a simple interface for crafting and customizing CSS box shadows, complete with code output.

CSS Image Filter Tools

From blurring and color adjustments to custom filters, these image filter apps provide live previews and code snippets for enhanced image styling.

CSS Filters Generator

Web-based tool for applying CSS filters to images, providing a live preview and code snippet output.

CSS Photo Filters

Offers a range of preset CSS filters for images, simulating various photo effects and styles.

Tailblend

Easily test the Mix Blend Mode feature to create impressive photos for your projects.

CSS Duotone

Apply duotone filters to images using CSS, ideal for creating striking visual effects.

CSS Background Generators

These tools allow for the creation of animated and dynamic backgrounds. They offer options for gradients, images, and videos, enriching your web designs with backgrounds that can be static, animated, or interactive.

Bootstrap Backgrounds

Generate and customize unique background designs for websites, including gradients, patterns, and images.

Animated CSS Background Generator

Generate unique animated backgrounds with customizable CSS code for web projects.

CSS Patterned Backgrounds

Generate unique background designs with gradients, patterns, and shapes for web projects.

CSS Pattern Tools

These tiny tools specialize in generating repeatable, tileable patterns for web backgrounds. With options for shapes, colors, and level of complexity. They will provide unique ways to fill background spaces with visually appealing designs.

Basic Pattern Repository

Interactive tool for creating and customizing seamless patterns for web backgrounds.

Patternico

Online tool for creating seamless background patterns, with options for shapes, colors, and transparency.

PatternPad

Web-based platform for designing and customizing vector patterns for backgrounds and other uses.

CSS-Doodle

A web component for drawing patterns with CSS, enabling complex designs through simple CSS rules.

Doodad Pattern Generator

Create customizable patterns and textures for web and print projects with ease.

MagicPattern

Design tool for creating unique CSS backgrounds, offering patterns, gradients, and shapes.

CSS Gradient Tools

Quickly create smooth and seamless gradients with these tools. They provide interfaces for radial or linear gradients, allowing for the customization of direction, color stops, and opacity for vibrant backgrounds or element fills.

MeshGradient

Generate beautiful, smooth mesh gradients for web and graphic design projects.

Gradient Generator

Simple tool for creating color gradients with CSS code output.

Components AI Gradient Generator

Advanced tool for generating complex gradients with customizable colors and angles.

Gradient.art

A creative platform for designing and customizing multi-color gradients for digital design projects.

Gradihunt

Offers a curated selection of beautiful gradient presets for web and graphic design.

CSS Generators

These tools are quick and efficient ways to produce ready-to-use CSS snippets for multiple design needs.

Buttons Generator

Create stylish CSS buttons with customizable properties and instant code output.

UI Buttons

Online generator for creating and customizing buttons for web interfaces, providing CSS code.

Metallicss

Provides metallic effects for text and elements, offering a unique look for web designs.

CSS Separator Generator

Create unique and creative shapes as section separators for web pages, with customizable options and CSS code.

Stripes Generator

Online tool for creating striped patterns for web backgrounds, with customizable colors and orientations.

Neumorphism.io

Generate soft UI (neumorphism) styles for elements, offering a modern look with inset and outset effects.

Glassmorphism Effect Generator

Tool for creating frosted glass effect backgrounds and overlays using CSS.

Clippy

A tool for creating complex CSS clip-paths.

Fancy Border Radius

A visual tool to create complex border-radius shapes, offering immediate visual feedback and code snippets.

CSS Color Tools

Copy and paste palette generators, color pickers, and tools to ensure color harmony and contrast and help select complementary colors for cohesive designs.

Hue.tools

A comprehensive color tool for creating, converting, and analyzing color palettes and gradients.

Huemint

Design color schemes for websites and apps based on color theory and harmony rules.

Couleur.io

Create and manage color palettes, with tools for gradients, shades, and harmony.

Color Mixer

Mix colors and create gradients with a real-time preview and CSS code output.

MyColor

Generates color schemes based on a selected color, offering gradient and palette options for web design.

Alphredo

A tool to adjust and apply alpha transparency to colors, with instant CSS code for use.

Pantone Sass

A Sass library for using Pantone colors in web designs, offering a broad color spectrum.

Flat UI Colors

Offers a popular color palette for designing flat, minimalistic interfaces.

CSS Typography Tools

These simple tools focus on text and readability. They allow for the manipulation of font sizes, line heights, and spacing, providing previews and code for typographic perfection in web design.

Modern Font Stacks

Offers modern, web-safe CSS font stacks focused on improving typography across different devices and operating systems.

Clamp Calculator

A tool for calculating CSS clamp() values, ensuring responsive and scalable text sizes across devices.

ClassyFont

Provides a collection of stylish fonts, enabling easy exploration and integration into web projects.

Fluid Typography

An online calculator for creating fluid typography CSS rules, ensuring text scales smoothly across devices.

Fallback Font Generator

Tool designed to minimize CLS by fine-tuning web fonts and system font fallbacks with specific @font-face descriptors.

LGC Typographic Scale Calculator

A tool for calculating and visualizing type scales and layout grids, aiding in design consistency.

