Best of Design Tools — 2025
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Community Picks·51w
Onlook – Cursor for Designers
Onlook is an open-source desktop application that bridges the gap between design and development by allowing users to visually edit React websites while automatically writing changes back to code in real-time. The tool features AI-powered assistance for building and experimenting with frontend interfaces, a Figma-style interface that works with existing design systems, and local-first architecture that keeps all code on the user's device. It integrates with existing build processes without requiring component migration and maintains version control compatibility.
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Super Color Palette
Super Color Palette lets you create, export, and save color palettes for free without ads. Use shifting techniques for hue, saturation, and lightness to generate diverse palettes quickly. Adjust individual colors, entire palettes, or generate palettes from hex codes and images. It supports different color harmonies and models and offers features like accessibility checking, custom easing, and preview options. Join the Patreon for updates and optional support.
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LogRocket·1y
Onlook: A React visual editor
Onlook is an open source visual editor designed specifically for React applications, bridging the gap between design and development by offering features like real-time preview, drag-and-drop editing, and seamless code generation. It allows developers to visually manipulate components and make real-time changes directly in their codebase. Onlook compares favorably to traditional design tools and no-code builders by maintaining direct integration with React projects, thus improving workflow efficiency and collaboration between designers and developers.
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TechCentral·26w
Affinity for Linux? Canva’s next big move could reshape the desktop software market
Canva is seriously considering porting its Affinity creative software suite to Linux, which could be transformative for desktop Linux adoption. Currently, professional designers are locked into Windows and macOS due to Adobe's Creative Cloud dominance. Affinity, recently made free by Canva, is the only full-scale commercial alternative to Adobe. This potential move comes as Linux gaming has matured through Valve's Steam Deck, and dissatisfaction with Windows grows due to intrusive telemetry and AI features. A Linux port would enable designers, photographers, and content creators to run fully Linux-based workflows, potentially triggering wider desktop Linux adoption and challenging Adobe's market position.
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Codrops·1y
10+ Best Web Design Tools & Resources For 2025 (Free & Paid)
Innovation in web design goes beyond aesthetics, requiring advanced tools that prioritize speed, security, and scalability. In 2025, web design will center around sophisticated eCommerce, data visualization, and seamless booking systems. Tools such as Trafft White Label for scheduling, wpDataTables for data handling, and LayerSlider for animations, offer robust solutions for modern web design needs. Choosing tools that provide regular updates, performance optimization, and flexibility will be crucial for staying ahead in web development.
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Toddle.dev: The Future of Visual Web Application Development
Toddle.dev is a visual web application development tool that merges design and coding, eliminating the need for repetitive designer-to-developer handoffs. It provides a collaborative environment where designers can build UI directly and developers can engage in high flexibility coding, supported by robust version control and a community-driven module system. Toddle's unique selling point is its ability to blend the workflows of both designers and developers, offering performance and extensive customization without sacrificing creative freedom.
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UX Planet·1y
Turn Figma design into Code: Lovable vs Anima
Bridging the gap between design and development can be achieved using the right tools. Lovable and Anima are two solutions for converting Figma designs into code, each with its process and challenges. Lovable relies on Builder.io for exporting designs and often needs tweaks post-export, while Anima offers a more integrated process with fewer visual defects and a better AI understanding of user prompts. Both tools help streamline the design-to-code workflow, though they come with their own pros and cons.
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Hacker News·52w
SVG animation software
Expressive Animator is a professional SVG animation editor designed for creating stunning animations easily. It offers features like keyframe-based animations, motion paths, and easing editors, and allows import from Figma, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator. Users can export their animations in multiple formats including SVG, Lottie, GIF, and video. The software supports Windows and macOS with a single payment for a lifetime license.
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Tailwind CSS Gradient Generator & Text Gradients & Glassmorphism Generator
Gradienty offers a Tailwind CSS Gradient Generator for creating visually appealing designs with customizable gradients. It features a collection of over 20,000 gradients suitable for vibrant and eye-catching web design projects.
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Figma·30w
Introducing Figma Weave: the next generation of AI-native creation at Figma
Figma acquired Weavy, rebranding it as Figma Weave, to integrate AI-powered image, video, animation, and VFX generation capabilities into its platform. Weavy combines multiple leading AI models (Seedance, Sora, Veo, Flux, Ideogram) with professional editing tools in a browser-based, node-based canvas. The platform enables creators to generate AI outputs and refine them with hands-on editing controls like lighting adjustments, masking, and color grading. The acquisition aims to enhance Figma's vision of combining human craft with AI generation, moving beyond simple prompts to create more refined, professional creative work.
