Monday, August 14, 2017

Designing A Website from Scratch – Illustrator or Photoshop?


If I'm designing a website from scratch and I intend to slice it and code it up in Adobe Dreamweaver later, should I create the design of the website in Illustrator or Photoshop? Why?



Answer



Quick literal answer: Between Illustrator and Photoshop, PhotoShop, as it's raster, as is the web site.



Slightly more detailed answer: you'd be using both.


Alternative answer: Consider using Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is so much easier to use once you get the hang of it for producing web graphics.


Long boring lecture answer:


The "Slice-n-Dice" method is a bit dated. It was popular a decade ago but these days it's really not the recommended approach. I'd suggest:




  • Use whatever app (AI/PSD) to 'sketch' the site. Feel free to go high fidelity, but treat it merely as a mock-up.




  • once you have that established, start building the site. Dive into the HTML/CSS/JS.





  • as needed, jump into PhotoShop to create the individual graphical elements that you need.




Why? Well, designing in photoshop doesn't account for the medium you're working in. It's a fixed canvas and the web is not a fixed canvas, nor is it even standard canvas. It leads the team towards a pixel-perfect idea and the web simply isn't pixel perfect.


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