Bunny Fonts

A font delivery network that provides fast and easy integration of web fonts.

Capsize

Manages the space above and below text, enabling more precise typography alignment in web design.

The Good Line Height

A tool for calculating the ideal line height for any font size, improving text readability.

Typeset with Me

An interactive playground for experimenting with web typography, including font choices, sizes, and spacing.

TypeScale

A visual calculator for creating harmonious type scales, with options for different scales and font weights.

CSS Icon Tools

From generating icon fonts to SVGs, these tools simplify the process of integrating and styling icons, ensuring crisp, scalable graphics across devices.

GlyphSearch

Search for icons from popular libraries like FontAwesome, Glyphicons, and others, streamlining the icon selection process.

FontAwesome Finder

Find FontAwesome icons easily with a searchable database, simplifying icon integration into projects.

Fontello

A tool for creating custom icon fonts, selecting only the icons you need from various sets.

Fontastic

Create custom icon fonts with ease, managing icons from multiple sources in one font.

Iconizr

Convert SVG images to CSS icons, optimizing them for web usage.

Formito Favicon

Generate favicons for all platforms and browsers with a simple upload, ensuring brand consistency across devices.

CSS Quality Checkers

These tools will analyze and optimize your CSS files. They identify unused styles, redundancies, and potential improvements, helping to streamline stylesheets for faster load times and better performance.

CSS Checker

Analyze and optimize your CSS files for better performance and maintainability.

CSS Code Quality Analyzer

Insights into CSS code quality, tracking changes over time to maintain clean and efficient stylesheets.

DropCSS

A highly efficient and fast tool for removing unused CSS, reducing file sizes and improving load times.

Web Accessibility Tools

These tools ensure web content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Recommendations for improvements to enhance usability for everyone.

Web Accessibility Checklist

A comprehensive list of accessibility guidelines to ensure your web content is accessible to all users.

Odd Contrast

Analyze and improve contrast ratios for text and background colors, for better readability and accessibility.

A11Y Project Checklist

An easy-to-follow checklist for web accessibility, covering key areas to improve user experience for everyone.

Contrast Grid

Evaluate text and background color combinations for accessibility compliance, ensuring readability.

NOT Checklist

A reverse checklist for common accessibility mistakes, helping to avoid potential issues in web design.

RandomA11Y

Vote on accessible color combinations and explore high-contrast color pairs for your designs.

Interactive CSS Learning

Through exercises, tutorials, and live coding environments, you can learn more about CSS properties and best practices in a practical, engaging manner.

CSS `:has()` Guide

An informative guide on using the CSS :has() pseudo-class for more dynamic styling options.

Selectors.info

A reference tool for CSS selectors, providing examples and explanations to help understand and use them correctly.

Web.dev Accessibility

Learn about web accessibility with practical tips and guidance to make sites accessible.

Learn Box Alignment

Comprehensive guide to CSS Box Alignment, offering examples and explanations on aligning elements in various contexts.

Learn CSS Positioning

A comprehensive guide on CSS positioning techniques, explaining how to control element layout properly.

CSS Alignment Cheatsheet

A cheatsheet for CSS alignment properties, helping to quickly understand and apply alignment options.

Screen Size Map

Compare screen sizes and resolutions of popular devices, aiding in responsive design planning.

Generate Code Screenshots

Ideal for tutorials, blogs, or documentation, these tools stylize code for readability and aesthetic appeal, supporting various programming languages and themes.

Kod.so

Simple tool for generating beautiful images of your code.

FabPic

Quickly generate and customize images of code for social media.

SnippetShot

Capture and share code snippets with syntax highlighting, making them easier to read and understand.

Ray.so

Create beautiful images of your code snippets with customizable themes and settings.

The post 100 Tiny CSS Tools & Apps for Web Designers appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

25 Essential Chrome Extensions for Web Designers & Developers

Paul Andrew — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 07:34:07 +0000

Chrome extensions offer a powerful way to enhance the design process and your workflow. They build on the solid foundation provided by Chrome Dev Tools, offering specialized functionalities that cater to the unique needs of web design and development.

By integrating these extensions, you can significantly expand your browser’s capabilities, allowing for a more efficient and streamlined workflow. Browser customization will also allow you to create a workspace tailored to your specific needs, making it easier to tackle projects with precision and speed.

The extensions range from color pickers and font identifiers to more complex tools that help with coding, debugging, and optimizing user interfaces. The ability to quickly access these tools within the browser reduces the need to switch between different applications, saving time and reducing distractions.

Whether you’re a web professional or just starting out in web design, these Chrome extensions will help to enhance your design capabilities and improve your overall workflow.

Web Design & Developer Extensions

These extensions help with tasks like inspecting web elements and managing website versions. They are ideal for those who want to streamline their workflow and enhance productivity.

Web Developer Checklist

Helps ensure your web pages are optimized, checking for best practices in areas like usability and performance directly within the browser.

Web Developer Tools

This extension adds a multitude of super-useful tools to the browser that every web designer and developer should be using.

Responsiveness Checker

Allows you to test web pages in various screen sizes and resolutions, ensuring your websites look great on all devices.

