Are you on the quest for the perfect tool to streamline your design projects across various platforms or maybe an effortless way to uncover the HTML notations for those striking color schemes? Or perhaps you’re eager to turbocharge your work efficiency this year? Rest assured, we’re here to help.
The lifeblood of web designers’ daily duties are Chrome extensions. They range from everyday efficiency boosters to comprehensive development platforms, offering myriad approaches to enhance your workflow in the digital era.
Below you’ll find a curated selection of 30 top-tier Chrome extensions critical for every web designer and developer to explore in 2023. Without further ado, here’s the list.
1. Window Resizer
Crafting responsive designs for varied screen sizes is a crucial, yet hardly beloved, part of a web designer’s routine. Yet thankfully, the Window Resizer extension eases the challenge of designing for different devices. Seamlessly integrated into Chrome, it quickly adjusts pages to match various standard resolutions, from desktop screens and tablets to smartphones. Trying to salvage a few hours on your upcoming endeavor? This extension is worth a shot.
2. Browser Stack
Similarly time-consuming is the task of ensuring web page compatibility across different web browsers. And that’s where BrowserStack comes in handy. With support for a variety of browsers such as Chrome, Windows 10, and macOS Mojave, BrowserStack allows you to preview how your site renders across these platforms without a hitch. Just click the extension, pick your desired browser environment, and you’re all set.
3. Page Ruler
Need exact measurements on the fly? Page Ruler is the go-to extension. It lets you generate a custom overlay on your screen, providing height and width dimensions down to the pixel perfect level, ensuring your design elements are consistently sized.
4. WhatFont
Discovering visual inspiration is an integral part of design, but recalling specific fonts can be tricky. That’s where WhatFont becomes a lifesaver. This extension swiftly identifies fonts used on web pages, also revealing size, weight, and color details. Whilst updates may have been sparse recently, its efficiency remains untouched. Whether it’s to discover the latest fonts hitting the scene or to pinpoint a typeface that caught your eye, WhatFont offers the clarity you need.
5. Lorem Ipsum Generator
Fed up with crafting nonsensical filler text for layout mockups? The Lorem Ipsum Generator is your solution, generating placeholder text in classic Latin. Install, indicate the needed text length, and simply copy and paste. This tool is the epitome of user-friendliness.
6. FontsNinja
If WhatFont doesn’t cut it for you, give FontsNinja a try. This neat alternative lets you identify fonts quickly and confidently. A pro tip: cross-verify fonts using both WhatFont and FontsNinja to ensure precision.
7. ColorPick Eyedropper
Have you ever been captivated by a color and wished to incorporate it into your design palette? Craving the ability to easily translate that perfect hue into a workable HTML code? The ColorPick Eyedropper efficiently identifies color values and remains ready for action, streamlining the search for that ideal color scheme.
8. React Developer Tools
For those immersed in React, the React Developer Tools is a godsend. Offering a suite of functions, it allows seamless inspection and debugging of the React component hierarchy. Pinpoint performance issues or tackle errors head-on—if React is your jam, this extension shouldn’t be missed.
9. Web Developer Checklist
Nothing spells efficiency like a solid checklist for devs, and that’s what Web Developer Checklist excels at. It covers the essentials before a site launch, including SEO, accessibility, performance, and mobile-readiness. For the multi-project juggler, this ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
10. Notepad
Let’s appreciate the unsung hero: the humble Notepad. It’s not the flashiest, but its utility is undeniable—it remains one of the most essential and straightforward tools for quick note-taking. Streamline jotting down of those critical details and reduce desktop clutter effortlessly.
11. HTML Validator
Every developer requires reliable HTML validation tools, and the HTML Validator stands out for its simplicity. Providing a quick browser-based HTML code check, it effortlessly spots any markup anomalies. It may not be the most advanced tool, but it’s perfect for a quick final quality check before delivery.
12. Broken Link Checker
Bane of all websites, broken links can drag the most spruced up websites into an aura of neglect. The Broken Link Checker keeps your site integrity intact by scanning for malfunctioning URLs, offering relief especially for sites with complex navigational structures.
13. Loom
Tired of the back-and-forth email or chat messages to illustrate issues? Loom lets you create and share video recordings that clarify complex points, simplifying communication with stakeholders through direct visual means.
14. EditThisCookie
Cookie management is a piece of cake with EditThisCookie. Create, modify, and even block cookies on specific pages with ease, and handle imports and exports in JSON format if needed.
15. Site Palette
ColorPick Eyedropper is great for individual colors, but when you need an entire website’s color scheme, turn to Site Palette. It quickly extracts a full color palette from any webpage and allows you to share these color schemes effortlessly.
16. CSS Viewer
The CSS Viewer extension is a straightforward way to inspect CSS properties on web pages. Hover over an element, and you receive immediate CSS data, right down to precise color codes and fonts, with a click-to-clipboard feature for easy usage.
17. Bookmark Sidebar
Managing your resources becomes a cinch with Bookmark Sidebar. This extension blends seamless bookmark organization with a user-friendly drag and drop interface, turning the chaos of countless tabs into an orderly library of your most indispensable websites.
18. Hiver
Managing a shared Gmail account removes isolation in team settings, but leads to potential confusion. Hiver eliminates the chaos, enabling shared account collaborations with ease, ensuring clear designation and follow-ups on critical communication tasks.
19. Session Buddy
Ever lost tabs amid a sea of open pages? Session Buddy is your ally in chaos, offering a unified dashboard for tab management and an easy way to recover those erroneously closed pages with just a few clicks.
20. Lightshot
Screenshots are an indispensable aspect of our digital communication. Lightshot changes the game with this extension, allowing effortless capture of screen snippets, which can then be stored or shared through a convenient link.
21. Save Images To Google Photos
Stumble upon the perfect image for your web design, only to lose it moments later? Save Images To Google Photos is here to prevent such digital misfortunes, effortlessly saving those gems directly to Google Photos for future use.
22. Wappalyzer
Curiosity about a website’s inner workings can now be satisfied with Wappalyzer. This extension reveals the technologies used to create those digital masterpieces, from frameworks to server software, right within your browser.
23. Daltonize
With a sizable portion of the population experiencing color blindness, it’s crucial for designers to accommodate this diversity. Daltonize offers a window into simulating color vision deficiencies, fostering more inclusive design practices.
24. Clear Cache
Ever been puzzled by changes not reflecting due to stubborn cache storage? Clear Cache obliterates this issue, allowing you to cleanse your browser’s cache quickly and without fuss, ensuring your adjustments are always visible and up-to-date.
25. Grammarly
Writing might not be a designer’s primary role, yet Grammarly elevates any written content you need to churn out. Imperative for emails, documents, or even coding annotations, it ensures your communications are polished and professional.
