Web Sites Are Difficult To Create
Posted on 26. Aug, 2008 by david peters in Photography
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.
Understandably many users who are good at Photoshop but don't want to spend months or years learning the gory details of the internet such as XHTML, CSS, javascript, etc. have been intimidated by this situation.
SiteGrinder 2 is a program that can easily turn Adobe Photoshop into an easy-to-use and powerful design and production tool for websites. While the sole purpose of SiteGrinder is not aimed at the web programmer beginner, a designer with knowledge of SiteGrinder who has no prior 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 skills needed.
The difficulty of this task is invisible to the user as SiteGrinder builds graphics, text, and interactivity using modern web standard technologies and takes into account tricky requirements like cross-platform browser compatibility.
You are comfortable with Photoshop and SiteGrinder knows CSS, HTML, and web image formats. You create special layers, such as 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 wondering how SiteGrinder can create many web pages from a single Photoshop document. The answer is simple really, Photoshop has a little-known but amazing tool called the "layer comps palette". This palette enables you to save and name a variety of document states, including the position and visibility of every layer.
You simply need to make your Photoshop document look the way a page on your site should and then make a layer comp. You then set up the next page and repeat. SiteGrinder will use these comps to decide what to include on the web pages it creates. Even more amazing: if your layer comp names match your button names SiteGrinder will link them automatically. You don't even have to give the URLs!