Web Designer Tools

Provides a set of utilities, including rulers, grid overlays, and color pickers to check and adjust web page elements. Pixel perfect.

Jam Bug Reporting Tool

Allows you to quickly report bugs with one click. It records bugs directly in your browser and integrates with tools like Jira and Slack.

Validity HTML

Offers a way to validate HTML documents, check for syntax errors, and ensure your code meets current web standards.

Toggle JavaScript

Quickly enables or disables JavaScript on web pages, useful for testing website functionality without JavaScript.

PHP Offline Manual

Provides easy access to the PHP manual for quick reference on PHP functions, classes, and other documentation.

CSS Extensions for Chrome

Focused on CSS, these extensions assist in creating, testing, and debugging CSS code. Essential for web designers aiming to perfect their website’s look and feel.

Magic CSS Live CSS Editor

Allows real-time CSS editing, with support for preprocessors like Less and Sass, making style adjustments faster and more intuitive.

Simple CSS3 Generator

Helps generate CSS snippets for various properties like shadows, gradients, and transitions, speeding up your coding process.

Brio CSS Animation Viewer

A tool for experimenting with CSS animations and transitions, offering a visual interface to create and apply effects.

CSS Feature Toggles

Allows you to experiment with new CSS features by toggling them on and off, useful for testing browser support.

CSS Spider

Analyzes and reports on the CSS used on web pages, helping to identify and clean up any redundant CSS.

MDN Code Search

Offers quick to the MDN reference for JavaScript and CSS. Type ‘mdn’ followed by your query in the URL bar.

Web Accessibility Extensions

Aimed at improving website accessibility, these tools help identify and fix accessibility issues. They check for compliance with standards like WCAG and ADA, offering suggestions to make websites usable for everyone.

axe DevTools

Helps find and fix accessibility issues in web designs, ensuring your websites are usable by people with disabilities.

BrowserStack Accessibility Toolkit

Offers tools for testing web pages for accessibility issues, integrating with BrowserStack for cross-browser testing.

Web Typography Chrome Extensions

These extensions offer functionalities like identifying fonts on websites, comparing font styles, and generating font pairings.

Fonts Ninja

Identifies fonts used on websites and provides information about them, which is useful for designers looking for typography inspiration.

Snapfont Preview Fonts

Allows you to preview and test web fonts directly on any website, making it easier to choose the right typography.

Color Tools for Chrome

These extensions can identify color codes from web pages, generate color palettes, and simulate color blindness. They are a must-have for designers looking to create cohesive and accessible color schemes.

ColorZilla

An advanced eyedropper, color picker, gradient generator, and other color tools.

Color Picker – Eyedropper Tool

An eyedropper tool that lets you pick colors from web pages, useful for matching or designing color schemes.

Speed & Performance Extensions

These extensions analyze website speed and performance. They provide insights into factors slowing down a site, such as large images or unoptimized code, and offer recommendations for improvements.

Page Size Inspector

Analyzes web pages, reporting on size, cache, network requests, and load times. It displays request counts and allows for cache disabling.ipsum

Lighthouse

An automated tool for improving the quality of web pages, covering aspects like performance, SEO, and accessibility.

Core Web Vitals

Provides insights into the loading, interactivity, and visual stability of web pages, helping to optimize user experience.

Useful Web Design Utilities

Includes various extensions that support common web design tasks, from screen capturing to wireframing. They are designed to enhance efficiency and creativity in the web design process.

Screen Recorder & Annotation Tool

A screen recording and annotation tool, perfect for creating demos or tutorials related to web design.

Lipsum Generator

Quickly creates lorem ipsum dummy text in various formats: words, sentences, paragraphs, and lists.

Placeholdifier

Transforms websites into live wireframes by converting HTML content into placeholders, keeping site interactivity unchanged. Ideal for demos.

Screenshot Tool & Capture

Offers an easy way to take screenshots of web pages, including options for full page or selected area captures.

Broken Link Checker

Scans websites for broken links, helping maintain link integrity and improve user experience by avoiding dead ends.

Streamline Your Workflow

These Chrome extensions will not only help to improve your productivity but also inspire creativity, allowing you to work more efficiently. By extending Chrome’s capabilities, these extensions provide a customized experience that can be tailored to fit any project’s requirements.

Finding the right set of browser tools can transform your workflow, making every project smoother and more manageable. Whether you’re looking for ways to streamline coding, enhance design elements, or optimize user interfaces, there’s likely an extension here that meets your needs.

The post 25 Essential Chrome Extensions for Web Designers & Developers appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

10 JavaScript & CSS Frameworks for Enhancing HTML Forms

Eric Karkovack — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 01:41:21 +0000

Forms are an essential part of just about every website – yet, we don’t always pay too much attention to their finer details. Several things can be done to improve them, such as adding validation, input masks, and other visual guides. And that’s only scratching the surface. The end goal is to make them both attractive and as easy to use as possible.

Here are 10 free tools you can use to make your forms the best they can be:

formbase

formbase is a package that uses CSS/SASS to bring improved default styles to your form elements. The styles are cross-browser compatible and make for a better UX.

