Are you having trouble setting up your website because you are not sure how to get your PSD files to display correctly online? This is a common scenario that online business owners face because they hired someone to design their posters, logos and other promotional materials in Photoshop. Photoshop is a professional class software that many designers use to deliver cutting edge graphic images.



The problem is, the source file of the graphic images is saved as PSD file formats. PSD file format is the format recognized by Photoshop software. It is not a web friendly file format, and hence, that poses problems for anyone who wants to publish PSD files on the Internet.

On the Internet, there are many different types of coding languages used. The most commonly seen languages used are the HTML language, and the XHTML language. HTML stands for hyper text markup language, and XHTML stands for Extensive hyper text markup language. XHTML is similar to HTML, except that it also works with XML syntax.

There are industry standards governing both HTML and XHTML. So which do you choose? Both languages will allow you to display your PSD files on the Internet the way you want. In general, converting PSD files to XHTML may cost you more. So if you don't need to work with XML, you may want to convert PSD to static HTML files.

The conversion process is not difficult if you know what you are doing. However, the process can be time consuming. Usually, the conversion process starts off by flattening the graphic image.

On the image, you may then have to decide on how you want the image to appear. Are there specific areas you want to be clickable? Or do you just want a static image that is fast loading?

Once you are clear about what you want to achieve, be sure to communicate that to whoever is responsible for the conversion. Based on your instructions, the actual conversion then starts to take place.

The image may be spliced using special software, and exported in HTML format - the way you want it. The files are then uploaded to the server so that you can assess the work. Be sure to check out the web page with different web browsers to ensure that there are no compatibility issues. If there is anything that needs to be changed, you can always make special requests.

Professional coders will be able to hand code the HTML or XHTML for you. The code can then be checked for W3C validity - the industry accepted standard.

The main benefit of having a PSD file converted to static HTML or XHTML is that you can edit the web page any time you want. Once the slicing is done, and the conversion completed, you can easily update the web page using simple HTML tags.