// hopefully helpful tools

Toolkit

A digital garden of browser tools, templates and notes.

A personal collection of small tools, templates and notes I’ve built for my own work, from tidying JSON to working through UK pension maths. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere unless a tool says so. Help yourself.

01

Formatters

5
  • 01.1 Escape HTML Entities

    Turn <, >, &, " and ' into HTML entities so text shows as code, or turn them back.

  • 01.2 JSON Pretty Printer

    Format messy or minified JSON, check it's valid, or minify it again.

  • 01.3 JSON to YAML Converter

    Convert JSON to YAML in block, flow or quoted style, or YAML back to JSON.

  • 01.4 SQL Pretty Printer

    Format SQL for SQLite, Postgres, MySQL and standard SQL.

  • 01.5 YAML Explorer

    Browse a large YAML file as a collapsible tree, from pasted text or a URL.

02

Text

9
  • 02.1 Cipher Encoder and Decoder

    Encode and decode text with Caesar, Atbash, Vigenère or Morse code.

  • 02.2 Extract URLs

    Pull every link out of copied web content or plain text, one per line.

  • 02.3 Hex Colour Codes

    Preview a hex colour, see its RGB and HSL values and contrast, and keep a palette.

  • 02.4 List Sorter

    Sort a list A–Z or Z–A, reverse it, and remove duplicates.

  • 02.5 Lorem Ipsum Generator

    Placeholder text by the paragraph, ready to paste into a design.

  • 02.6 Paste Rich Text to HTML

    Paste formatted text from a web page or document and get its HTML.

  • 02.7 Random Slug Generator

    Make random, URL-safe slugs for links, filenames and IDs.

  • 02.8 String Sorter

    Reverse text, reverse the order of words, or sort the characters A–Z.

  • 02.9 Writing Style Checker

    Highlight weasel words, passive voice and repeated words in your writing.

03

Images

5
  • 03.1 Convert Image to JPEG

    Turn a PNG, WebP or other image into a JPEG at the size and quality you choose.

  • 03.2 Convert Image to SVG

    Trace a JPEG or PNG into a scalable SVG, with a choice of detail levels.

  • 03.3 Exif Viewer

    See the hidden metadata in a photo, including where it was taken, and save a copy without it.

  • 03.4 Image Resize and Quality Comparison

    See one image at ten combinations of size and JPEG quality, with file sizes, and download the best.

  • 03.5 QR Code Scanner

    Read a QR code from a photo, a screenshot or your camera, and see what's in it before you open it.

04

Finance

6
  • 04.1 FIRE Planner with Pension Pots

    Drag a slider to see the earliest age your pension, SIPP and ISA pots last to 100.

  • 04.2 ISA Bridge Apex Calculator

    Find the ISA "apex" that bridges you from early retirement to your pension, or the earliest age you could stop.

  • 04.3 Invoice Editor

    Fill in a simple invoice with your logo, line items and tax, then print it or save it as a PDF.

  • 04.4 UK Drawdown Runway Calculator

    How long a lump sum, redundancy payment or settlement lasts when you draw it down monthly.

  • 04.5 UK FIRE Retirement Calculator

    Will your savings last from early retirement to 100, alongside a final salary and State Pension?

  • 04.6 UK Redundancy Pay Calculator

    Statutory redundancy, notice and holiday pay for 2026/27, with tax, NI and the likely HMRC refund.

05

Planning and work

8
06

Run locally

4
  • 06.1 Film Catalogue Search

    Search your own YAML list of films to check whether you've seen something before.

  • 06.2 Podcast Artwork Grid

    Turn the podcasts in an OPML export into a grid of their cover art, and save it as an image.

  • 06.3 Podcast Episode Dates

    The latest episode date for every podcast in an OPML file, to spot ones that have stopped.

  • 06.4 Stale or Broken RSS Feed Checker

    The latest post date for every blog in an OPML blogroll, to spot stale or broken feeds.

08

Apps

8
  • 08.1 EngMan

    Coaching card decks for engineering managers.

  • 08.2 Hiyd

    Draft Markdown posts and publish them to a Jekyll site on GitHub.

  • 08.3 Lansdown Foundry

    Draw and export your own fonts.

  • 08.4 Mltply

    A free maths app with printable workbooks.

  • 08.5 Opiuml

    A podcast player.

  • 08.6 ShortKeys

    Stop typing the same thing twice.

  • 08.7 Tomoz

    See tomorrow's schedule at a glance.

  • 08.8 Unsettled

    An impossible escape game.

09

Elsewhere

6
  • 09.1 thechels.uk

    Writing and everything else.

  • 09.2 Links

    All my links, socials and resources.

  • 09.3 Cheltenham Open Data

    Local data for Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.

  • 09.4 NetNewsWire themes

    Themes for the NetNewsWire feed reader.

  • 09.5 BOINC team

    Donate spare computing power to medical research.

  • 09.6 Nuchronic

    A Hacker News-style feed for the chronically ill indie web.