Foxholder

Foxholder is a collection of 15 different placeholder animations to enhance your forms. When users interact with an input, an animation is triggered. It’s a neat way of ensuring that users will know exactly where they are on your form.

dirrty

dirrty is a jQuery plugin that can detect whenever a form field has been modified. When a change is detected, the user will be prompted to save changes to the form.

Inputmask

Make form input data like dates, phone numbers and currencies super easy for users with Inputmask. When a user interacts with a defined input, a mask is placed in the field showing the exact formatting required. Not only does it show users the required format, but it also ensures that the input data is valid.

jQuery Validation Plugin

The jQuery Validation Plugin is a highly-customizable tool to help with validating form data. Out of the box, it supports both URL and email validation. It even comes with an API to allow developers to add their own spin.

If you’re looking for more jQuery validation libraries, take a look at this collection.

dependsOn

Field dependencies are great for tasks like making sure that the user only sees the relevant fields and can also be a means of validation. dependsOn is a jQuery plugin that will allow you to add dependencies to any form.

Choices.js

Using Choices.js, you can add some very attractive select box and text input features into your forms. This lightweight, vanilla JavaScript lets you create your own custom input templates.

Cascading Drop-Down Menu

Cascading Drop-Down Menu is a great solution for times when you need a form that requires the user to select several steps. For example, think of choosing a car. You’d select the make, then the model, then the year, and so on.

Multipicker

Multipicker provides a visually-appealing way for users to select multiple items (similar to a checkbox) or a single item (similar to a radio button) in a list. It can be used with those aforementioned form elements or even HTML elements like an unordered list.

jQuery Form Plugin

Upgrade your standard HTML forms to use AJAX with the jQuery Form Plugin. The plugin features lots of options to allow you to take full control over how form data is submitted.

Great Forms = Great UX

The combination of a form that looks great, is easy to use and assists the user in entering data is one that results in a better conversion rate. Adding one or more of the tools above into your workflow can help bring your forms up to snuff.

The post 10 JavaScript & CSS Frameworks for Enhancing HTML Forms appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Avoiding ‘Wasteful’ CSS in Your Projects

Eric Karkovack — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 09:34:36 +0000

It seems like web designers are constantly striving to optimize their creations. In the short term this benefits performance. Over the long haul it can simplify maintenance as well.

Quite often, this means optimizing images, implementing page caching and serving files via a content delivery network (CDN). These are all effective measures. But one item that doesn’t get enough attention is the potential bloat in a website’s CSS.

While you might minify your stylesheets or serve them over a CDN, more can be done. Specifically, getting rid of the wasteful markup that isn’t being used and tightening up styles that are still relevant.

This is best done from the very start of the build process. But it’s also possible to lighten the load on existing websites. Let’s take a look at the challenges involved, along with some tools and techniques that can make for a faster website.

Dealing with Bloat Built into Themes and Frameworks

It used to be that websites were essentially built from scratch. This was a great approach in that designers could include only the styles and scripts that were needed. If done with care, this process could result in a finely-tuned website.

Of course, there are a number of reasons why that practice has been abandoned by many of us. It’s simply not efficient in terms of time and budgetary restraints.

Modern websites are so often built on top of a prebuilt product. That could be a CSS framework such as Bootstrap or an elaborate WordPress theme. In some cases, a CMS theme may even include a framework.

These products are meant to be one-size-fits-all. By including everything you might possibly need, it makes development that much quicker. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for their impact on performance.

So, what can be done to improve the situation?

Use Component-Based or Lightweight Frameworks, Where Possible

Theoretically, it’s possible to both get the advantages of a framework while avoiding bloat. This can be achieved by using component-based packages that enable you to load specific features while leaving others out. The aforementioned Bootstrap does allow for this type of customization – to a point.

Another alternative is Tailwind CSS, which provides basic styles and assumes you will build on top of them. If you’re looking for a great starting point, as opposed to a more finished product, this could be a fit.

There’s nothing wrong with using a framework. But look for one that either: a) lets you pick and choose which components to load, or; b) offers a barebones stylesheet that can be easily customized. Either way, your project will benefit from the reduced load.

What to Do with CMS Themes?

Products such as commercial WordPress themes can be tricky, as they often include a boatload of styles – whether you need them or not.

It’s possible that a specific theme will be well-organized to the point where it’s easy enough to dequeue the stylesheets you don’t want. There may even be a theme options panel that lets you do this with a few clicks. However, this is more likely the exception than rule.

The best way to avoid a bloated theme is to create your own. For instance, a WordPress starter theme will offer up some barebones CSS that you can customize. This helps to ensure a leaner stylesheet and takes away at least a tiny bit of the overhead associated with a CMS.

Declutter Existing Stylesheets

Changing our focus to an existing website, decluttering and refactoring CSS can be done one of two ways:

Manually Reviewing Styles

Firing up your favorite code editor and opening your site’s stylesheets is always a good place to start. Yes, it can be a tedious experience. But it’s also an effective way to take care of the low-hanging fruit.

It’s not necessary to scrutinize every line of CSS. Instead, the idea is to find any items that you know aren’t being used or aren’t as efficient as they could be.

