pixDIF

If you're a designer or developer, you know that getting your design to look just right on the web can be a challenge. Luckily, there's a tool out there that can help. It's called pixDIF, and it's an Adobe AIR utility that can show you the difference between your design and your website or application.

So, how do you know if you need pixDIF? If you ever find yourself wishing you could measure the pixel distance or size of something when you're not in Photoshop, or if you want to see what a graphical asset will look like in the context of a website or application before you start coding, then pixDIF is for you. Additionally, if you have a website or application design that you need to break up into pieces and build into a working site or app, and you want to see how close you are to the original design as you write the code, then pixDIF can help you out.

So how does it work? First, you'll need to install pixDIF to your desktop. It's an Adobe AIR application, so you'll see an install badge at the top of this post that you can use to do that. Once it's installed, just launch the app and drag-and-drop your design comp images into it. Select one of the images and it will launch in its own chromeless window. From there, you can move that window over your functional app and look for any differences.

It's worth noting that pixDIF relies on the Adobe AIR runtime, which allows Adobe AIR applications to be deployed on computers and devices running the Linux operating system. So if you're on Linux, this tool will be especially useful to you. Additionally, Adobe Flex Builder for Linux can be used to build rich internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems using proven web technologies.