Re: web design -- one Photoshop file with everything ???

by jdowdell(at)macromedia.com (John Dowdell)

 Date:  Thu, 10 Jun 1999 13:11:47 -0700
 To:  Graphics list <hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org>
  todo: View Thread, Original
At 9:04 AM 6/10/99, L. J. Durham wrote:
>He decided to "do everything in Photoshop because its much more
>creative" ---. This includes text, icons -- everything. There are over
>200 layers to this PSD file...  Ive never heard of anyone using what is
>essentially an image-editing tool to build a whole site --------------

Yes, as Kari and Steve noted, some people do comp out pages in Photoshop.
An analogy is people drawing on a table napkin... whatever tool you're most
familiar with can shorten the connection between inner eye and outer
manifestation.

If the designer is stuck with only a single mode like that, though, then
they (and the rest of the team!) will be in a rough spot. If someone is not
familiar with the eventual delivery medium then they could make design
choices which may not work in the final design.

Learning Photoshop is a significant accomplishment, and so some people seem
concerned that they might not be able to learn other tools. It can make it
very tempting to use the known tool for all jobs.

If you're in the situation of having to clean up this project, Lisa, then
there might be some ways to salvage the design. If you're using the
Dreamweaver/Fireworks combo, then try:

--  Open the PSD in Fireworks. You can now save out Photoshop layers to
separate files, or slice out areas that will be navigation graphics, build
image tables, and other parts of making the graphics web-ready.

--  To handle text and overall layout, use the Tracing Image ability in
Dreamweaver 2... you can bring in a semi-transparent GIF/JPEG/PNG version
of the Photoshop file and overlay text, headines, and graphics atop it as a
template. (Tip: Position objects with layers, then use Layers-to-Tables to
turn it into something viewable in all browsers.)


In case the other designer will be doing other projects, and if they
already use FreeHand in the print world, then this can give them a little
more freedom than in Photoshop... there are multiple pages, text remains
editable, URLs can be applied, and the suite version exports directly to
HTML too. Using a vector tool like FreeHand is more common for comping
multiple pages than are single-page tools like pixel editors.


Anyway, yes, if the designer can learn a little more about their delivery
medium, then that does seem like a better way overall to go, true.

jd




John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US
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