10 little tools for designers

Actually, I am not going to lie,  I might be addicted to Air apps.  I have an air application for just about everything; it is almost as bad as my iPhone app addiction.If you are unfamiliar with Adobe Air™, here is an excerpt from their site:

For developers
The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.

For Businesses
Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way to engage customers with innovative, branded applications, without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes.

AIR for everyone
From shopping on eBay to managing music, Adobe AIR means applications that are easier, more powerful, and more fun to use.

Cross platform applications? I’m in. Especially because I am one of those designer types who works on a PC (please, don’t shun me!)

Ok, here are the goods:

Shrink O Matic is a batch image resizer that is helpful for resizing images for the web.

Those of us on PCs don’t have the luxury of using FontBook, so this handy little app comes in quite hand when trying to pick just the right font.

How many times have you been trying to figure out how much space is available when putting the CSS together for a site? Maybe I just hate math more than most people, but I need to see the distance not just calculate it with a calculator.

WebKut is a handly little screen shot utility (trust me, it is better than the print scrn button on your computer)

If you use the Blueprint Grid system, this is a must have (if you just want to wireframe on a grid this is a handy tool as well).

A great way to store all those snippets of code that you want to reuse as opposed to having to search through old projects to find them.

This is a handy tool for designers who are concerned about meeting W3c standards on readability.

If you need to track time, and don’t want to have to log into a website, or do it manually, this little app is a beautiful alternative. (I know beautiful doesn’t describe functionality, but as a designer a good looking environment is important to me).

This is a tool for creating mind maps – these help me create sitemaps and process flow charts (*this application is not completely free, although some functions are)

Some additional resources for useful Air™ apps:

http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/27-adobe-air-applications-handy-for-web-designers/
http://refreshingapps.com
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.home&marketplaceid=1

(Header image credit: Chris Lae)

About mary fran

Mary Fran has been obsessed with the web for over 12 years. She owns Purple Crayon Web Studio. She even has a personal portfolio called OriginalMoxie. She is a seasoned web developer and this year she finally decided to write this blog.