10 browser extensions for web design & development

Introduction to Chrome, Firefox and Safari Extensions for Web Development

Chrome, Firefox and Safari extensions are powerful tools that can enhance productivity and efficiency in web design and development. With thousands of extensions available, it can be overwhelming to find the best ones for your needs.

In this article, we will explore 10 useful extensions that can streamline your workflow and improve your web design and development process.

From code editing to color picking, these extensions offer a wide range of functionalities to help you create stunning websites. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional, these extensions can help take your web design projects to the next level.

Must-Have Extensions for Web Developers

1. Web Developer (Firefox, Chrome, Edge)

One of the most popular chrome and Firefox extensions for web design and development is the Web Developer extension, which provides a range of tools for inspecting and editing code, as well as testing and debugging websites. It allows you to easily view and modify CSS, HTML, and JavaScript elements on any webpage, making it an essential tool for front-end developers.

Key features:

• CSS Management: Easily disable, edit, and view CSS on any webpage.
• Outline Elements: Highlight different elements on a webpage, such as block-level elements, headings, and links.
• Resize: Test your website’s responsiveness by resizing the browser window to various screen sizes.
• Cookies: View, delete, and manage cookies set by the website.
• Disable Features: Temporarily disable JavaScript, pop-ups, and other features to see how your site behaves without them.
• View Source: Quickly view the source code of the current page, including the generated source after JavaScript execution.
• Validation: Validate HTML, CSS, and accessibility to ensure your site meets web standards.
• Form Controls: Manage form elements, including displaying form details and enabling auto-completion.
• Images: View image information, display image dimensions, and hide images on a page.
• Information: Display detailed information about the webpage, such as meta tags and link details.
• Miscellaneous Tools: Includes options to disable JavaScript, clear session cookies, and validate HTML.

2. ColorZilla (Firefox, Chrome, Edge)

The ColorZilla extension is perfect for designers looking to pick colours from any webpage and create custom colour palettes. With ColorZilla, you can easily identify and save colours for use in your own projects, saving you time and effort in the design process.

Features:

• Eyedropper – get the colour of any pixel on the page
• Advanced Colour Picker
• Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator
• Webpage Colour Analyzer – get a colour palette for any site
• Palette Viewer with 7 pre-installed palettes
• Colour History of recently picked colors
• Various sampling sizes
• Sample average colour of any selected area
• Displays element information like tag name, class, id, size etc.
• Auto copy picked colours to clipboard
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Manipulate colours by their Hue/Saturations/Value components
• Get colours of dynamic hover elements
• Single-click to start colour picking (currently only on Windows)
• Pick colours at any zoom level

Safari users may try Color Sense for Safari, or the ColorSlurp and ColorSnapper apps.

3. Page Ruler (Firefox, Chrome, Edge)

Page Ruler is an extension that lets you measure distances (in pixels) on a webpage. It draws a rectangular ruler as you move your mouse across the page. The ruler displays width, height, start, and end, all labelled with corresponding pixel measurements. As you move your mouse, the rectangle adjusts its size, and the measurements update accordingly.

Alternatively, Measure-it is a simple and quick page ruler available for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Safari users may try Page Ruler for Safari.

4. WhatFont (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari)

Another must-have browser extension for web designers and developers is WhatFont, which allows you to easily detect any html fonts on a web page from your favorite sites using the extension. Safari users can use Fonts Ninja, which allows you to inspect, try, buy and bookmark any fonts on any website with just a couple of clicks.

5. Lorem Ipsum Generator (Firefox, Chrome, Edge)

Lorem Ipsum Generator extensions are great for quickly generating placeholder text for your designs, saving you the hassle of manually creating dummy text. Several Lorem Ipsum Generator extensions are available for Chrome, Firefox or Edge. 

6. Muzli (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari)

Muzli is another great Chrome extension for web designers, providing design inspiration right in your browser. With Muzli, you can discover the latest trends, news, and resources in design, helping you stay creative and up-to-date with the industry.

7. User-Agent Switcher and Manager (Firefox, Chrome, Edge)

The User-Agent Switcher and Manager extension allows you to modify your browser’s user-agent string. This string is what websites use to identify your browser type and operating system, which can affect the content and layout they deliver. You can also easily set custom user-agent strings from the toolbar popup or set different user-agent strings for each browser window.

8. Loom – Screen Recorder & Screen Capture (Chrome, Edge)

The Loom browser extension is a tool for screen recording and video communication. With Loom you can record your screen and instantly get a link to share with anyone.

Key features:

• Screen Recording: Record your screen, camera, microphone, and internal audio.
• Instant Sharing: Automatically save videos to the cloud and share them instantly with a link.
• Engagement Tools: Get notified when someone views, reacts, or comments on your video. You can also leave time-based comments and emoji reactions.
• Video Management: Manage your Loom video library on-the-go and across devices.
• Collaboration: Use comments and emoji reactions to boost engagement and create video message threads.

The Loom extension is not available on Firefox or Safari, however, you can still use the Loom desktop app to record across any browser, including Firefox. Alternatively, there are several similar apps or add-ons available for Firefox users – please see the article on the following website: https://tinyurl.com/4cy2j3z7

9. CSS Peeper (Chrome, Edge)

CSS Peeper allows you to inspect and extract CSS styles from any website without digging into the code. Here are some of its key features:

• Inspect Styles: Easily view CSS properties like fonts, sizes, and line heights.
• Color Palette: Browse and extract the entire color palette used on a website.
• Export Assets: Download nested assets directly from the site, either individually or as a .zip file.

Firefox users may use CSSViewer and CSS Spider.

Alternatively, try CSS Scan, available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. 

10. BuiltWith (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari)

The BuiltWith Extension lets you find out what a website is built with by clicking on the builtwith icon. BuiltWith’s goal is to help developers, researchers and designers find out what technologies web pages are using which may help them to decide what technologies to implement themselves.

You may also try…

• SeoQuake SEO extension (Firefox, Chrome, Edge): provides key SEO metrics for a specific page, along with other useful tools such as SEO Audit and many others.
• Greasemonkey (Firefox): customise the way a web page displays or behaves, by using small bits of JavaScript.
• Fontanello (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari): lets you display the basic typographic styles of a text by right-clicking it.

You can download the above extensions from the Chrome Store, Firefox Browser Add-ons library or Mac App Store.

Special mention:

Firefox Developer Edition: the Firefox Developer Edition is a specialised version of the Firefox web browser designed specifically for web developers. Here are some of its key features:

• It includes the most recent dev tools in beta
• Browser and remote debugging are enabled by default, as are the dark theme and developer toolbar button.
• Master CSS Grid Support: Unique tools for building and designing with CSS Grid.
• Responsive Design Mode.
• Visual Editing.
• Fonts Panel.
• Separate Profile: It uses its own profile and path, so you can run it alongside the regular or beta versions of Firefox.