12/06/2011

Learn Adobe Photoshop - Not so Difficult To Create

By David Peters




Trying to create a website from scratch to match one created by programs such as Photoshop is no easy task. Photoshop, and programs like it, are designed to give total freedom to the designer. However, the web itself is comprised of many confusing languages and standards that place other concerns ahead of preserving visual design integrity.

The programming languages that are necessary to create visually pleasing web sites such as XHTML, CSS, javascript, etc., can take months or even years to learn. Understandably this situation has intimidated many users who are good at Photoshop but don't want to spend months or years learning the gory details of the internet.

SiteGrinder 2 successfully turns Adobe Photoshop into an easy-to-use and powerful website design and production tool. While SiteGrinder is not aimed solely at the web neophyte, a SiteGrinder-equipped designer with no previous web experience can use only their Photoshop skills to go from concept to deployment of a professional, standards-compliant site in mere hours with no slicing or programming.

SiteGrinder can create graphics, text, and interactivity by using modern web standard technologies. It also takes into account many requirements like cross-platform browser compatibility, all without the user being aware of the background programming needed.

You know Photoshop, SiteGrinder knows CSS, HTML, and web image formats. It is simply a matter of you telling SiteGrinder about special layers, like buttons, by adding "hints" to the layer names.

Few things such as "button", "rollover", and "popup" are required to create interactivity in your site. Once you've added a few hints you can open SiteGrinder and build your page with one mouse-click.

This unique program works the way you do, actually turning the design of web pages into a more creatively satisfying activity. You can easily enable your web site's functionality as you design it and quickly testing it out live in a web browser whenever you feel like it.

Such a flexible workflow even allows you to make major design changes, like selecting a new background color, at the very last minute without headaches! SiteGrinder

You may be curious about how SiteGrinder can create many web pages from a single Photoshop document. The answer is simple! Photoshop includes a little-used but incredibly powerful tool called the "layer comps palette". This palette enables you to save and name particular document states, including the position and visibility of every layer.

You simply need to make the document look the way you want a a page on your site to look and then make a layer comp. You then set up the next page and repeat. SiteGrinder uses these comps to decide what to include on the web pages it produces. Even better: if your layer comp names match your button names then SiteGrinder will automatically link them. You don't even have to provide links!




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