UI Inspector

Product Introduction

1. Definition: UI Inspector is a Chrome extension-based visual CSS editor within the developer tools category. It integrates directly into the browser's side panel, enabling real-time inspection and modification of webpage elements.
2. Core Value Proposition: It eliminates the friction of traditional DevTools by providing a visual, real-time CSS editor that accelerates UI debugging, web design prototyping, and front-end development. Its core purpose is to enable instant visual feedback and export production-ready code (CSS, Tailwind, SCSS, JSX) without constant code switching.

Main Features

1. Real-Time Visual CSS Editing:
   How it works: Activate the extension (toolbar click or Alt/Option + Shift + I), hover/click on any webpage element. A side panel displays all editable CSS properties. Changes made via intuitive sliders, color pickers, and input fields render instantly on the live page. Uses the Chrome Side Panel API for seamless integration.
2. Comprehensive Style Controls:
   How it works: Offers granular control over typography (font family, size, weight, line height, letter spacing), layout (display, flex/grid properties, margins, padding), backgrounds (colors, gradients, blurs), borders (width, style, color, radius), shadows, transforms (rotation, scale), opacity, and blend modes. Edits are applied as inline styles or via a dynamically generated stylesheet.
3. Style Presets & Global Application (PRO):
   How it works: Save any styled element as a reusable preset. Apply these presets to other elements with one click. The PRO feature includes a sensitivity slider to dynamically apply style changes to similar elements site-wide based on selector specificity, using DOM analysis.
4. Multi-Format Export & Integration:
   How it works: Copy the compiled CSS of all modifications. PRO unlocks export as Tailwind CSS classes, SCSS variables/mixins, or JSX style objects. Generate high-resolution PNG screenshots of styled elements or create GitHub issues directly containing the compiled CSS changes for team collaboration.
5. Built-in Site Palette Inheritance:
   How it works: Automatically detects and integrates the active website's color palette into the editor's color picker and suggestions, ensuring edits visually match the existing design system from the outset.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: Slow, inefficient CSS debugging and prototyping using browser DevTools or external editors requiring constant context switching and manual code updates.
2. Target Audience:
   • Front-End Developers: Especially those working with React, Vue, or other JS frameworks needing rapid UI tweaks and JSX/CSS exports.
   • Web Designers: Professionals validating designs in-browser or creating client prototypes who require visual precision without coding.
   • UI/UX Engineers: Bridging design and development by enabling real-time style adjustments on live sites.
   • Marketing Teams: Quickly creating custom landing page variations or A/B test visuals.
3. Use Cases:
   • Rapidly fixing layout shifts or styling bugs directly in production or staging environments.
   • Prototyping new UI components or theme variations visually before implementing code.
   • Extracting precise styles (including complex gradients/shadows) from existing elements for reuse.
   • Collaborating with designers by sharing visual presets or GitHub issues with specific CSS changes.
   • Learning CSS by visually manipulating properties and seeing immediate results.

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiation: Unlike basic CSS viewers (e.g., CSS Peeper) or DevTools, UI Inspector offers direct visual editing within the browser context. Compared to competitors like "Visual CSS Editor" or "Amino," it provides deeper layout control, built-in site palette adoption, Tailwind/JSX export, and GitHub integration. Its Side Panel UI offers a more integrated experience than pop-up inspectors.
2. Key Innovation: The automatic site palette inheritance ensures edits look native immediately. The PRO sensitivity slider for global style application intelligently targets similar elements, significantly speeding up site-wide styling tasks. The multi-format export (especially Tailwind and JSX) caters directly to modern development workflows, setting it apart from tools offering only basic CSS copying.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is UI Inspector free to use?
   The core visual CSS editing and inspection features are free. Advanced features like global style application, style presets, Tailwind/SCSS/JSX export, screenshot export, and GitHub integration require UI Inspector PRO, an in-app purchase.
2. How does UI Inspector handle website security or CORS?
   As a Chrome extension, UI Inspector operates within the browser's security sandbox. It inspects and modifies the live DOM/CSS of the currently viewed page only. It does not bypass CORS restrictions or access external resources blocked by the website. Your data is not sold or used for unrelated purposes (as declared in its privacy policy).
3. Can I use UI Inspector on any browser?
   UI Inspector requires a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi) that supports the Chrome Extensions API and specifically the Side Panel API. It is not compatible with Firefox or Safari. Ensure your browser is updated to the latest version for full functionality.
4. Does UI Inspector save my CSS changes permanently?
   No. Changes made with UI Inspector are temporary and local to your browser session, similar to edits in DevTools. Reloading the page will revert all changes. To persist changes, you must export the CSS (or Tailwind/SCSS/JSX) and implement it in your site's actual source code or stylesheets. PRO presets save your styles for reuse, not the changes on specific sites.
5. How does the PRO "global style application" sensitivity slider work?
   The slider controls how aggressively UI Inspector identifies similar elements when applying a style change globally. A lower sensitivity targets only elements with very similar selectors/attributes. A higher sensitivity broadens the criteria, applying the change to more elements across the page that share structural or stylistic similarities, using DOM analysis and CSS specificity rules.