For example, let’s say you run a WordPress website that has some custom styles to overwrite those of a plugin. What if you’re no longer using that particular plugin? In this case, the styles can easily be removed.

Or, perhaps there are a selection of styles that you only use sporadically – like during the winter holidays. It may be worthwhile to move those styles into a separate file and only call them when needed.

Then there are CSS selectors that just aren’t very well written. Maybe they have a number of no-longer-needed browser prefixes or unnecessary duplicate properties. This is an area ripe for cleanup.

If your site’s design is more than a couple of years old, you might be surprised at how much excess styling you can find.

Use an Automated Tool

There are a number of tools out there that will scan your site (or, at least a part of it) and report back with a list of unused CSS. However, don’t hold your breath while waiting for perfection.

Much like automated accessibility tools, unused CSS scanners can only give you so much information. Therefore, it’s best to take results with a grain of salt and use them as a guide – not a final answer to your question.

Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks wrote an outstanding article on this particular issue that is worth checking out. He not only tests out some of these tools but also looks at the bigger issues at hand, such as media queries.

However, if you’re interested in trying one or more of these tools, a few of the more popular choices are:

A combination of an automated tool and manual review is likely the best course of action. Doing both will give you a more complete picture of potential performance optimizations. You may not catch every single item, but there’s still an opportunity to make a measurable impact. You can do some before and after testing with a tool such as GTmetrix to see the results.

When it Comes to CSS: Waste Not, Want Not

It’s amazing just how large a stylesheet can get – especially when using a readymade CSS framework. Sure, it’s nice that the author has done a lot of the hard work for you in terms of styling elements. At the same time, it leaves a lot on the table when it comes to page rendering and load times.

This is something worth paying attention to right from the very start of a project. By looking to reduce the weight of a stylesheet, you’re helping to wring every last drop of optimization out of your site.

If your website is already out there for the world to see, there are still positive steps you can take. Review the CSS and look for items to streamline or remove. Utilize one of the many automated tools out there to find items you might have missed.

The bottom line is that trimming your CSS down to the essentials isn’t a perfect process. However, it’s still one worth your time and effort.

The post Avoiding ‘Wasteful’ CSS in Your Projects appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

10 Free Tools for Formatting, Organizing and Tidying CSS Code

Paul Andrew — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:27:08 +0000

If you are an uber-experienced web designer, you probably won’t have this problem. Your CSS files will be structured coherently and concisely; every selector will have been attentively placed, every property will be perfectly formatted… your CSS will look like carefully crafted art. If this describes you, then move along please, this post is not for you.

But if you are one of the 99.9% of web designers out there that work with CSS on a regular basis, it is for you.

You know how it goes, you start a new web project with a barebones CSS file, and as you build the site, your CSS grows rapidly with it. And it will keep on growing. It will become disorganized. The structure and at times it will be confusing and even unreadable. Structure will ultimately be lost. Mistakes will have been made. Rest assured though; it happens to everybody.

At this point you can either do one of two things, stop at different stages and re-structure the CSS, or you can wait until the site is finished and then fix everything. Either way and depending on the size of the site, it will take a lot of your time.

If only there were a bunch of tools that would help format, organize and sort my CSS for me. Thankfully, there is. Now, these tools are not fool-proof. They won’t know about the unique and quirky style you use for writing your CSS, but they will help and will save you a lot of time. Time back that will let you go and mess up another CSS file!

You may also like these toolboxes: CSS Flexbox, CSS Animation, SVG Workflow Tools or Styleguide Tools.

Unused CSS

Unused CSS is a simple tool that scans your website for any unused CSS selectors.

Purgecss

Purgecss is a tool that can quickly remove unused CSS from your site.

Sanitize CSS

sanitize.css is a CSS library that corrects broken and missing styles.

Mort

Mort is a simple tool for detecting and highlighting “dead” CSS.

csscss -A CSS Redundancy Analyze

csscss is a Ruby gem that will parse any CSS file and tell you which rulesets have duplicated declarations. To learn how to use cssscss, click here.

Helium CSS – JS Tool To Scan Your Site and Show Unused CSS

Helium CSS is a tool for finding unused CSS across many pages on a web site. Helium takes a list of URLs for different sections of a site then loads and parses each page to build up a list of all stylesheets. It then visits each page in the URL list and checks if the selectors found in the stylesheets are used on the pages.

It will then generate a report with details of each stylesheet and the selectors that were not found to be used on any of the given pages.

CSSO – Structural Optimization of CSS Files

As well as being a CSS minimizer, CSSO can also perform structural optimization of CSS files, resulting in a much smaller file size compared to other minifiers.

It will merge blocks with identical selectors and properties, remove overridden properties, remove duplicate selectors, partially merge blocks, remove empty rulesets and will also minimize margin and padding properties

It does basic syntax checking as well as applying a set of rules to the code that looks for problematic patterns or signs of inefficiency. The rules are all pluggable, so you can easily write your own or omit ones you don’t want.

extractCSS

extractCSS is a tool that can extract ids & classes from HTML documents and output a CSS stylesheet.

