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Vitor Paladini
Vitor Paladini

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at paladini.dev

Simple Chrome Extensions That Make My Work a Bit Easier

No time for introductions!

I've been front-end-ing for a while.

Here are some of the extensions that helped me along the way.

Links on the title.

Let's go! πŸƒβ€β™€οΈπŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸ’¨

Pesticide

Pesticide

Pesticide is great for debugging invisible stuff in CSS. I'm talking margins, padding, and everything that fills some space but you can't quite know where it begins and ends.

The extension couldn't be simpler, really. It works by applying 1px borders to every element on the page, look.

Pesticide example


Live CSS Editor

Live CSS Editor

Live CSS Editor, as the name suggests, allows you to add some CSS to every page through a neat little box. It is great for debugging and testing a small style real quick without opening DevTools.

Live CSS Editor


PerfectPixel

PerfectPixel

PerfectPixel is particularly practical when you need to perfectly place pixels on your page.

But seriously, though. There is no better tool for when your implementation needs to look ridiculously close to the layout.

Just paste a semi-transparent .jpg over your screen and tweak your CSS until it matches.

PerfectPixel example


ColorZilla

ColorZilla

Sometimes you just need to pick a color.

ColorZilla is the best color picker for your color picking needs.

ColorZilla example


TimeShift

TimeShift

If your product needs to support multiple timezones you might know already that working with timezones is a one-way ticket to Frustration Town.

This extension won't solve your problems but it makes the timezone debugging experience slightly less sad by allowing you to fake your browser's current timezone.

TimeShift example


GoFullPage

GoFullPage

You need to share your progress and you need to share it quickly.

But Chrome, for some unknown reason, doesn't offer you a native way to screenshot the whole page.

This extension fixes that problem.

GoFullPage example


Thanks for reading! Hope any of these extensions make your work slightly easier.

This week got my super anxious and unproductive so I rushed this article last minute to keep my streak. I need to practice what I preach, after all.

I also might have drank way too much coffee this morning.

Anyway! Follow me on Twitter, leave your suggestions in the comments. Have a good weekend! πŸ˜„

Photo by Toa Heftiba Unsplash

Top comments (13)

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alyatek profile image
alyatek

If you don't want to have an extension to take a full size screen shot you can just go to Chrome Dev Tools press CTRL + SHIFT + P and search for "Capture full size screenshot" and Chrome will take a full size picture.

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ludamillion profile image
Luke Inglis • Edited

There are a number of things here you can do without extensions just by using the developer tools.

Timeshift => just go to the sensorstab in the dev tools and select your desired location from the location dropdown. Need to debug a specific location? Just click the manage button next to the dropdown and add your own.

Pesticide => Dead simple; just add a new style rule in the elements tab. * { outline: 1px solid red; }. Doing it this way has the advantage of not being tied to any browser. It'll work in anything, even ancient versions of IE.

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vtrpldn profile image
Vitor Paladini • Edited

Great suggestions!

You can go even further, skip ColorZilla and use DevTools default color picker.

DevTools color picker

But then you'd need to open DevTools all the time...

Some of those extensions simply make already existing browser features easier to reach, which makes my work a bit easier πŸ™‚

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9kopb profile image
Π―ΠΊΠΎΡ€ΡŒ • Edited

I hate install new apps or extensions, so instead of Pesticide I use bookmarklet: github.com/davidbrai/js-red-border...

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ihsoofi profile image
Irfan ul Haq Soofi

Your article is great for new developers who don't know well how to use developer tools many thanks.

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dule_martins profile image
Dule Martins

Nicely currated, thanks for sharing

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jmonterroso profile image
Jayson Monterroso

Good Extensions thanks for sharing!

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vtrpldn profile image
Vitor Paladini

Happy to help! πŸ˜„

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maxprogramming profile image
Max Programming

This list is awesome! Thanks a lot Vitor.

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bigclown profile image
Alejandro Ariel Serra

I always ask for quick feedback using a video, does anyone know any good screen recording plugin that does exactly that?

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vtrpldn profile image
Vitor Paladini

I recorded the examples with Kap, which is only available for Mac, unfortunately. It seems like ShareX is a nice alternative for Windows.

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tominoff profile image
Tominov Sergey

Thank you for sharing! I think it would be better to use little bookmarklet (gist) instead of Pesticide.