Website layout in photoshop?

Question

I don't know much about designing but I thought layouts were created with CSS and HTML. When I googled how to make website layouts though, it came up with a lot of things about making layouts in photoshop. So do you make them in photoshop or out of HTML?

Answer 1

You use Dreamweaver, not photoshop. All webpages are made out of either CSS, HTML, Javascript, Flash, and other formats. The most popular are CSS and HTML. You can either write the code yourself, which gives you a lot more control, or use an editor like Dreamweaver (the best of a bad bunch), either way, you never use photoshop for anything, other than editing .ico image files (for your websites small logo), or of course, editing photos.

Answer 2

The layout is more of a design thing, as to how you place the various elements in your webpage and create a layout for the various pages. Using photoshop you get a visual representation of what you want to create, photoshop inturn writes the required html and css code for those templates.



Its quick and very flexible, its upto personal choice, i generally use Dreamweaver to create my website, but these days there are too many free designs available which can give you a jump start, also that i have moved to CMS (wordpress)



http://www.templatemonster.com/

Answer 3

The "design" part of web site designing is often overlooked when creating a web site. A lot of people just use an HTML editor, with or without WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) drag and drop, and basically build the site as they go. Its like trying to bake a cake without a recipe, and expecting a nice looking tasty cake in the end.



Photoshop allows you to make full mock-ups of each page, by basically "painting" the entire page in non-HTML. Its just a big image of what a web site will look like when completed. Its a much faster way to get through a design period, where everyone involved can contribute and make suggestions. Or if working alone, its a fast way to make changes to the image by manipulating layers, instead of HTML code.



Once finished, you can use Photoshop to slice up the image into basic site components, like the navigation bar, custom button, etc. Then you can optimize the graphics for the web. Once that is done, you can then use an HTML editor to build the actual site in code. Photoshop even helps with that part of it, if you want, but there are much better editors out there.



If you are completely new to HTML, though, its probably best to stick with a template until you understand the basics, then you can understand what you need to include on your site in the mock-up stage.