Alternative Optimizers, Formatters & Validators:

Online JavaScript/CSS Compression Using YUI Compressor
PrimerCSS – Undercoats your CSS by pulling out all of your classes and id's and placing them into a starter stylesheet
Compressor – CSS Compression Tool
The W3C CSS Validation Service
CSS Validator from CSS Portal

The post 10 Free Tools for Formatting, Organizing and Tidying CSS Code appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Styleguide Toolbox – Templates, UI Kits, Tools & Generators

Eric Karkovack — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 08:09:50 +0000

Styleguides are an essential tool for ensuring that everyone in an organization is on the same page. After all, maintaining a consistent style is vital to brand recognition, readability and it just looks more professional.

The great thing about these Styleguide resources is that there is undoubtedly one that will let you work the way you want to. Whether it’s allowing you to manually mock-up styles with your favorite image editor or automatically generating them through a browser, there’s something for everyone here.

Here are some resources to help you on your quest for consistency!

You may also like these toolboxes: CSS Flexbox, CSS Animation, SVG Workflow Tools, or Tools for Formatting CSS.

Styleguide UI Templates

Style Guide Preview Template (Sketch) by Tony Jones

If you’re using Sketch App, this free Style Guide Preview Template will help you develop a nice, clean Styleguide.

UI Style Guide Template (PSD) by Tony Thomas

UI Style Guide Template is a Photoshop (PSD) template featuring color swatches, typography, iconography, form and UI elements.

Style Tiles (PSD) by Samantha Warren

Style Tiles are interesting in that they’re meant to be used as more of a catalyst for discussion in the beginning of the design process, before a final look has been established. A great way to show your clients the possibilities before they commit to a design.

Responsive Digital Style Guide (Sketch) by Mark Ludemann

Sometimes, we tend to think of Style Guides only as a one-size-fits-all general palette. Responsive Digital Style Guide goes a step further and defines styles for mobile devices.

Web Style Guide (PSD) by Rafal Tomal

Web Style Guide aims to provide a simple "cheat sheet" for busy designers to maintain consistency in their projects.

Basic Five Page Style Guide Template (AI) by James George

Basic Five Page Style Guide Template is a handsome group of templates you can use in Adobe Illustrator.

Brand Guidelines Template (AI)

Brand Guidelines Template is a resource you can hand off to clients with clear instructions for colors, fonts and examples of what not to do.

Brandbooks Free Brand Guidelines Template (AI & InDesign) by ZippyPixels

Brandbooks Free Brand Guidelines Template is an impressive collection of files that you can use to print out an eight page booklet of branding styles and documentation.

Styleguide Web Templates

Style Guide Guide by Brad Frost

Style Guide Guide is a boilerplate for creating superb style guides.

Style Guide Template in CSS by CodyHouse

Style Guide Template in CSS was created with flexibility and easy updates in mind.

Style Guide Boilerplate by Brett Jankord

Style Guide Boilerplate provides an interactive way to display standard fonts, colors, base styles and patterns for your web project.

Bootstrap Style Guide Boilerplate by Kemie Guaida

Bootstrap Style Guide Boilerplate uses the popular framework to allow for an efficient means of creating a Styleguide.

Styleguide Generation Tools

StyleDocco

Using Node.js, StyleDocco will read your CSS and generate a visual Styleguide for you.

Styledown

Styledown lets you create a Styleguide by using markdown in your CSS files.

Fabricator

Fabricator is a Node.js tool that allows you to easily write project documentation and create an interactive Styleguide.

Styleguide by Huge

Styleguide can be used in alongside your project to create a live, automatically updated repository of styles.

Pattern Lab

Atomic Design is the term Pattern Lab uses to describe its component-driven Styleguide system. That means it’s a bit more in-depth, covering the tiny details of your design.

Living Styleguide Tools

SC5 Style Guide Generator

SC5 Style Guide Generator lets you create and edit your Styleguide directly in a web browser.

KSS – Knyle Style Sheets

KSS generates a Living Styleguide using Ruby or other frameworks that use gems.

DocumentCSS

DocumentCSS helps you create live Styleguides that change along with your site.

LivingStyleGuide Gem

LivingStyleGuide Gem will create a Styleguide with Sass and Markdown using Ruby, Middleman or Padrino, among others.

Styleguide Generators

Frontify Style Guide

Frontify Style Guide goes beyond the basics by allowing you to create and tweak your Styleguide using their online service.

Style Guide Preview Template (Sketch) by Tony Jones

If you’re using Sketch App, this free Style Guide Preview Template will help you develop a nice, clean Styleguide.

UI Style Guide Template (PSD) by Tony Thomas

UI Style Guide Template is a Photoshop (PSD) template featuring color swatches, typography, iconography, form and UI elements.

Style Tiles (PSD) by Samantha Warren

Responsive Digital Style Guide (Sketch) by Mark Ludemann

Sometimes, we tend to think of Style Guides only as a one-size-fits-all general palette. Responsive Digital Style Guide goes a step further and defines styles for mobile devices.

Web Style Guide (PSD) by Rafal Tomal

Web Style Guide aims to provide a simple "cheat sheet" for busy designers to maintain consistency in their projects.

