Matt Blubaugh

Tools of the trade

Here's a quick rundown of the essential tools he uses to maximize his design and development efficiency:

  • Komodo Edit

    Hands down my favorite code editor. It has great code hinting, coloring and syntax checking, split view coding and best of all it's cross platform.

  • Firebug

    Every web developer's sidekick for efficiently debugging websites and web applications in Firefox.

  • Web Developer Toolbar

    Whether you're debugging in Firefox or Chrome, this extension provides you with quick and easy access to helpful features such as turning JavaScript on or off, displaying a ruler and color picker, as well as resizing the page to specific dimensions.

  • LESS

    An excellent tool for creating dynamic stylesheets that leverage variables and functions for faster development. You can easily compile and minify multiple CSS files with WinLess for Windows or LESS.app for Mac.

  • FileZilla

    A simple cross platform FTP solution that supports simultaneous connections and presents them in a tabbed interface.

  • Google Page Speed

    Available as part of the Chrome Developer Tools, Google Page Speed provides you with invaluable suggestions to improve the load speed of your websites and web applications.

  • Stack Overflow

    Every developer's source for a wealth of fantastic information to troubleshoot those pesky programming problems. It has an active, highly knowledgeable community and provides a reward system to encourage users to participate.

  • WAMP or MAMP

    WAMP / MAMP allows you to run a local web server with Apache, MySQL and PHP on Windows or Mac. It's perfect for testing your website, mobile website or web application before you push it live.

  • Google Closure Compiler

    Efficiency is the name of the game and Google Closure Compiler can consolidate and drastically reduce the file size of your JavaScript files.

  • HandBrake

    Exceptional fine tuning options for transcoding video to MP4 and MKV across Windows, Mac and Linux.

  • MPEG StreamClip

    One of the best kept secrets for video transcoding. Supports output to popular format containers including MP4, MOV and WMV, and includes the de facto standard h.264 compression.