PSD to HTML & CSS - Professional or not?

[aaronjunited]

I've been debating with my head over the last week or so regarding web design layout with Photoshop or fireworks. (I know I'm going mad lol)

I see so many beautiful website templates that have been built in Photoshop and then sliced and coded for the final result. Though you never know how those sites have truly been built unless you ask the designer. I've also talked on other forums with members and got opinions and thoughts on this process. Most people have said that it's not the correct way to design a website.

Obviously the code that is produced when a template is sliced and diced isn't acceptable for today's standards in HTML and CSS. Which then leads on to why its important for any web designer to know his code very well.

I like the idea of designing websites with Photoshop because of the visual looks you can achieve and the final results are awesome based on templates that are widely spread across the internet. What I don't understand is why people think this is bad practice and that web designers should be coding a website completely by hand without the aid of programs. After all that's what HTML and CSS is for. I'm aware a lot of designers use Photoshop for mock-ups or visual aids before completely hand coding without the slices from a template.

What I'm after here is inspiration, reasons why I should use Photoshop/Fireworks to design the layout of a website, and whether it's practical to do this and then hand code the whole thing once the design is complete.

I hope you all get the drift of what I'm getting at here. Would be gratefully appreciated if you could share your process for designing websites if it's different from this way.

Thanks
Aaron.

 

[Hoogle]

There is no Argument here you do whatever works for you yes understanding how to code add css style sheets is important and will help you fine tune it once imported into dreamweaver.

but really most decent web designers will either have images provided or use photoshop to make the graphics.

Most web designers will make a psd mock up of there website first

so if you only need a basic site why not just slice it add the links etc fast and crude but gets the job done.

However HTML will be dead in a couple of years as we know it and will be replaced with HTML5 XML and XHTML alongside jQUERY and Java Script.

Anyone can make a wesite now with things programs like dreamweaver that has 1 click coding built in ie roll over images tables and iframesand more standard things like insert links.

what really is the difference in building your website and loading in images in the design view

Or just creating a table and doing your whole website in Table format Photoshop slicing will give you more consistancy across browsers etc than doing a basic table layout in dreamweaver.

This said people said the same about Flash and now most websites are flash based or have many flash elements in them.

This said between slicing a PSD and slicing a Fireworks document then Fire works wins hands down you can do roll over images interactive buttons interactive menus all inside fireworks it will then export it using jQueary and Javascript including styling sheets makes a far nicer cleaner site.

THe way web design is going it wont be about coding for much longer it will be about video editing if you dont believe me go to adobe labs,com and download the free beta of Adobe edge basically a stripped down after Effects for web

It will basically create fully animated sites where you will think it was a flash site and export them as java script etc. It takes miniutes to do and all about insert key frame for starting point of image move timeline along move image insert new key frame> file export website done in miniutes.

This is the way we are going people want fancy animation and interactive sites.

So go with whatever you work best in and can turn the site around the quickest yet still meeting clients needs.

 

[picturesnapper]

....wow. Ive been on here for a day and I have just been sitting here with my mouth open for 24 hours. Hoogle, you and the rest of the guys and gals that seem to be regulars are just amazingly talented. I don't even know where to start. ...Until then, I will just sit here and digest as much as I can...