Why I built ToolBarKit: One place for everyday tools

A quick task can interrupt whatever you were doing. You need to count the words in a draft, make a QR code for a link, or shrink a photo to fit an online form. Each takes a moment once you have the right tool open. Finding that tool is often the part that takes longer.

That’s why I built ToolBarKit. I wanted one place to find everyday tools, and I wanted each one to be easy to use as soon as you opened it.

Make the next step obvious

When I open a word counter, I want to paste my draft and see the count right away. When I make a QR code, I want to enter a link, preview the code, and download it. When an application asks for a photo between 50 and 100 KB, I want to enter that range directly.

That’s what I mean by a clean, helpful interface. The labels should match the task, and it should be clear what to do next. I wanted that to feel familiar across the site, even when you switch to a tool you’ve never used before.

One bookmark for different kinds of tasks

I might use ToolBarKit to inspect a JWT payload while debugging, then come back later to shorten a link or save a note. The tasks have little in common, but I reach for a browser for all of them. That made me want to give them one home.

• Writing and notes: Count words, characters, or sentences, format text, or save a password-protected note.
• Development and testing: Encode or decode Base64, inspect a JWT payload, or generate placeholder text.
• Sharing and printing: Shorten a URL, generate a QR code, or create barcodes and print labels in bulk.
• Images and PDFs: Resize a photo to fit a file size range, merge or split PDFs, reorder or extract pages, or compress a document for an upload.
• Conversions and calculators: Convert units like length, weight, and temperature, estimate a monthly loan payment, or check BMI and daily calorie estimates.

Bringing ToolBarKit to mobile

I also plan to launch a ToolBarKit mobile app. A lot of these tasks already come up on my phone, like making a QR code for a link I want to share or resizing a photo for a form. I want the app to make those jobs just as straightforward.

If you give ToolBarKit a try, I’d love to hear which tool you’d use again and what you’d add to the kit.