25 great tools for an interactive designer

Online tools can be a great time-saver for a lot of repetitive design and coding tasks. Here is a list of some of the tools I found to be pretty useful as an interactive designer. Feel free to share your own in the comments and I’ll gladly add them to this list.

I have a few more links to useful tools and resources stored on delicious.

Layout

• CSS Little Boxes – CSS tutorial on basic CSS grids.
• Golden Ratio Calculator – Calculator for calculating golden ratio layout dimensions.
• Grid Calculation – Tool to calculate online grids.

Online Typography

• Typesetter – Tool that helps you compare web fonts for the screen.
• Type Navigator – Visual font search system.
• EM CSS Calculator – Helps with scalable CSS layouts.
• Vertical Rythm Calculator – A downloadable em calculator.
• Fontstruct – Make your own font.
• STC Font Browser – Browse a selection of 600 fonts.

Code & Testing

• Web Form Factory – Open Source PHP form generator.
• Online Flash Builder – Write and test AS3 online.
• Litmus – Test your website visually across different browsers.
• Browsercam – Another visual cross-browser testing tool.

Drawing & Automation

• Thinkature – Real-time collaboration tool.
• 30 Second Drawing – Excercise tool for drawing poses.
• Vector Magic – The best vector conversion tool.
• Tiled Background Designer – A pattern tool.

Social Media & SEO

• AddThis – Social media bookmarking and sharing tool with tracking.
• Quantcast – Open internet ratings service.
• SpyFu – Spy on your online competition.
• Alexa – Web ratings.
• Crazy Egg – Visualization visitor tool.
• Tynt Tracer – Trace what your visitors are sharing from your site.

Various

• Watermark Maker – Free watermarking tool for digital photos.
• Online Color Schemer – Put together your web color scheme.