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Not So So Common Tools I Mostly Use as Frontend Developer

As any profession, having favorite tools is ordinary. These tools are the ones I often utilize from day to day related to being a Frontend Developer or UI Designer. This list varies from being used in development to being used as a companion for specific tasks.

Not So So Common Tools I Mostly Use as Frontend Developer

Microsoft PowerToys

Before I moved to using Mac, this Windows OS tool is the software I always install first. It has the equivalent of Mac’s Spotlight Search. Aside from that it comes with many more features, my favorite features of Microsoft PowerToys are the following:

•Always On Top — When we have come to the limitations of screen areas, as developers we need to have a feature to have a tab to be always on top such as the Dev Tools, videos we currently watch, or the Notes App.
•Color Picker — This system wide color picker is essential for Frontend Developers and Designers to always have an access whenever we can to easily and correctly get the specific color on our screens.
•Screen Ruler — Need to recreate a design? This feature helps inspect the distance between elements on the screen whether it’s on the browser or not.



Font-size Clamp Generator

If you want to incorporate modern responsiveness to your typography. Font-size Clamp Generator is perfect for you. You just have to estimate the minimum and maximum size of your text. Simple as that.





PostSpark

This tool is what I recently discovered on this list. I mostly use PostSpark for the thumbnails of my portfolio site. I even started using this when they didn’t yet have thumbnails on the free version. It offers a different layout to organize screenshots although it’s kinda limited as of this writing because it’s relatively new.







daily.dev

daily.dev was introduced to me by one of my seniors when I was still in the first months of my career. I guess this is the social media of the experienced devs huh?

This is like a library of articles related to all kinds of development. For developers who are also fond of writing this platform is divine, but on a side note before publishing a post, reputations are needed to be earned.







Excalidraw

Another tool that was introduced to me by my senior. I use Excalidraw whenever I do sitemaps for the websites or applications I’m planning to make or a part of. With its simplicity, I immediately like the idea of using this app.

The only problem that I have with this tool is that I only have one project running at a time and can’t do multitasking.







Figma Plugins

As a designer these are the Figma Plugins I mostly use when creating any design. It includes tools for productivity and creativity as well.

•Lorem Ipsum — Don’t have the content yet when creating a design? This tool is what I always use to create placeholder text on my design. Whether it would be a paragraph, sentence, words or just characters.
•Moodboard Kit — This community design is my go through moodboard kit when starting a project. It has various layout choices to use, I often use this tool when creating the direction of the application.



Phosphor Icons

This icon library is my first option so far, because it is dynamic and has weight props unlike other icon libraries where the icon’s weight is already fixed. Although the limitation of this icon library is that it doesn’t offer icons of brand logos.









To sum up this blog, I am writing this to open up my closet to new technologies I want to experience using whether we would click or not. I also want to be more open about not just being comfortable using specific tools and languages in my journey as a developer, this realization came forward when I saw the famous quote of “When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. This philosophy is what I want to get off my sleeves in order to grow more and experience any technologies as much as I can.

So if you have some tips and tricks regarding your usual tool that you’re proud of using, please let me know, or should I say let us know.







Written by, Lois Floro (Frontend Developer)