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Product Hunt·39w
pixxel: browser screenshots that don't suck
Pixxel is a lightweight Chrome extension that enhances browser screenshots with styling options like rounded corners, shadows, and custom backgrounds. Created as a simple alternative to heavier screenshot applications, it offers a minimal editor focused on quick styling and sharing of browser captures without requiring separate desktop software.
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DesignCourse·1y
Has the Figma Killer arRIVE'd?
The writer discusses whether Rive, a new design tool, will replace Figma. They highlight Rive's advantages, including production-ready designs and superior animation and prototyping capabilities. The author anticipates new features like a component system and data binding, making Rive a strong competitor to Figma. Readers are invited to share their thoughts on Rive potentially making Figma obsolete.
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DEV·1y
Best Icon Library for 2025 with 4k+ Free Icons
Lineicons V5 is a comprehensive icon library with over 5522 icons, 10+ styles, and 60 categories. It features a user-friendly interface, seamless integration with various design tools, and regular updates to stay aligned with the latest trends. The icons are highly customizable and scalable, offering clear visuals for any screen size. Designers can create custom collections for different projects to maintain consistency and efficiency. The icons are lightweight and optimized for fast loading speeds, enhancing both user experience and SEO performance.
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Frontend developer·1y
RIP UI/UX DEVELOPER
Creatie.ai is a new AI-powered product design software that's intuitive and affordable. It allows users to recreate website designs by uploading images or writing commands, generating three design options to choose from. Users can easily edit files, change colors, and modify shapes with simple clicks.
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Why Framer might just replace your entire web design stack
Framer is positioning itself as a comprehensive web design solution that consolidates multiple tools into one platform. The tool offers an integrated workflow from AI-powered wireframing through to instant website publishing, potentially eliminating the need for separate design, prototyping, and deployment tools in the web design process.
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AdamCAD: AI Powered CAD
AdamCAD is an AI-powered CAD platform that generates 3D designs from text prompts in seconds. It offers text-to-CAD functionality, image-to-3D conversion, parameter-based refinement, and integration with professional CAD software. The tool aims to accelerate prototyping for hardware teams by enabling rapid 3D model creation through natural language descriptions.
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SitePoint·1y
The 10+ Best AI & Pro Web Design Tools for 2025 — SitePoint
By 2025, websites must be visually compelling, easy to navigate, and problem-solving. Essential tools for this include AI-driven site builders like Brizy AI and Mobirise AI, booking tools such as Trafft and Amelia, and data visualization tools like wpDataTables and MapSVG. These tools offer regular updates, seamless integration with other components, and capabilities to adapt to growth, making it easier to create innovative, responsive, and scalable websites.
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Cloud Four·1y
Why I Like Designing in the Browser
Designing in the browser with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can be highly advantageous because it allows immediate feedback on how designs will perform and look in a real environment. It offers rapid implementation of new features, better adaptability, and a more fluid design process. The browser's CSS capabilities enable more dynamic and scalable design structures. While dedicated design tools are also useful, especially for early-stage ideation and asset creation, combining both approaches can lead to more effective and versatile design outcomes.
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Figma Make: Complete Guide
Figma Make is an AI-powered design tool that converts text prompts into functional web designs using Claude Sonnet 4. It offers three generation methods: prompt with visual reference, detailed prompts covering context and style, and attaching existing Figma designs. Key advantages include preserving design attributes like spacing and auto-layout, plus creating interactive prototypes. However, it has limitations including visual defects, memory issues during iterations, and inability to generate proper mobile designs, currently producing only web-focused layouts.
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Medium·1y
95% of homepages are inaccessible
Almost 95% of homepages fail to meet WCAG standards, excluding users with disabilities due to issues like low-contrast text and missing alt text. UX designers can enhance accessibility by adopting an accessibility-first approach and using tools to detect common failures, such as low contrast and missing labels. Free design and QA tools are available to help identify and fix accessibility issues, benefiting all users.
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Raycast for designers
Raycast is a powerful productivity tool that offers designers extensive workflow automation capabilities beyond traditional design software. The tool provides window management, clipboard history, quick links, note-taking, AI integration, text snippets, and screenshot search functionality. Third-party extensions expand its capabilities to integrate with Slack, Figma, Linear, and other design tools, enabling designers to streamline their daily tasks and reduce context switching between applications.
