Do you feel like your CSS could use a little work? CSS is a versatile and multi-functional language, but its flexibility and relative ease of use can lead to messy, inefficient programming. Luckily, there are tools for exactly that. Here are some of the best tools to use to clean up and correct your CSS.
1. CSS Ratiocinator
Though it may be a little on the advanced side, CSS Ratiocinator is one of the best and easiest ways to quickly clean up the trash in your CSS code. CSS Ratiocinator quickly removes errors, complications, and other unnecessary issues, to create code that is both easier to read and better optimized.
2. CSS Lint
CSS Lint is a fast and easy way to clean up your code without having to scour it line by line for redundancies. While CSS Lint doesn’t dig too deep (it isn’t going to minify your code for you), it’s a great way to polish up some code before publication. It’s also an excellent learning tool, as it explains which changes it’s making and why.
3. Can I Use
While you’re developing, you’ll often encounter issues of incompatibility. Can I Use tells you exactly what you can or can’t use depending on browser and platform, including all popular platforms such as Chrome, Safari, and Android Browser. This cuts down on a lot of the guesswork that is inherent in cross-platform CSS scripting.
4. Pure.css
Pure.css is a set of CSS modules that are designed to offer a small, lightweight framework for your web projects. Pure.css is a very small set of modules, that is very well-optimized and an excellent starting platform for any site.
5. CSS Shrink
A standard but very effective minification and optimization program, CSS Shrink is designed to quickly shrink your code so that it takes up less space and loads faster. As every developer knows, CSS is all about speed. This takes out a lot of the grunt work regarding optimization.
6. CSS Stats
Need to generate an analysis of CSS scripts quickly? CSS stats gives you information about a CSS file, regarding the amount of media queries it has, its selectors, rules, declarations, and properties. This is a very easy and fast way to compare the complexity of different scripts.
7. Glue
Glue is a sprite generator that is designed to increase the speed of websites. This is an excellent tool to use alongside other CSS design tools, as it optimizes websites for faster speeds.
8. CSS Beautifier
Sometimes you just want more attractive code. CSS Beautifier isn’t an optimization or cleanup service like the others; rather than trying to strictly optimize your CSS, it modifies it so it conforms better to standards and is easier to read by humans. CSS Beautifier can be used after minification and optimization services, to restore formats and make the code easier to parse.
By using the above tools, you can create well-optimized, cross-platform CSS that is readable and compact. When it comes to CSS, the true measure of skill is often not what you create, but how elegant your solutions are. And once you’ve mastered CSS, you can consider looking for a job through the extensive computer and and IT job listings at Software Specialists.
