5 Time Saving Tools for Web Developers

by Taylor Slattery | February 1, 2021

It’s time for another round of web developer tools that can save you time and make your life easier. This month’s selections feature some tools that are sure to come in handy like a collection of SVG illustrations and Lottie animations that are free to use in personal or commercial work as well as a free browser-based photo editor. If you’re a design tool connoisseur or just looking for some fun new tools, be sure to read on.

First up, we have a color scheme generator. Coolors is a great tool for both palette creation and discovery. Expansive color palettes, as well as insights into current trends across the web are a click away. With an iOS App, Chrome extension, and plug-in for Adobe, Coolors can match the way you work regardless of the environment. The ability to check a given palette’s accessibility for a variety of different types of color blindness alone makes this a tool worth adding to your collection. Create palettes from photos, collages, or generate them at random until you find something you like. Coolors has something to offer no matter which way you work. You can try it out for yourself here.

PixelTrue is an on-demand illustration and design service aimed at providing businesses a means of customized high-quality assets with quick turnarounds and without the hassle of contracts. If $579 per month sounds like a reasonable fee to pay such services, you’re welcome to check them out, but for the rest of us, this collection of illustrations is much more our pace, coming in at the cool price of free. You can check them out here.

When it comes to mobile design, the big guys really have it down to a science. With large sums of money to throw at design and testing, it’s no wonder their apps are so functional and addictive. Luckily for us, their ideas are right there for the taking, plain as day. Mobbin serves as a library documenting the mobile design patterns of over 250 apps each with an abundance of screenshots exploring its use. Rather than start from scratch, take a look at what’s already working for others. You can find Mobbin here.

With so many social sites to keep up with, it can be hard to remember the dimensions each prefers for its content. If you find yourself frequently searching for the max dimensions of Instagram photos or uploads to Youtube, this next one should come in handy. SocialSizes collects the various dimensions of media for 15 different platforms into an easy to browse list. They’ve also got them grouped into templates for Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD & Photoshop which are free to download. You can find SocialSizes here.

Photo editors are a must-have for anyone creating online content, but Adobe subscriptions can be pretty steep and may come with features you don’t even need. Pixlr is a free alternative that offers basic functionality and is accessible via a browser so as long as you have an internet connection, you’ll never be without it. It’s intuitive to use and offers AI-powered tools that produce professional results. You can try it out for yourself here.

That’s all for this month, hopefully you find some of these to be of use!