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Anyone use SiteGrinder for Photoshop?

Conscript

Conscript

NLC
NLC
Hey guys,

I was doing some research on how to make websites in Photoshop. Normally after a layout is made you have to manually splice the graphics and export them then put it together using CSS/HTML and what not. That takes a lot of time.

I stumbled upon this plugin, however, called SiteGrinder and what it does is it converts PSD's into working websites. The cool part is using the clues you leave it (by appending layer names with SiteGrinder names) it knows when to save something as a graphic or when to create plain text, etc.

One click and your PSD is now a working website.

I am thinking of purchasing it (I downloaded the trial) but it is $249 USD for the full version (basic edition for $129) and I wanted to see if anyone here has any experience with this utility.

It appears like it could save a lot of time for web designers.

So what do you guys think?

Btw, the URL for it is: http://www.medialab.com/sitegrinder/
 
I've spent the last few days playing around with it and I must say I am pretty impressed.

While it takes a little bit of time to get used to naming the layers a certain way, this utility produces some great results. First, it takes care of all the splicing for you with one click which is great cause that saves hours of time (or what can sometimes be hours of time).

Second, it does produce valid code. I have generated a page for myself with it, opened it DreamWeaver CS3, clicked the validate button and there were no errors or warnings!

That's pretty impressive since most generated codes are all messed up and buggy.

This is not, as it seems at first sight, a miracle utility.

While it does prevent you from having to code XHTML/CSS as it does that for you, and ditto for slicing images, it does take some time to name all your layers properly and then rebuild your page a few times to get all the kinks out.

So some of the time you would spend doing the coding tasks you will instead spend going back to your PSD and moving things by a few pixels here and there or things like that.

I would still say its totally worth it, even at the price. Given that I charge market rates for website design anything that adds to my efficiency (and thus increases my profit margin) is a welcome addition to my toolbox.

This utility will pay for itself after I use it on a client for the very first time.

What can you expect from it?

I would say instead of dedicating two solid days of coding to converting a PSD into a working XHTML/CSS design expect to dedicate about one day. While in theory it generates sites in a minute or two you will have to make some adjustments here and there and regenerate or make them by hand.

In fact with the limitations of this product (such as not being that great at forms, issues with backgrounds, etc.) as well as the extra work required to make a PSD SiteGrinder compatible (naming all the layers properly, making a few additional layers to cover a few bases, etc.) you will find that once you get your layout perfect you will have to go to DreamWeaver or some other program to add the functionality or a few items to it manually.

I would say this program would shave about 50% of the time off turning a PSD into code, plus the added benefit is that (at least for me) its a lot more fun to tinker around with Photoshop than hunt down lines of code in a code editing program and figure out some minor technical issues myself.


Bottom Line

I would say this program is definitley a buy (Professional Edition) for any professional web designer who regularly uses Photoshop to create layouts.

It's also a buy (Basic or Professional) for someone who makes websites as a hobby or for friends and family. Sure, it's $129 or $249 spent but it will save you time which is the only thing in this world that is really a scarce resource.
 
This looks interesting, I'll have to try this now and see how good it really is.

Thanks for the link. :)
 
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