Top 50 Free Instruments for Web Design-part 3

Video

Converting video from one format to another can be a real pain, but Handbrake does it a little less annoying. This cross platform tool can read encrypted DVD and most of the others formats and to export in H.264 or Ogg Theora format. It also allows you to save your settings for future use.

http://handbrake.fr/

CSS/Scripts

Many developers acquire their basic skills using HTML-Kit, fast, free and flexible HTML/CSS editor, which can be easily expanded by adding plug-ins. The free version is not going to be updated anymore, but there is enough in it to keep your interest for years.

http://www.htmlkit.com/download/

CMS

Joomla combines usage easiness with plentiful of complex functions and expandability. It is very easy to use for its clients, so that they can update their websites with minimal education, but it provides possibilities to support also critical corporate applications.

http://www.joomla.org/download.html

Scripts

JSLint takes your JavaScript code, analyses it for potential errors and tells you the result. As its creator says: ”It does not prove that your program is correct – it just helps you with another pair of eyes, which will help you to find any problems.”

http://www.jslint.com/

CSS,Scripts

Komodo Edit is a modification of the (paid) integrated environment for development, Komodi, which is a cross platform editor for PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Tcl, XML, HTML5 and CSS3. It allows you to look at local and remote files, checking if the syntax, auto fill and code advice plus similar to Firefox mechanism of add-ons.

http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit

CSS

Kompozer is Gecko based HTML design tool targeted for non technical literate users, integrated with FTP , CSS editor, HTML validation and interface based on tabs. It is a little bit outdated but still very useful tool for beginners.

http://kompozer.net/

Graphics

Another free online tool from Adobe, integrated in the Creative Suite. It can be used as an independent service in your browser and can be used with the free Adobe Air application. It gives you the opportunity to use color palettes created by others or to create your own using images or experimenting with colors.

http://kuler.adobe.com/

Graphics, CSS

We cannot leave behind Layerstyles ad “Just like your favourite graphics editor but in your browser.And it creates CSS”. The dialogue box resembling Photoshop makes easy to create and view shadows and borders, and the CSS code button shows the result in CSS code.

http://layerstyles.org/

CMS

Version 5 of this great CMS allows publishing of many sites just with one single installation, a new panel for the user to manage posts and themes in a Wordpress style. It is very suitable for social websites.

http://www.movabletype.org/

CSS,Scripts

Netbeans is an editor based on a dynamic code, which supports Java, C++, XML, HTML, PHP, Groovy, Javadoc, JavaScript and JSP with real time parsing, adding to the code and easy to adjust interface. It is very strong in terms of writing Java.

http://netbeans.org/

CSS, scripts

Notepad++ is created to make easy editing PHP and it also supports a great deal of programming languages. The accent is on the simplicity and speed, which makes Notepad2 ideal for everyone who think that Notedpad++ is too complicated.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad2/

Notepad++ is fast and simple, similar to Windows Notepad, but it supports more programming languages. It may search and replace in many documents, offers auto fill and color coding of the syntax of approximately 52 languages and you may also add plug-ins to it.

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Graphics

Inkscape is an open source software for vector illustrations, based on SCG format and it is extremely good. SVG is yet not the only thing it can work with. You can export many objects as PNG, which means that Inkscape is a relatively good tool for creating mock-ups forlayouts and interface elements. It also a basic, but good alternative to software programs such as Illustrator and CorelDraw.

http://inkscape.org/

Workflow

If you are working on an ambitious web design project, the control over everyone and everything is very important and necessary. This open source tool is very useful, cross platform alternative to Microsoft project with thousand of users.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/

Graphics

Paint.net is a powerful image editor for Windows, which is friendlier to the users than GIMP. It is very useful for photo editing, but the included tools for drawing and the support of many layers makes it a very good choice for making illustrations.

http://paint.net/