Chris Coyier is a designer at CodePen (opens in new tab) and a writer for CSS-Tricks (opens in new tab). A demure character, Coyier is also hosts the live podcast Shop Talk Show (opens in new tab). Here he shares his three must-have web design tools.
01. liCeCap
Cockos Incorporated's LICEcap is a very simple and easy-to-use tool for creating animated GIFs from areas of your screen. I find that a quick animated GIF can drive home a concept very effectively in blog posts and documentation.
02. Sublimelinter
This adds code linting to Sublime Text – for instance, checking your JavaScript with JSHint. It's a bit maddening at first, seeing all the errors right in your editor but now I'm enjoying writing good quality code straight away, rather than fixing errors later.
03. CodeKit
The web server included in Version 2 is a powerful upgrade. It's great being able to have the iOS simulator open with your website open in Mobile Safari, writing in Sass, and watching the new styles get injected into the page without even touching it.
Words: Chris Coyier
This article originally appeared in net magazine (opens in new tab) issue 256.
