Having a website is no longer enough to get recognition in today's competitive and wobbly marketplace. It is also crucial that your site can deliver unique and enhanced user experience. But, if you are using a pre-designed WordPress theme for your site, you might not be able to promote your brand as a unique online identity. This is because your website theme might be used by some other site as well. That is why the majority of webmasters prefer converting Photoshop mockups to a WordPress theme.
In fact, the process of PSD to WordPress theme conversion has become a common practice among plenitudes of web designers. But, performing the conversion process is not an easy task and requires expertise and sound coding knowledge. Thankfully, many software is made available online that comes with features, enabling you to convert your Photoshop design into HTML and CSS file formats, which are later converted to WordPress compatible file formats.
In this article, we will be comparing some of the most preferred conversion methods like Photoshop, CSSHat and one other to see which is best for converting PSD to CSS or PSD to HTML template conversion process. Also, we will discuss whether these tools are enough to meet your conversion goal or not.
Tools for Converting Your PSD Styles to CSS
1. Photoshop (or PSD)
Photoshop is extensively used by users for creating website design or styling CSS. No doubt, it is an excellent method to convert your design into CSS. However, the problem with using Photoshop is that we still need to write HTML on our own. Even the code generated via this tool is pretty ugly. Moreover, it does not make use of the advanced CSS3 techniques.
In fact, the process of PSD to WordPress theme conversion has become a common practice among plenitudes of web designers. But, performing the conversion process is not an easy task and requires expertise and sound coding knowledge. Thankfully, many software is made available online that comes with features, enabling you to convert your Photoshop design into HTML and CSS file formats, which are later converted to WordPress compatible file formats.
In this article, we will be comparing some of the most preferred conversion methods like Photoshop, CSSHat and one other to see which is best for converting PSD to CSS or PSD to HTML template conversion process. Also, we will discuss whether these tools are enough to meet your conversion goal or not.
Tools for Converting Your PSD Styles to CSS
1. Photoshop (or PSD)
Photoshop is extensively used by users for creating website design or styling CSS. No doubt, it is an excellent method to convert your design into CSS. However, the problem with using Photoshop is that we still need to write HTML on our own. Even the code generated via this tool is pretty ugly. Moreover, it does not make use of the advanced CSS3 techniques.
2. CSS3Ps
CSS3Ps, is basically, a free to use Photoshop plugin that comes with built-in Photoshop functionality. In essence, this tool performs in a better way compared to Photoshop. The problem with CSS3Ps is the (20 seconds) delay it causes at the time of converting the design to a web page. The delay makes the process of turning design files to a fully-functional website a pretty annoying task.
3. CSSHat
And at last, the CSSHat is yet another Photoshop extension like CSS3Ps. It is perfect for making customization and comes with several great features compared to the other two options discussed in this article. For one, it helps in placing multiple items of the design in the manner that matches your canvas. However, it turns out to be an expensive option that costs around $30.
Which Tool Should You Choose?
None of the above-discussed tools is well-suited for converting Photoshop to HTML CSS. While Photoshop makes the process of designing hassle-free, it generates bad code and does not utilize the latest CSS3 web technology standards. In contrary, CSS3Ps is a better option than Photoshop. Moreover, it is free, but it makes the conversion process a time-consuming task. CSSHat, however, is far better compared to Photoshop and CSS3Ps.
But, remember that nothing can help you achieve better results than choosing to code by hand. Of course, the tools give you a great head-start to initiate your project thereby saving your time in customizing your PSD styles. But, to make sure that your site functions well without any performance glitches, you must consider hand-coding your design files to WordPress (or any platform).
Summing Up!
Hope that this article will clear your doubts regarding using software for turning your Photoshop styles to a CSS. Here, we have covered three tools that can be used to accomplish such need. Also, we have talked about the best approach that should be utilized for creating a fully-functional site from PSD.
