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  • #28068

    With my experience in the past, I have not been happy with the professionalism nor the quality of work produced in my conversions of my designs for .psd files to XHTML/CSS. So, I thought I would ask you all if you knew of any places that are reliable and will produce professional quality coding. I have a rather simple XHTML/CSS site with nothing too fancy nor a blog (it’s for my portfolio site).

    Thanks in advance for all your help!

    #71143
    rzea
    Member

    I personally dislike that kind of service with all my heart, honestly, it’s an insult to all the sweat, hard work, study, experience, I’ve put… WE ALL have put, into Web Design since we started in this business.

    PSD to HTML/CSS, Photoshop can do that for you in several clicks. Dang, Fireworks can do it too! How do you think those services do it? You think they hire a Web Designer to do a build in only several hours and then pay him/her a piece of what they charge you? Dang!, it’s not even worth it for the designer, let alone the HTML/CSS business owner.

    "Buying" a PSD to HTML/CSS service, well, we’re talking about an ‘automated’ service of course, is a tricky approach. Once you get your HTML page with your CSS and images… then what? Upload it to your server? Sure, that’s easy enough.

    But, want to make small tweaks? Changes? You end up with an HTML file, one CSS file (or several depending on how the HTML/CSS service handles its builds: do they use a reset.css file? Do they include a print.css file? How do they handle IE6 and IE7 (IF they handle that at all)), and several images and what happens if you want to implement any scripts? Or links to the rest of your pages? You can’t do it yourself, that’s why you purchased the service in the first place… In other words, you’re stuck right were you started, just with 300KB+ of files more in your hard drive which is the HTML/CSS build of your design.

    Not to mention that by that point you may be on your own, I don’t think the HTML/CSS service will include all the things I mentioned above in their price.

    I think talking to a real Web Designer on the phone is much better for you and eventually, for him/her as well. With a real Web Designer on your side, you can count on a more ‘secure’ relationship since he/she won’t probably treat you like a ‘fire and forget’ type of client.

    In other words, having a Web Designer you can rely on for your website, is like being friends with a mechanic you can take your car to when something’s wrong with it.

    Anyway, there has to be plenty of Web Designers you can contact here in css-tricks.com, starting by the owner.

    Good luck with your PSD to HTML process.

    #71146
    "rzea" wrote:
    I personally dislike that kind of service with all my heart, honestly, it’s an insult to all the sweat, hard work, study, experience, I’ve put… WE ALL have put, into Web Design since we started in this business.

    PSD to HTML/CSS, Photoshop can do that for you in several clicks. Dang, Fireworks can do it too! How do you think those services do it? You think they hire a Web Designer to do a build in only several hours and then pay him/her a piece of what they charge you? Dang!, it’s not even worth it for the designer, let alone the HTML/CSS business owner.

    "Buying" a PSD to HTML/CSS service, well, we’re talking about an ‘automated’ service of course, is a tricky approach. Once you get your HTML page with your CSS and images… then what? Upload it to your server? Sure, that’s easy enough.

    But, want to make small tweaks? Changes? You end up with an HTML file, one CSS file (or several depending on how the HTML/CSS service handles its builds: do they use a reset.css file? Do they include a print.css file? How do they handle IE6 and IE7 (IF they handle that at all)), and several images and what happens if you want to implement any scripts? Or links to the rest of your pages? You can’t do it yourself, that’s why you purchased the service in the first place… In other words, you’re stuck right were you started, just with 300KB+ of files more in your hard drive which is the HTML/CSS build of your design.

    Not to mention that by that point you may be on your own, I don’t think the HTML/CSS service will include all the things I mentioned above in their price.

    I think talking to a real Web Designer on the phone is much better for you and eventually, for him/her as well. With a real Web Designer on your side, you can count on a more ‘secure’ relationship since he/she won’t probably treat you like a ‘fire and forget’ type of client.

    In other words, having a Web Designer you can rely on for your website, is like being friends with a mechanic you can take your car to when something’s wrong with it.

    Anyway, there has to be plenty of Web Designers you can contact here in css-tricks.com, starting by the owner.

    Good luck with your PSD to HTML process.

    Well, first let me start of by saying thank you to rzea for your comment I greatly appreciate it and your time. However, when I read through through your comment I wasn’t sure if I was being slapped on the wrist for asking my question or not seeing as the response seems to be filled with animosity toward PSD to XHTML/CSS Services and perhaps my ignorance in asking a question? :P

    I had a very bad experience with a service like this in the past and I was trying to avoid that from happening again. SO perhaps what I should have asked was "I am a graphic designer who has designed his own site and has a very limited knowledge as to how to get his designs to be a working website on the internet." Elementary enough? I think so. lol.

    As stated, I am a graphic designer and have no real want to learn how to code my designs for the web. I have looked into and have watched tutorials on how to code, etc. and would rather leave it to people who are much more talented in that area. More over, this design I created, needs to be up with in the next coming months so I can get the ball rolling on other things. Since I do not know how to code and dont really plan on learning how to really do it like the pros, I am willing to pay someone to do it for me…just as a coder or developer might pay me to do design work because he or she is not a graphic designer. I think you get the idea. (Though I envy the ones who know how to do both)

    So, calling all web designers!! Please, hit me up! I have a site designed and need one of you to code it and make it do what its supposed to online (<—-was that a better way to put what I want, rzea? LOL) In all seriousness, I am looking for a web designer whom I can count on and who’s willing to be compensated for their professional work ;)

    Nick

    P.S.: I’ll upload a few of the pages to give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

    #71168
    rzea
    Member

    I see your designs and I supposed your name is Nick.

