Web design programs.

[ChrisBull]

Hi, I have always use photoshop to design my websites, but i just realised that ‘photoshop’ was intended to be a photo editor/manipulator. So do most people use photoshop anyway as it just happened to extend its function by chance, or is there sometihng else, I know some people that use illustrator but i’ve never liked it for some reason.

What i’m trying to work out is, am i missing out on something by using photoshop?

[Brian Meyer]

Chris, you are missing out on the greatest web design app there is. No, it’s not fireworks or illustrator. It’s a pencil and paper. You are missing out by using only photoshop.

I did my last site in Illustrator, and while I think it’s really ideal because of its vector/object approach, it’s really not designed for web design. In terms of workflow, I find photoshop to be better when it comes time to actually output/slice/play with color. Playing with Fireworks is also on my extended-to-do-list, so I recommend you take a look at it.

[TheDoc]

I use the wonderful pencil and paper for wireframes, then I pop it into Photoshop.

I’ve tried Fireworks but just didn’t enjoy it – probably just needed to give it time, but that’s not something I have at the moment!

[markthema3]

There is nothing that I have found in Fireworks that I can’t do faster and easier in Photoshop. IMHO, if you are going to use an image tool for design, use Photoshop.

[Luminated]

If you’re like me and can’t draw to save your life, this is an awesome program for wire framing:

http://balsamiq.com/

For graphics, I tend to use Photoshop and Illustrator exclusively…of course I use Dreamweaver for all my hand coding though.

[robst]

I use Photoshop for all things image manipulation, website comps, etc… and I ONLY use Illustrator for logo illustration!

There are some things that I like better about both programs. I love the pen tool WAY better in Illustrator then Photoshop, and there are some things that are better in Photoshop. It’s a switch-off, but both prove their awesomeness! ;)

[scubasteve]

ChrisBull,

The best thing to do is use pen and paper. But don’t use it to do wire-framing or layout’s, instead use it for simple drawings not paying too much on the organization, but the creative freedom that the pen and paper can give you.

Also make sure to use a pen and not a pencil, as it will force you to not care too much about being perfect with the drawing and let you get your ideas out better.

Good Luck,
Scubasteve

P.S. Photoshop for the Win!!!

[Voltron]

I’ve always found Photoshop to be the most unintuitive product ever made, and simply cannot get on with it. I find I use it to resize and cut out images as opposed to making much from scratch, although naturally there are times.

I find for a lot of things, pure CSS is actually really good for making impressive looking sites. Photoshop is fantastic if you’re good with it, but it still means you’re making static content. Database driven PHP and CSS gives you new opportunities that really shouldn’t be ignored, especially when it comes to opacities (via rgba(r,g,b,a)) which work so much better than they used to.

My work flow will often be to mental design something, sketch out ideas on pen and paper (very badly, I hasten to add!) then go straight into a coding text editor and put the layout together with some static content and block out the divs with solid backgrounds etc. Once you get used to this, you can truly surprise yourself how quickly you can then integrate with your database and make the real thing.

[OniLinkCR]

From pen-paper I shift to precision in Photoshop. Once the comps are approved, I move to my buddy TextMate. Coding I do by hand, this is why I don’t use Dreamweaver, despite them having a code only option. In the end mate, you will find what suits your needs best.

[Brian Meyer]

I think Illustrator is great for wireframing.

[markthema3]

@OniLinkCR I personally love Dreamweaver. The code-hinting is VERY helpful, and it’s nice being able to click one button and see approximately how it looks in a modern browser (at least a webkit based one, but you can just hit F12 to load up firefox, or whatever you set that to do).

[Brian Meyer]

@markthema3 have you tried CODA? I much prefer it to Dreamweaver, though Dreamweaver still has its uses.

[markthema3]

Don’t have a mac. Well, I have a 10 year old G3 iBook, but that doesn’t really cut it…
And neither of my 2 development systems (1 laptop, one desktop) are hackintosh compatible (I’ve tried 4 different distros and the official dvd without luck.) I’m fairly certain that my dual Xeon server doesn’t have driver support on OS X… And that’s a dedicated linux box anyways.

[OniLinkCR]

Hey Mark,

Yeah I sometimes miss that, but since we are sort of geeks, setting up your computer to act as a server was something that was a must, so I usually deploy locally and use browsers to surf the site locally. :p

Dreamweaver is great, but in the end, you have to find the tools that fit you like a glove. To me Text Mate does that job. Some prefer Fireworks, I used it and didn’t like it.

[markthema3]

I just like having everything in the same place for quick testing, especially when I am developing on my laptop. I don’t have enough ram to run 5 or 6 web browsers at a time on my laptop, but I can run dreamweaver, IE, and firefox just fine. Then I just have to test in Opera and double check chrome and safari. Guess that’d be my glove. Couldn’t agree more on fireworks…

[Author]

Posts