Is there an online tool to compile LESS?

Question

I'm trying to use LESS in my webpage, but am having trouble compiling it. It's built to work on ruby, which I don't have permission to install on my pc. Is there an online tool for this compilation?

I know that lessphp exists, but I can't find the demo on their site any longer.

To summarise, I'm looking for a quick and dirty solution to compiling LESS to test my stylesheets locally. Ideally, this would integrate with Microsoft Expression Web 4 (hooray for dreamspark), but I'd be perfectly happy with a "copy, paste, compile, copy, paste" web interface.

Does such an interface exist?

Why not use LESS in client side mode where javascript does the LESS "compilation"? http://lesscss.org/#-client-side-usage — Matthew Lock, May 24 '12 at 02:38
@MatthewLock: Because the site will look terrible with javascript disabled. — Eric, May 24 '12 at 07:59
"I'm looking for a quick and dirty solution to compiling LESS to test my stylesheets locally. " — Matthew Lock, May 24 '12 at 23:32
@MatthewLock: Oh, good point. I asked this almost two years ago - don't expect me to remember what I wrote! The problem with that is that lessjs supports a slightly different dialect to lessphp, which is what I run on the server. — Eric, May 25 '12 at 08:08
try simpless at http://wearekiss.com/simpless this work best for win,mac even on linux. — Anirudha Gupta, Sep 28 '12 at 14:37

score 28 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 21 '10 at 20:44

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The demo feature on lessphp is still there.

answered Sep 21 '10 at 20:44

irishbuzz

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score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '11 at 15:36

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I don't want to advertise my own stuff, but it answers the question and it's open source! I made this about two weeks ago - The Online LESS Converter.

Blog entry: "Try the LESS converter, right now!"

GitHub project: NathanStrutz/LESS-Converter

answered Sep 08 '11 at 15:36

Nathan Strutz

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it works, but it doesn't support the @import clause, you have to merge all of your files to use this tool. – Spartaco Oct 21 '11 at 07:47
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Right, it can't @import from multiple inputs because it's just one text field. If you can think of a suggestion to fix it, please let me know on the github project page. We can work on it and make it awesome. – Nathan Strutz Oct 21 '11 at 15:44
please be aware.. @import "../.htaccess"; will import files from your server :/ suz – Zalaboza Feb 01 '14 at 01:43

Scott Rippey · Answer 3 · 2013-01-07T19:45:16.453

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Less2CSS
http://www.less2css.org
Website is open-source: http://github.com/brian-frichette/less-preview

My co-worker and I needed the same functionality, so we whipped up this online compiler.

Highlights:

CSS is updated in real-time, as-you-type, completely client-side.
You can choose between LESS versions (ie. v1.3.3, v1.3.0, etc)

edited Jan 07 '13 at 19:45

answered Dec 27 '12 at 19:07

Scott Rippey

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As for now, http://www.less2css.org does not work. This may be a temporary issue, though. – Michał Rybak Dec 17 '13 at 11:04
Thanks for the notice! It should be back up now. – Scott Rippey Dec 18 '13 at 17:31
It seems to be down again. – itsmikem Feb 04 '15 at 14:44
:( Unfortunately, I don't maintain the site, and I no longer work with the guy who does. I created a GitHub issue, so hopefully he'll get it fixed. – Scott Rippey Feb 05 '15 at 18:01

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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Recommended list form less official website:

Online Less Compilers

Online Web IDEs/Playgrounds with Less support

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Mar 21 '14 at 02:37

Chen-Tsu Lin

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 02 '11 at 21:09

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I added a larger syntax highlighting editor and compiler to the lessphp page: http://leafo.net/lessphp/editor.html

answered Dec 02 '11 at 21:09

leafo

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using this and keep getting warning: ""Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/leaf/public_html/lessphp/src/lessc.inc.php on line 282"" Any reason what may be causing this? – franka Mar 22 '12 at 19:09

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 23 '12 at 04:42

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There is also win less (for windows), which seems to work better for me than lessphp.

answered Mar 23 '12 at 04:42

franka

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 16 '12 at 12:31

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Here is an online converter i developed recently.

Please give it a try and let me know what you think.

http://www.marcdonaldson.com/less-2-css-online-converter/

My website is still undergoing development and will contain a lot of useful tools once I have developed them ;).

Kind Regards Marc Donaldson

answered Aug 16 '12 at 12:31

user1603214

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Link is dead ... only a background image with a failed-to-load image. – Scott Rippey Jan 07 '13 at 19:38

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 20:32

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http://codepen.io

change the css tab (the one in the middle) to use LESS syntax, then paste your LESS code, and click on tab title to see a preview of the compiled css.

plus you get a lot of nice things there, to preview the results live, sharing, integrating with github gists, etc.

answered Oct 18 '12 at 20:32

Benja

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+1 - Wow, I didn't know I could do that! Nice little Easter-egg! – Scott Rippey Dec 27 '12 at 18:54
It would be nice if you could get a live-update of the CSS, instead of having to click the tab. Maybe I'll write the JS to accomplish this. – Scott Rippey Dec 27 '12 at 18:55
Ok, I created a pen that outputs the compiled CSS, giving you a live-preview of your LESS: http://codepen.io/scottrippey/pen/liFnc – Scott Rippey Dec 27 '12 at 19:06

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 12 '13 at 16:46

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LessTester (http://lesstester.com/) is an online LESS compiler that also does CSS minification. Very nice for deploying CSS code developed in LESS.

answered Dec 12 '13 at 16:46

Peter

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 20 '13 at 05:58

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These are basically GUI LESS compilers. https://github.com/cloudhead/less.js/wiki/GUI-compilers-that-use-LESS.js

My personal favorite is Crunch. It's in ADOBE Air format.

answered Jan 20 '13 at 05:58

chanHXC

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 19:50

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For mac, just use: http://incident57.com/less/

For windows, use: http://winless.org/

answered Feb 10 '13 at 19:50

agency83

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 03:32

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http://incident57.com/less/ LESS app or http://fadeyev.net/2010/06/19/lessjs-will-obsolete-css/ LESS.js (my preference, since you can link it from google, however it does not run locally).

answered Mar 09 '11 at 03:32

Elyse Holladay

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abernier · Answer 13 · 2011-08-16T18:55:02.093

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There is(was?) also http://onless.duostack.net/ but currently the server seems to have some difficulties...

However, source code is here: https://github.com/chendrix/onless.git

edited Aug 16 '11 at 18:55

answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:47

abernier

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Is there an online tool to compile LESS?

13 Answers13

Online Less Compilers

Online Web IDEs/Playgrounds with Less support

Linked