Less CSS is a great way to develop your stylesheets for websites. It lets you create nested rules, specify variables, functions and so much more.
To use Less on a website you have 2 options:
- Use JavaScript to compile on-the-fly. This isn’t really recommended as you’re now relying on JavaScript for your website to look the way it should. It also creates additional overhead as your page needs to load in the JS file, load your less stylesheet and finally render your stylesheet by parsing it through the Less Javascript library.
- Compile your Less stylesheet into CSS, and include is as a normal stylesheet.
The compilation method is obviously the best option as you get the benefits of using Less, and then using it as any other CSS stylesheet.
Whilst the compiled method might be great for when you’ve finished developing, during development you’d still have to use the Less JS method or compile your Less file into CSS each time you make modifications, which can easily become tedious.
This is where SimpLESS comes in. SimpLess is real-time Less compiler. You simply drag and drop your less file(s) into the app, and it recompiles your Less file into a CSS file every time you save it.
This app is totally free, open-source and available on Windows, Mac and Linux. As well as doing the compilation, it minifies your CSS too saving you precious bytes during HTTP requests.