Basic Five Page Style Guide Template (AI) by James George

Basic Five Page Style Guide Template is a handsome group of templates you can use in Adobe Illustrator.

Brand Guidelines Template (AI)

Brand Guidelines Template is a resource you can hand off to clients with clear instructions for colors, fonts and examples of what not to do.

Brandbooks Free Brand Guidelines Template (AI & InDesign) by ZippyPixels

Brandbooks Free Brand Guidelines Template is an impressive collection of files that you can use to print out an eight page booklet of branding styles and documentation.

Concluding

Take that extra step for your clients and yourself by creating Styleguides for your projects. Let us know how you’re using them in the comments!

If you’re looking for some stylyeguide inspiration, you should check out this post: Inspirational Examples of UI Styleguides.

The post Styleguide Toolbox – Templates, UI Kits, Tools & Generators appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

A Chat with Chris Coyier, Web Design Influencer & Entrepreneur

Eric Karkovack — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 17:40:06 +0000

The ability to influence the web design community generally comes via two very different paths. One is to create compelling content that helps others level up their skills by introducing and reinforcing concepts. The other is through creating tools that allow people to utilize and further hone those skills. Chris Coyier is the rare person who has done both.

It all started with CSS-Tricks, the blog/community that helps us learn to do amazing things with style sheets. Then CodePen came along and provided us a venue for putting our design and development techniques to the test – not to mention learn a thing or two from its vast user base. Chris, of course, is responsible (partially so, in the case of CodePen) for bringing both of these indispensable resources online.

I had the opportunity to chat with him via email regarding the origins of those famous projects, the future of CSS, his thoughts on Gutenberg and more. Here’s our conversation – enjoy!

You are, of course, one of the most well-known voices in web design. Yet, according to your timeline, you started out working in software testing and print. You didn’t enter the web industry full-time until 2007. What sparked your interest in moving to web design? Was there a particular moment that inspired the change?

I was 27 in 2007. It was just a few years after graduating college (took me a while). That was my first job where anybody paid me to work on websites. I had built a handful of websites before that, but just for fun. Typical story: “the band needed a website”, wanting a personal site, and ultimately inventing excuses to build more of them.

I really credit WordPress for getting into web design and development more than anything else. After you’ve bought a domain name, hosting, and managed to get the site online with an easy way to update it (that was Coda for me at the time), that’s extremely empowering. It’s all I wanted to do after that. And I knew it was all about content. Making it all work was very fun, but the important part was the content.

Later that same year, you launched CSS-Tricks. What were your goals for the site back then?

At (the) time I had spun up a half dozen WordPress blogs with the idea of filling them up with half decent referential content, slapping Google Ads on them, and crossing my fingers it covered costs + beer money. That’s about how it worked out, which ultimately wasn’t worth it and most of them didn’t work out. The only one I kept online was the weird one, the one about CSS, that I actually liked writing for, because I was so into the subject. I was totally oblivious to the larger web design community, just writing whatever I wanted that seemed helpful. It was all awful, of course, but so is everyone when they first start out in anything.

In your opinion, what has been the key to the growth CSS-Tricks has attained over the years?

The biggest factor is consistency. We’ve published new articles at CSS-Tricks, usually several a day, for over a decade. As a non-genius, that’s the only path toward growth and success that’s ever worked for me.

One thing that stands out is the overall quality of the tutorials and information. How much of a challenge has it been to maintain that high standard?

I think the bar is pretty low for technical blogging these days. By having an editor, making working demos, and basically checking that what we’re writing is true and working helps us stand out a little, I like to think.

I also think we should probably work on raising the bar a little. I feel some pressure to keep the content train rolling (it’s good for everyone), which means sometimes stuff just has to go and that becomes part of the culture of the site. Sometimes I think: what if we only published one article a week, and put 10x the effort into that post? Would we ultimately get more attention and engagement, or less? Hard to pull off a directional change like that, but it’s food for thought.

CodePen came on the scene in 2012 and has also achieved massive success. Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of that project?

Those early days of CodePen were largely in service of CSS-Tricks. I wanted embeddable demos in blog posts, like mini JSBins or JSFiddles, because those sites were amazing for front end code demos. I just wanted to take a crack at doing it myself, with the help of some very smart friends, and now co-founders.

You’re also the author of Digging Into WordPress. Therefore, I have to ask, what are your thoughts on Gutenberg so far? How do you see it evolving?

I think it’s very smart. I was glad to see it shoved out the door. It was an absolutely huge project I’m sure, and to ship such a giant change to the largest software install base in the world… that makes me sweat. A lesser team might never have shipped it.

That’s not to brush aside all the UX and accessibility concerns, I understand all the perspectives there. I’m no accessibility expert, so I can’t speak to that, but I still feel like the UX has a couple of rounds of polish to go to be good.

And yet, I like it. It’s a nice authoring experience. It’s the way that online editors are going and what users expect from an editor. So in a way, I think of it more as catching up with expectations rather than being innovative. In other ways, it is rather innovative. Right out of the gate they opened up the ability to create custom blocks, and that’s where we’ll see the most creative power come from.

