Vishal Beersye, Mauritian xhtml web designer & developer

Graphic design to xhtml/css coding

Conversion of graphical templates to xhtml/css pages is a concept in itself. It requires someone who can follow the template, either designed on photoshop or other environments, and at the same time having capability of putting it into html coding without affecting the usability. A web page design can look great on a browser and still be merely accessible to screen readers. Listed below are the guidelines that a designer has to follow when slicing and converting designed templates to html page:

1. Keep it simple. Do not mix your presentational data with your content.
2. Use images only where you are needed to. Graphics used merely for presentation can and should be put as background images in most cases.
3. You must take into account that your website is not viewed only on computers, but also on mobile phones and PDAs. These devices will have a very easy to use website if you use a well written css and xhtml markup.
4. When slicing, do take into account that you should avoid using too bulky images. When a visitor tries loading your homepage and sees nothing in the 10-20 seconds, he/she will most likely just go away.

More about Graphic to css

1. Optimize your images where possible. Designers should be able to differentiate between a template which is only good to look at, and one which is good to view and use.
2. If you're desiging in xhtml, take proper care of including the alternate description of an image. It helps to get it accesible for screen readers. And it is a W3C recommendation.

Read about css issues >>

Read more about the advantages of xhtml and css >>

Today, a website is all about the quality. So keep in mind that a designer has to remain up-to-date with the technologies out on web.

• XHTML stands for EXtensible HyperText Markup Language
• XHTML is aimed to replace HTML
• XHTML is almost identical to HTML 4.01
• XHTML is HTML defined as an XML application
• XHTML is a W3C Recommendation