Photoshop

Hey, I need a program that allows me to make web site designs. I have never made one using a program before. However I just need to know a couple of questions on designing web layouts using Photoshop;

1) Is Photoshop Elements 5.0 any good for making layouts?

2) How long dose it averaglly take to be able to create good web layouts?

Thanks,
BlueEew.

 

Best is Photoshop CS2/3, but you don't just need the tools - you need creativitiy and skill; skill can be picked up, but creativity can't imo. You're either good at them, or your not - many beginners = not.

But good luck to you,

-nMx

 

Can Photoshop elements 5.0 make web layouts, I am really good at designing them and I am creative. I have designed many on paper, I just need a program I can make them on.

 

Paper is the best thing to start with. Cheap, does the job. Do you mean you want images for the website, or want to be able to send (email) the design to other people?

You can probably do a lot with Elements. If you play with it and find that it doesn't have enough power for you, then consider the non-$700 alternative: Gimp. Unless you fall so in love with the Photoshop part of Elements that you reall really need Photoshop. Mostly, you're drawing boxes, typing text, making more boxes, or moving images around. Elements does all that.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for that, so it is possible to make layouts with the photoshop elements 5.0, I might even just download the free trial of the better version and use that. How would you learn or where would you learn to be able to make web layouts using photoshop?

 

I'm not sure if you're asking about some sort of web-design template-- I know nothing of these. I draw a big picture of what the website should look like, label text boxes as such, and write little notes saying "this button should do this". It's nice to have an image of a mouse that you can sit on one of the menu blocks to show what happens on mouseover or what the sub-menus look like.

In which case, you simply need to learn Photoshop (elements), how to use the tools and layers (layers ++). If you mean a template that has html in it, no. There are a bazillion online tutorials and probably a book somewhere. Just play with it; you learn by doing.

 

Personally dont like Photoshop for creating designs but my understanding of Elements was that it was much more focused towards photos than the other side uses of Photoshop.

GIMP is another possibility as it is frequently billed as the opensource version of Photoshop and is free - again, as with photoshop I dont rate it for this type of task.

Also have a look at the free trial of Fireworks (also made by Adobe) as this is a graphics package aimed specifically at website creation and some of its features are much better for this task than the massively more expensive Photoshop because it is a targetted product.

 

I recommend either Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop ;]

 

I wouldn't recomend making a website this way. But it is quicker sometimes. I know how to in Fireworks, not photoshop though.