Minifying — best practices/tools

[GMB]

Just wondering what tools folks use to minify CSS/JS, and whether or not there are any things to be sure to do/avoid doing when minifying.

Thanks in advance.

[TheDoc]

I use LiveReload which minifies my CSS on the fly. For JS I use the YUI Compressor. I just use an online version which can be found here: http://refresh-sf.com/yui/

[chrisburton]

Always make a backup copy in case you need to add to or edit the code.

I use this: http://refresh-sf.com/yui/

[GMB]

Thanks guys. Am currently reviewing [this post](https://css-tricks.com/musings-on-preprocessing/)…

[baneydesign]

@TheDoc – Which LiveReload are you using? I Googled “LiveReload” and “LiveReload js”, but wasn’t sure exactly which method you used.

I’m currently looking into the simplest and best method of serving a minimized CSS file to the browser, but retaining all of my comments and white-space when I open the file directly from the server for editing.

Thanks!
Adam

[Alen]

JavaScript – Google Closure, https://developers.google.com/closure/

CSS – With SASS, `sass –watch style.scss:style.css –style compressed` also works on plain CSS files.

[TheDoc]

@baneydesign – this: http://livereload.com/

But now I just use Compass http://compass-style.org/

[Kitty Giraudel]

If no mistake @TheDoc, Compass has nothing to do with minification. Sass does the thing.

[TheDoc]

In a sense, you are right. But the question was more ‘what am I using?’. I have Compass installed and I use `compass watch`.

[chemo]

I prefer the online tool at http://www.BlimptonTech.com they use UglifyJS I like the added obfuscation added, gives you a couple grains less in overall file weight.

[will_wallace85]

I’m currently a fan of [Mixture](http://mixture.io “”). Does Sass and JS minification as well as image optimization, and live refresh of local files if you want to use those. It does require you to create an account, but it’s one of the better gui based systems I’ve seen for windows. Planning on trying out [Prepros](http://alphapixels.com/prepros/ “”) soon to see if it has any improvements.

[Author]

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