Chrome has been groing more and more popular, especially to web workers, because it is a great, fast browser with now plenty of Chrome extensions for web design. The light interface and quick javascript execution are not the only interesting features for web designers, Chrome is really an amazing working tool if you customize it enough.
We already listed the best Firefox extensions for designers, but since many designers have switched to Chrome it will be nice to have an overview of chrome extensions for web design. Of course you shouldn’t install all these extensions or your browser could become sluggish, but all the following extensions are worth a look.
1. Web developer
The web developer Chrome extension was already one of the most popular toolbar in Firefox, which is probably the reason why it was adapted for Chrome. This toolbar gives you a set of great tools to analyze web pages, test your designs or edit CSS on the fly.
2. MeasureIt
One of my personal favorite extensions, it allows you to measure any element on the web page and grab the dimensions on the fly. Consider it as your browser’s ruler.
3. Csscan
This one is useless if you already have the Web developer toolbar installed. If not, it will be a great tool to understand how web pages are built and analyze the CSS elements on the page.
4. Firebug lite
Another extremly popular extension that was ported from Firefox. It integrates to the Chrome toolbar, let’s you inspect the DOM or edit CSS, among other things.
5. Chrome sniffer
Are you frequently wondering how a website was buit, which technologies were used? Then this must the best of all Chrome extensions for web design for you. Chrome sniffer detects web applications and javascript libraries used to build a website.
6. HTML5 snippet
For the web designers who like to play around with HTML5, this is one of the most recent Chrome extension for web design. This extension creates a platform to share resources and HTML5 snippets.
7. Speed tracer
If you build web applications, you must get this extension. Speed tracer helps you identify and fix the application’s performance issues. The results are show as graphs, so it makes it easy to visually identify the problems.
8. MultiSwitch
Use this extension to switch between development, test and productive hosts. Very practical to gain some time.
9. Lorem Ipsum generator
Create dummy text for your web design mockups, straight from the browser.
10. IE Tab
If you are using Chrome, you are probably not in a hurry to view your pages in Internet Explorer. For testing your sites, you can use IE Tab to render your pages in Chrome the way they would look in IE, so you don’t have to open Internet Explorer anymore.
Do you know other Chrome extensions for web design?
These are only a few of the many extensions that are interesting for web designers. Tell us in the comments which Chrome extensions for web design worth a mention are not in this post.
About the Author
Mirko Humbert
Mirko Humbert is the editor-in-chief and main author of Designer Daily and Typography Daily. He is also a graphic designer and the founder of WP Expert.