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How To Convert PSD to HTML - The Best Option

"I used HTML, CSS, and Javascript." Resumes will not contain phrases such as rarely on the Internet. But what to do if your "native" language is the colors and lines? In other words, if you are a designer and need to translate your works (eg, *. PSD design) HTML / CSS code?

There are three main options to solve this problem:
1) Code it yourself,
2) Use of automated tools, and
3) Hire a provider of services PSD-to-HTML/CSS conversion.

And here's another question: Which option is the best?

In fact, there is no all-purpose choice to suit every situation. Really, people and circumstances are different.

To convert your own or not yourself - Is that a question?

Some of my friends agree designers marketing guru Tom Peters: Nowadays this design is one of the most important competitive difference that can set products (and website) commoditized among other rivals. A Designers are becoming a central figure in website success. And he / she must be fully concentrated on the design because very few people can be a universal genius like Leonardo da Vinci.

Others say that web designers should know not only the color scheme or graphic theory but also PSD slicing, HTML coding, content writing, SEO, and marketing. Only in this case designers will create something really effective in present-day Internet.

For me every website element should be well-designed: Website concept, its structure, graphics, layout, HTML / CSS markup, and content. The deeper their designers know website development phases and operations better, because he / she can see and control the entire process. But this does not mean that designers should do all the work themselves.

Which of the PSD-to-HTML option is best when ...

... HTML / CSS is easy for you or if it looks like mumbo-jumbo? When there is a long line of clients or just some orders? When you design an experimental site for yourself or an important custom work? When there is a big budget or tough times?

These circumstances obviously require different solutions.

What is the recipe?

To be effective, we should be flexible. It's hard to be a universal genius but it is possible to have a universal (or nearly universal) knowledge base and manage the process.

1. Collect information: Design-to-XHTML/CSS tutorials, reviews of automated tools conversion, and lists of PSD-to-HTML service provider.

To track new developments, Google Alerts can be a very useful help or just a regular visit such sites as designfloat.com, designm.ag, noupe.com, tripwiremagazine.com, csstea.com, just to name a few.

Speaking of tutorials, not only gather the latest techniques and CSS tricks but older material too, because they may contain gold nuggets of information.

2. Try it and make your own list. Select tutorials, automated tools, and provider that is the most useful, efficient, and comfortable for Only YOU. It takes time but it pays off. Moreover, one day you can publish your own list name "Practical Collection of PSD-to-XHTML Tutorials "or" My Favorite Design-to-HTML Service. "

Pick a few (2 or 3) providers because:
1). Risk management considerations: If you urgently need to convert your design and the main provider is overloaded, you will have a reserve option.
2). Provider may have the strength to different fields, for example, one is more unstable in the PSD to WordPress theme conversion, others - in design-to-Drupal or Joomla template development and implementation.
3). The service and your requirements to them (as well as the functionality of automated tools or perceived importance of tutorials) change with time.

View selected providers yourself. It is not out of place because of what is best for one person may not be so good for you.

3. Check the project event: volume works, the urgency, project requirements (including W3C standards compliance, browser compatibility, semantic coding), the project value, budget, your level of HTML / CSS knowledge, and so on. Then take your list and select an option or their combinations that are most effective for you on the concrete situation.

Each of these options - do it yourself, use automated tools or service providers - Can be a good solution to convert PSD to HTML. But no less important is that there are various alternatives available for choice. Actually, to be flexible and succeed - that is the best option.

About the Author

Natalia Savchenko is a proficient web designer and the CEO of HTMLcut.com, a PSD to HTML conversion and HTML coding services provider.