Alright, we have a big picture question here. With all of the advancements in browsers, CSS and JavaScript, how do you see web interfaces changing in the next 5 years?

One thing that’s a big deal is how fast everything is moving right now. Standards move fast. Browsers move fast.

It sure sounds like you have a busy life. How do you like to unwind?

I like doing stuff outside. It’s early summer right now so it’s mountain biking season here in Bend, Oregon! I also play clawhammer banjo and like playing music with my old-time music friends. But of course, I also love just hanging out with my little family, my wife Miranda and my daughter Ruby is just turning 20 months old and is a lot of fun.

Lastly, are there any big plans for the future that you’d like to share?

Not too much! Years ago I decided a way to manage stress for myself was not to work on too many different things, so I decided I’ll only work on CodePen, CSS-Tricks, and (the) ShopTalk show. I’ve stuck to that. So if I’m working on something, it’s either directly on those things or something in service to them.

Many thanks to Chris Coyier for taking time out to share his story! If you’d like to learn more about Chris, check out his personal website. And, if you’re a CodePen user, be sure to take a look all the goodies included with their PRO offerings.

The post A Chat with Chris Coyier, Web Design Influencer & Entrepreneur appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

10 Super Useful Code Generators for Web Designers

Eric Karkovack — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 03:54:10 +0000

Code generators can be a web designer’s best friend for a couple of reasons. For one, they can often help you learn new techniques or brush up on ones you may have missed out on. Second, they make quick work out of an otherwise repetitive process.

We’ve scoured the web in search of code generators that cover a variety of languages and niches. Here are 10 of our favorites:

Flexy Boxes

Working with CSS Flexbox can be…difficult (and confusing). Thus, there are more than a few generator tools out there. Flexy Boxes offers an easy to use way to create complex layouts.

You’ll have control over the number of flex items, as well as direction and alignment properties. From there, just copy and paste the provided code into your stylesheet. That’s much easier!

.htaccess Generator

An .htaccess file resides on your server and can perform a number of useful functions. Things like redirects, rewriting URLs and various security measures can all be set through this important file. The problem is that many of us don’t know the syntax by heart – it can be a real pain to write from scratch.

.htaccess Generator will do all the hard work for you with the ability to generate multiple functions. Just be careful before overwriting an existing .htaccess file on your server – it could break your site.

PHP Date Format Generator

Do you ever find yourself having to reference the official PHP documentation each time you need to format a date?

PHP Date Format Generator has remembered all the intricacies and lets you choose from a preset selection of formats or create your own.

CSS3 Media Queries Generator

Media queries are one of the keys to responsive web design. CSS3 Media Queries Generator enables you to quickly create detailed queries to your exact specifications. There’s even an option for live testing as you resize your browser window.

You might also find these small CSS tools handy as well.

Bounce.js

Bounce.js is a JavaScript library that you can use to create CSS3 animations. Using their online tool is a matter of tweaking a few settings to get your animation just the way you want it.

You can test the animation right there on the page and export the CSS. There are also some cool presets that you can choose from. Animation is often a bit tedious, so this one may save you both time and sanity.

Responsify.it

Responsify.it lets you build a responsive layout in short order. Enter the number of columns and gutter width you’d like in your layout. Add your own custom breakpoints to match your needs. Once you’re satisfied, a zipped template is offered up for download.

CSS3 Generator

Writing certain types of CSS3 enhancements (complete with browser-specific fallbacks) can be a bit of a bore – not to mention the difficulty in remembering all the syntax.

CSS3 Generator does all the dirty work for you in the creation of buttons, gradients, border radius, box and text shadows. It also tackles CSS transform, animation and background code.

WordPress Code Generators

WordPress Code Generators is a suite of 20 fill-in-the-blanks style tools that help you do all kinds of awesome things. You’ll be able to create dashboard widgets, query posts, build shortcodes and create custom menu areas and sidebars.

Detailed info about each generator is displayed, along with any relative links to the WordPress Codex. This is a great resource for theme developers.

jQuery Form Builder

jQuery Form Builder enables the creation of a fully-functioning and feature-rich form via a drag-and-drop interface. You’ll be able to add a variety of useful fields including date pickers, file uploads and even payment fields that work with services like PayPal and Stripe.

Also included are the ability to add auto-response emails, SMS notifications (via a twilio account) and conditional logic. The finished product is a jQuery/Bootstrap form that’s ready to upload to your website.

CSS Sprites Generator

CSS sprites are a group of images – all placed within one image file. Often you’ll see them used for “on/off” states for icons or other small graphics. CSS positioning is then used to call a specific location on the sprite. So what you see displayed is one of the images contained in the sprite.

This is a great way to cut down on load time and save some bandwidth in the process. CSS Sprites Generator allows you to upload several images to be placed into a sprite. The result is a downloadable image and custom CSS that you can paste into your stylesheet.

The Sweet Relaxation of Code Generation

Thanks to so many innovators on the web, there are code generators out there for just about any task designers find monotonous. All of them follow the teachings of the “D.R.Y.” acronym: Don’t Repeat Yourself.

The post 10 Super Useful Code Generators for Web Designers appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.