Good tools help efficiency and effectiveness. This helps drive business and makes clients very happy. As a designer I use various browsers, editors, debugging tools and so on.
When it comes down to it, some of the best tools in my arsenal come in the form of plugins for Firefox. None of these are new to the seasoned designer but I thought I would share the top 5 Firefox plugins for Web Designers in my book.
Firebug
When you get to coding, Firebug has to be one of the best tools out there for editing and debugging your code right from your browser. Firebug organizes your code for easy code view browsing, it also lets you know when you have something buggy going on. Do you like visualizing your styling? Firebug has a built in visual tool that easily lets you align your elements with rulers and guides.
Web Developer Toolbar
If you are an HTML and CSS monkey like me, this is a no-brainer! Web Developer Toolbar Contains just about everything you can think of. From validation tools, to source views. It contains window resizing capability and element outlining options. If you need to display element and ID information, no worries, it’s only a click away.
Colorzilla
Have you ever seen an amazing color online and wanted to know the Hex code for it? Colorzilla enables you to use a dropper tool and click on any portion of a web page and get the color codes in various formats. It is a true time savor and a must have for any online visual designer.
Measure It
If you are the pixel perfect designer then having flexible measurement tools is a necessity! Measure It enables you to measure various portions of a page with an inline, adjustable ruler that outputs dimensions of what you are measuring. This has come in handy many times as I am testing layouts.
SEO Toolbar
Are you trying to figure out your competitor strength? Are you trying to improve your SEO strategy like I am? SEO Toolbar has some amazing attributes to help you implement your program. It allows you to check your Google PageRank, InBound Links, Directory Listings, and Traffic Data all at a glance.
Great suggestions! I would also recommend noscript to keep you safe while browsing around.