    So Nick, for what I could see in those small images, your design fkn rocks. I admit you just inspired me to consider a style when redesigning my own website :).

    And, yes, my comment is definitely full of animosity for those services, sawy 8-)

    Back to the subject though.

    You need some to build your design in HTML+CSS, either Mr. TT_Mark can do it, I can also do it, the owner of this site can also do it, and I’m sure there’s plenty of Web Designers in this community you can reach out to for that.

    But as Mr. TT_Mark said, I’m not sure we’re allowed to offer our services here.

    Although let’s not BS each other here anymore, we couldn’t get more clear here about the fact that you can contact TT_Mark or myself to talk about business since we already offered our service to you, lol.

    Right?

    It’s up to you, but I suggest you either send a PM to TT_Mark or me or to whoever you decide to contact from this community.

    "Talk to you later", lol :mrgreen:

    #71213
    TheDoc
    Member

    Nice to see you back!

    I remember that Bigfoot design, good one.

    I haven’t used any of the services myself, but I remember Chris recommending one a while back. I’m scratching my brain trying to remember what the name was…

    #71183
    rzea
    Member

    OFFTOPIC:

    Yes, I remember that too, it was in a screencast in which he actually recommended this one PSD to HTML service very bluntly, lol.

    I will not look for that screencast or try to remember the service :mrgreen: lol

    #71092
    al_m473
    Participant

    PSD2HTML

    Chris used to advertise PSD2HTML service and had used them.
    Don’t see that ad on the main page anymore, not sure if he still is advertising them.

    Al

    #71999
    soap
    Participant

    This is me slapping you on the wrist for asking.

    Those services indeed do a very bad job. Invalid code, tons of unnecessary images, not robust at all, etc.

    Spend some extra money and pay a designer.

    :)

    #71966
    soap
    Participant

    @wolfcry911

    I’d hate to think that all a web designer is capable of is designing a PSD…

    #71899
    jfreehill
    Member

    @soap

    This is getting off topic, but it’s just semantics really. Many will use Web Developer to include design and coding/marking-up. I do both myself and use that title, but in my opinion it’s acceptable to design for the web (be a web designer) without knowing how to code for it. In fact it may be somewhat liberating to think of the design w/o knowing the limits of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ect. All it requires is understanding the “science” of user interfaces and usability. I’m sure it helps in the long run to know what you can do with coding, but it doesnt prevent anyone from designing a site.

    #71903
    Roxon
    Member

    @soap, you’re saying PSD to HTML services are unreliable and have bad code? I didn’t think PSD2HTML did…their site is pretty nice.

    PSD2HTML

    #71907
    soap
    Participant

    There are probably some out there that do a fine job. A lot of them do a quicky slice job for fast easy money. The ones that do a fine job probably charge around the same amount that you’d pay freelancer.

    #123101
    aussiefrogs
    Participant

    have used psd2html for one project and will NEVER use them or recommend them again their service was shocking, have had a design in for coding for 4 weeks and still have so many issues with the coding and design it isnt funny they are not willing to refund me the total amount only half and still cant fix the issues i have lost a client over the issue and lack of support is very bad. I am so mad about this company.

    #166018
    ReliablePSD
    Participant

    I understand the horror stories behind PSD to Code services… As the co-head of a creative agency, we went through a LOT of nightmares before we finally just assembled an all-star team to do it in house.

    But to help out our fellow designers, we decided to create a branch of our company that does PSD to HTML, Email, & WordPress the way it should be.

    We’re called Reliable, and we’re 100% run by graphic designers.

    We’ve fixed everything that’s broken with these services, and improved all the rest ;-)

    Feel free to check us out here, and if you have some questions about an upcoming project you have, want a quote, or just want to say hey – drop us a line :-)

    http://ReliablePSD.com

    Hope to hear from you soon!
    David

    #166021
    nixnerd
    Participant

    I literally cringe when anyone mentions PSD to HTML/CSS. I know Chris Coyier does that contest every year… the CSS-Off I think it is. However, I think that’s more just for fun to see how badass people are at CSS. Obviously because the designs are always SO ridiculous and over-the-top.

    I think the practice of creating a site in a static medium like Photoshop, then slicing it for the web is outdated at best and needs to die.

    On every single site I build, the only “images” I really use are photographs. Sometimes I’ll use PNG for a fallback if I have to support older browsers. But, for the most part, it’s all hand-edited SVG graphics for buttons and twitter logos and stuff like that. I don’t really consider this an “image” in the traditional sense because it’s really just manipulating XML.

    I just don’t even understand the point of making a button or some other element in Photoshop, then slicing it to be a button on the web. You lose SO MUCH when you do that. It’s not responsive. It can’t have a hover state or any other user feedback without replacing the image. That sucks because it won’t have a smooth transition/easing and it buggy and slow! There’s always that flash in between images, which looks very amateur. Plus, if you have a million button and you want to change ALL of their colors, now you have to manually edit the button in Photoshop and find the million places that it’s in your code and change out the image.

    Whereas in SASS, it’s just this:

    $button_color: #000000;
    

    I don’t get this practice and quite frankly, I don’t want to get it. Plus, these boards are not for spam sir. They are for the vibrant community who frequents them to learn.

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