Web design: online & offline utilities

Color

Three tools work for me when it comes to color.

• kuler
  I love kuler not because I can find there thousands of schemes but because I can upload an image and extract its colors. I know there are many similar tools, but I think kuler is better when it comes to variations of a scheme e.g. a more vivid or a desaturated version.
• 0to255
  A fantastic tool. You pick a color and it finds you lighter and darker versions of it. I use it all the time.
• Color Scheme Designer
  Color Scheme Designer finds for you complementary colors, triads, tetrads etc. You can easily change the saturation of you base and take the variations with one click.

Grids

What would we be without grids? Nothing.

• #grid
  #grid is awesome. With just a bit of JavaScript you get a coherent and discreet grid system on your screen. To be precise: on your browser.
• 960 Grid System
  An alternative to #grid. It works with fluid/liquid layouts as well.

CSS

CSS frameworks don’t seem very useful to me. So I go with a homemade very simple framework. However, there are two CSS tools I use every day:

• CSS reset
  Eric Meyer’s CSS reset is the best one. Just grab it.
• CSS Media Types
  The link is all about the relevant article at A List Apart. It has to with how browsers can/should respond to users’ screens. I think this article could change the way we perceive mobile design in general.

Icons & Patterns

• Icon Finder
  Icon Finder includes a huge database of free to use icons. What’s even better is that these icons are beautiful most of the times.
• BgPatterns
  This is the best pattern generator. It took me some time to appreciate this tool but now I like it. A lot.

My list might be quite short, but tools don’t make the designer. They are only a place to start. And to return to them with the beginning of a new project. Simple as that.