I used to use Dreamweaver in school but that was free. I want to know are there any free versions of Adobe Photoshop (don't say gimp-i have that already) and can you recommend any good free software that can help me turn my psd file into a wordpress template?
I have experience with both. I suppose what I am asking is what to use to make my psd template into a wordpress theme.
I can't think of a reason not to use Gimp and a simple text editor. Dreambeaver tries to emulate a browser (and can't because it isn't one) and adds unneeded code. Photoshop has a few algorithms Gimp doesn't, CYMK colours and deeper bit-colours. Since I like to keep my images small, I'm happy with 8-bit (for now). I've made all my pages and the only thing that needed to be paid for was Flash CS3 (by the boss) and that was for ads, so not necessary. If you don't need the full power of PS, there's Elements, which isn't free but doesn't cost as much as the whole thing. I think it's up to Elements 5 now. When you learn what you're doing, you can take a big page design from anyone and make it act like a page. Here's an example (albeit one with like Zero content... the guy only had an image): http://stommepoes.jobva.nl/Ruztik/ruztik.html Yeah, that was just one image. I cut stuff out with Gimp, used CSS tricks and floated stuff. If you have a wide screen resolution, make the browser window smaller--- I had to cut and copy part of his city to make sure there was always a cityscape even when the browser width was side than his image. The speakers were floated right and left so they always stayed at the sides. *Edit whole thread (original images) http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=509090
Thanks for all the information! I am so HAPPY that someone thought up this forum. I've been an active member for only a week and a half and I picked up quite a few templates to help flesh out my portfolio.
Yeah, if you are SERIOUS about web development do yourself a favor and drop that steaming pile of shit known as dreamweaver in the trash now - I still can't believe that crap is taught in schools (though it shouldn't surprise me - schools teaching the wrong way of doing things? Teachers that have NO ****** CLUE about the subjects they are teaching? Never happen...) Go get a text editor, and do it the right way in the code - test in all the browser engines (no excuse anymore for Win or Mac - just leaving linsux out in the cold)... and start reversing your design process - Put the CONTENT for the page in the HTML with semantic minimalist markup, then bend the HTML to your will with CSS - EVENTUALLY hanging your styling on the page via the CSS... I still say starting from a .psd, much less wasting hours in some paint program before you lay down one bit of code is just plain retarded and back-asswards. As for a free image editor, you might want to try paint.net http://www.getpaint.net/ Which I rate slightly higher than GIMP, but slightly below Corel Paint Shop Pro. If you can afford it, Paint Shop Pro kicks Photoshop's ass in a number of areas important to web development - like image optimization via the save dialog and better color depth controls... and at $99.99 it's WAY cheaper.
you may want to use: CSSedit - for CSS BBedit - for raw xhtml/php/js/py/pl/mysql or what ever CODA - a more modern version of dreamweaver, smaller, light, faster, and less bloat