As a web designer, having the right set of tools can greatly enhance your productivity, creativity, and overall workflow. Firefox, a popular web browser, offers a wide range of add-ons that can help web designers streamline their work, simplify complex tasks, and improve their efficiency.
In this blog post, we will introduce you to 22 essential Firefox add-ons that are specifically designed for web designers, covering various aspects such as code editing, design inspiration, color management, and more.
Firefox Add-ons
Firefox web browser is widely used all around the world because it provides add-on facility which can be used by web developers and designers.
1. Firefox for Web Developers
Web developer’s extension can be used in Firefox browser and it is considered as a great tool for web designers. Firefox provides essential tools which can be used to code quality web sites and also we can troubleshoot the errors easily. Web developers perform certain action that can be added to the browser such as web developers tools can be a perfect add on to the browser. This added tool can be used to edit CSS which is in the fly menu. We can also edit certain things like font, color, padding, margin, border with the help of CSS and it can be effective in the web developer tool as well and also the changes can be seen instantly using web browser.
2. Firebugs on Firefox
Fire bug can be integrated with Firefox so that you can develop some tools that can be used to edit wed pages while you are browsing. Using fire bug you can edit, debug and monitor CSS and also java script that can be done live on the webpage. Fire bug can be used to change the WebPages designs that are default to a different style. This tool helps in the easy editing of a code file.
3. Codetech
Another fire fox extension is which is used to edit document that are inside the WebPages. This webpage tool on the fire fox is similar to that of dream weaver. Web developers and web designers mainly depend on HTML to develop their source code so Codetech can be used to complete their task easily. Install this application on your web browser as add on and perform your task. It is as simple as that.
4. Colorzilla
This is one of the favorite Firefox extensions. It is known as online eye dropper which is used to extract color value of the webpage. Colorzilla is used to read the color range on any web page and it can be adjusted to any color by modifying the program that can be pasted on any other program to take effect on the new web page. It offers DOM color analyzer which can be used to locate certain things in the webpage and we can modify its color from its original using CSS that have certain rules to modify the original color of the webpage. Using these applications we can zoom into the contents of the webpage and also we can measure the distance between the two words.
5. Java Script Debugger
Mozilla java script debugger can be done using venkman code. This is a powerful java script debugger environment that can be used in Browser such as Firefox 3.x, Netscape 7.x, Netscape 9.x and Mozilla sea monkey. This debugger is available in the XPI format, now days this venkman is provided as a part of Mozilla web browser to debug the java script. Java script debugger is very useful for the user to handle the errors that can occur in the browser without re installing it another time. Mozilla Firefox is a web browser that provides an add-on option that is very much useful for the user and also it provides many features to the web developers and web designers to create a webpage easily.
6. FireShot
Firefox provides fire shot add on extension which helps a lot while browsing. It is mainly used for screen capturing and using this option we can capture entire webpage, also we can edit the contents of the webpage to a different style. The edited web page can also be saved in different file formats so that we can email that page to friends and also we can save it in our computer.
7. MeasureIt
Creating webpage is not a difficult job but aligning the webpage is the most difficult thing that can be made easy by using measureIt add-on extension on the Firefox. This add on is a multipurpose add on which can be used as ruler by overlaying the application on a particular webpage and we can align the task.
8. CSS Validator and HTML Validator
CSS Validator is also a Firefox extension that can be used to validate a webpage using W3C-CSS Validator. Click the tool menu and select the content to validate the current CSS of the page. We can see results on the new tab so that it can be effective but it works only on certain pages that contain CSS file. Let us see some example: www.3d.org has a CSS file. We can use HTML Validator to validate the page directly and errors can be shown in the status bar icon and also we can show the source page with explanation of errors in that page.
9. GridFox
Grid based layout makes designer to be frustrated while designing .This can be solved by adding grid fox extension to the Firefox to overlay grid on webpage and also you can put the grid on top. We can customize the grid by our design on the webpage.
10. Screengrab
If you want to create web templates you need to take screen shot of the webpage in most cases and it just looks like pressing the print screen but if you want to take the whole shot of the page there is a tricky way of taking the shot that can be taken with the help of a Snag It but it is a costly process. Screen grabs is an add-on that can be used in Firefox to perform the screen shot taking operation so that we can copy the entire Web Page that can be stored as images and also we can save it on the clipboard.
11. OperaView
This is also an extension for Firefox which is very similar to the IE view. The opera browser can also be used while using Mozilla Firefox. Opera extension gives an opportunity to view the webpage on the opera browser. This application can be easily added to Firefox browser.
12. W3C Offline Validator
While working on the webpage we can validate that page using the add-on extension WC3 offline validator, simply by adding this extension to the firefox.This can be done by right clicking on the webpage and select the valid webpage. It can be done both online and offline as well.
13. Window Resizer
Different screen size can be tested by using browser window resizer add-on. This application accurately resizes the webpage so that we can customize the webpage to our own standards. Using browser window resizer we can resize the browser to different resolution such as 640*480, 1024*768, and 1600*1200
14. IE Tab
The main work of the web designers is to make the webpage to work on the internet explorer. IE tabs can be used for this purpose like internet explorer without closing the Firefox. This will open exactly like IE then we can generate the preview by installing IE tab extension in the Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers because we can preview the webpage exactly how it looks in the internet explorer by using IE tab.
15. StyleSheet Chooser
For website we can provide different style sheet by using style sheet chooser and also we can give different style sheet for different WebPages that are in the website. This application replaces the default style sheet in the Firefox and this can be achieved by selecting view->page style->menu item->rotating toolbar icon and this icon can be switched on/ off according to our need and purpose.
16. CSS Viewer
Using this CSS viewer we can analyze the properties of each CSS file and we can change according to our needs. If the CSS file is large at a particular webpage that contains overlapping styles we can use this application to view the CSS files.
17. Palette Grabber
Using this application we can create our own color palette of color for Photoshop, paint and flash. You can also customize the palette and make your own colors i.e. new mix of colors can be done.
18. Fire FTP
Fire FTP (file transfer protocol) that is secure, free browser based FTP client that can be used to access server instead of having a separate program. This application is an add-on extension for Firefox browser.
19. Console
Internet explorer provides safety measures and if someone hacks up your java script it shows error at the bottom of the webpage. This console application will help you to setup that and debug the errors on the JAVA SCRIPT, CSS file by adding this extension to the Firefox and also it provides search box for hiding duplicates, side bar optimization and also we can customize the tool bar.
20. CS Lite
Cookies can be managed by using CS LITE application. Effective way for cookies must be used to manage those in our system to prevent them without working globally and also we can use one cookie per site. Blocking cookies globally helps us to align them and we can use those while when we need. This application will wait for our permission to allow cookies to perform their action on the WebPages.
21. Font Finder
Font finder is used to find styles of the CSS files and you can achieve it by simply right clicking the element and select font finder .This can be enabled by adding this extension to the fire fox so that we can easily find the font style by simply right clicking the word and selecting the font finder. For web developers this is very much useful to code and generate a new font.
22. Image Zoom
This application can be used in Firefox to zoom a particular part of the image or entire image and it can be used in mail or some other WebPages by resizing the images according to our needs. Using this Firefox extension we can get complete control over the image. This helps in web designing as most of the sites are flooded with different size of images.
Conclusion
Web designers can greatly benefit from using Firefox add-ons to enhance their workflow and productivity. In this blog post, we have introduced you to 22 essential Firefox add-ons that are widely recognized for their usefulness and effectiveness in the field of web design.
By incorporating these add-ons into your Firefox browser, you can streamline your design process, save time, and create visually stunning websites with ease.