Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers

by Stuart Robertson on December 15th, 2005 | tools, web design

One of the best features of Firefox is that it can be expanded with a wide range of optional extensions. There are extensions to help with blogging, privacy, working with RSS files, or just having fun. Here’s my list of the 5 extensions I find most useful when doing web design work:

  1. Web Developer
    Adds a menu and toolbar with many useful tools. Simply being able to open the CSS of a page for live editing makes it essential any web designer or developer. This extension is like an entire toolbox of extensions, and provides numerous useful features.
  2. GreaseMonkey
    Greasemonkey’s user scripts let you customize any aspect of a web page’s design or interaction. Hundreds of user scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites are available and very easy to install.
  3. del.icio.us
    This extension integrates del.icio.us with Firefox. Del.icio.us is an excellent way to find new tips, tutorials and resources—which are important for any web designer or developer.
  4. Aardvark
    When activated, this extension outlines and provides class or id names for any element under the cursor. You can then choose to remove or isolate specific elements on a page. The most useful feature is being able to quickly view the source code of the selected element.
  5. Colorzilla
    Adds an advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies. With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program.

If you haven’t tried it already— Firefox is free, easy to use, and a relatively small download.

27 Comments

  1. Alex Jones on December 16, 2005 at 9:46 am

    Another Take: Firefox Extensions

    Stuart Robertson of Design Meme has posted a concise write up of his Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers. I wasn’t aware of Aardvark, but it looks to be quite useful. The other two extensions that aren’t on my list of Firefox Extensio…

  2. Kevin on December 16, 2005 at 11:37 am

    This is great. Anything that can make web design easier, is OK by me. I just don’t have the patience for writing script.

  3. Phoenix Website Design on December 22, 2005 at 7:45 am

    Now I know more about web design .Thanks

  4. Comments from seo by seo on January 5, 2006 at 7:58 pm

    links from Technorative been hoping to see some of my posts do a bit better on del.icio.us and I keep some of these things in mind when I created – A technical how to on a new CSS technique: CSS Curly Quotes A technical List:Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers But no dice. They’re not fluff posts either — I think they’re not half bad. Amazingly, my post on Christmas Pudding is getting more traction right now. Ah well — they’re in the archive, so who knows. My articles from a few years ago are

  5. One Geeks Opinion on January 10, 2006 at 2:33 pm

    Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers | Design Meme…

    A good list of Web Developer extensions for Firefox.
    Add one more to the list with X-Ray.
    Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers | Design Meme
    ......

  6. baldo on January 10, 2006 at 5:41 pm

    http://www.sanbaldo.com/wordpress/1/top-8-firefox-extensions-for-web-developer/

  7. SanBaldo on January 10, 2006 at 5:44 pm

    Top 8 Firefox extensions for Web developer…

    Here are my 8 fav Firefox extensions (only the ones that i most use when making html, css, js, xml, xsl and web developing):

    Javascript Debugger
    View formatted source
    Web Developer
    XPath Checker
    Aardvark
    ScapBook
    SearchStatus
    Html val…

  8. Heiko on January 13, 2006 at 3:31 am

    del.icio.us ? I prefer MeasureIt, the rest is absolutly TOP 5!

  9. Welcome To Web Topia on January 15, 2006 at 6:14 pm

    links from TechnoratiOne of the best features of Firefox is that it can be expanded with a wide range of optional extensions. There are extensions to help with blogging, privacy, working with RSS files, or just having fun.Here’s a list of the 5 extensions most useful when doing web design.

  10. TheHouse.Net » Firefox Extensions for Web Designers on January 15, 2006 at 11:07 pm

    [...] Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers X-Ray Extension for Firefox [...]

  11. chrispederick.com Blog on January 29, 2006 at 10:30 pm

    links from Technoratiwith the fixed version. I did not change the version number as the fix was minor, so if you have already installed this version you will need to re-install the extension. Design Meme Stuart Robertson lists the Web Developer extension as one of thetop five Firefox extensions for web designers. 3 Comments

  12. aru on March 3, 2006 at 9:54 am

    Also found these 50 best firefox extensions for power surfing
    http://pchere.blogspot.com/2005/12/50-best-firefox-extensions-for-power.html

  13. Web Design Blog by Smiley Cat Web Design on March 28, 2006 at 8:15 pm

    links from Technoratiof the same ground, but between them you should be able to get all the best web developer Firefox extensions. Firefox extensions I couldn’t live without Extending Firefox for Web Developers Web Development with Firefox Firefox Web Developer ExtensionsTop 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers 16 Powerful Firefox Extensions for Web Developers Six Essential Firefox Extensions For Web Designers Firefox extensions for Web Designers and Web Developers Essential Firefox Extensions Useful Web developer Firefox extensions

  14. Lucky Mom - A Parenting Blog with Extra Sauce on March 29, 2006 at 2:47 am

    links from Technoratiof the same ground, but between them you should be able to get all the best web developer Firefox extensions. Firefox extensions I couldn’t live without Extending Firefox for Web Developers Web Development with Firefox Firefox Web Developer ExtensionsTop 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers 16 Powerful Firefox Extensions for Web Developers Six Essential Firefox Extensions For Web Designers Firefox extensions for Web Designers and Web Developers Essential Firefox Extensions Useful Web developer Firefox extensions

  15. Douglas Clifton on March 29, 2006 at 1:30 pm

    Lots more here (including yours!):

    Firefox Extensions for Web Developers

    http://loadaveragezero.com/drx/extensions

  16. barberboy on March 29, 2006 at 6:03 pm

    IMHO, FireBug is THE BEST Firefox extension for web development. I’ve found it even more helpful than the Web Developer, which is saying ALOT!!

    Check out FireBug.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&id=1843

  17. Kachina Crowe on April 8, 2006 at 10:24 pm

    Just curious if anyone knows anything about a version of Colorzilla or something similar for the newest version of Firefox?

    Thanks.

  18. Firefox.hk on April 28, 2006 at 10:22 am

    Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers…

    ...

  19. A Whiter Shade of Pale on May 2, 2006 at 6:12 am

    links from Technoratiand RSS feeds – I just like it. However, on a routine web surf that took me to Design Meme.com I discovered a Firefox Extension called X-Ray. “Well I have to have that! It will make my life so simple!” The I found myself crusing over to Design Meme’sTop Five Firefox Extensions for Web Designers and picked up the extremely handy Web Developer Toolbar, the ultra handy Aardvark, and the not-to-be-lived-without, ColorZilla (which is how I managed to get the right hexcodes for the flower). From that point on I worked on the site entirely in

  20. top web host on July 27, 2006 at 7:30 pm

    links from Technorati’t expect that they are going to change your web pages. You also don’t expect that they change your web pages for their own benefit. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what some web hosts seem to do. Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers One of the best features of Firefox is that it can be expanded with a wide range of optional extensions. There are extensions to help with blogging, privacy, working with RSS files, or just having fun. Here

  21. Lorelle on WordPress on November 11, 2006 at 7:13 am

    links from Technorati Connected Internet – 10 Useful Firefox Extensions That Don’t Get Glamorised Crazy 8 Opinions – 8 Cool Firefox Plugins You Never Knew Existed Daniel Lemire’s Blog – My Favorite Firefox Extensions Design Meme – Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers Desktop Pipeline – My 14 Favorite Firefox Extensions Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise – My Favorite Firefox Extensions The Extensions Mirror – Firefox Extensions FAQ, Additional Functionality via Extensions

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  23. Solo Gasón Express on April 16, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    links from Technorati Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers | Design Meme

  24. Unsought Input on July 8, 2007 at 11:39 pm

    The Best Firefox Plugins and Extensions…

    Firefox is a great web browser. If nothing else, the large number of people switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox convinced Microsoft to finally update IE. When Firefox added inline spell checking with version 2.0 they boosted the writing quali…

  25. Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers | Erik Mednis: Future Forward on September 13, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    [...] Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers | Design Meme Enjoyed It ? Share It ! :These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

  26. George Marcell on February 20, 2008 at 7:42 am

    As a web designer for website design leeds I use firefox often and the add ons from a seo point of view are excellent for checking the competition of other sites and their rankings, the bookmarkers are also quite efficient and I always open my firefox browser for bookmarking.

  27. Firefox on May 21, 2008 at 8:42 pm

    Sweet list, thanks. A personal favorite of mine though, is the web developer toolbar. As a designer I couldn’t live without it.

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