New technologies have been hitting the digital world for a long time now!
Today, it is important to have a professional or business website to improve the business’s credibility. Otherwise, you will be losing many business opportunities.
At the same time, it is not an easy task to build a website. It requires a professional to make an effective code and design an interactive and user-friendly design.
When it is about creating a site, there is one name that comes to most of minds – WordPress.
The reason is only the reliability, popularity, and exceptional features that make it the prime CMS (Content Management System). PSD To WordPress Conversion has been considered an important practice in the web-based industry.
Why Choose PSD to WordPress Conversion?
PSD (Photoshop Design) files define the website layout that is later built using different programming languages. It is a suitable approach to make the required site. It allows the users to build an exceptional business website design according to their tastes and preferences.
There are many design agencies that are helping hand in providing the PSD to development companies and offer excellent WordPress themes to the customers. It is advantageous for website design companies as the right web design conversion improves the client’s online business.
Hence, the customers become pleased with the services. The conversion of PSD to WordPress has many benefits in its pocket that assures creating of a compelling website.
- As a leading site-creating platform, WordPress provides excellent functionalities, themes, and plugins. You can get extra functionalities with plugins that allow you to integrate additional website functionalities.
- It includes in-built functionality that ensures that each pixel is leveraged to the best to give an engaging appearance.
- It offers powerful built-in features that are better as compared to the related Content Management systems in the web market. Here, PSD to WordPress conversion makes sense.
- You can create a responsive site using WordPress with PSD to responsive WordPress. With the responsive design, you are offering your website the opportunity to rank higher in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
- The CMS is influential when it is about Search Engine Optimization, and it provides in-built tools that support webmasters in boosting their ranking.
Several businesses and developers are there who consider WordPress as compared to different CMS because of the comprehensive features and easily accessible functionality. It is a free and open-source platform to create sites liked by many webmasters.
Making a website using WordPress is an economical solution; you can easily convert the WordPress website to an online store by integrating a plugin such as the WooCommerce plugin.
Why is WordPress More Popular Than Other CMS?
According to recent WordPress usage figures, 65.2% of every website is operating on this platform. It empowers 42.5% of the overall internet, a growth of approximately 5% from 35% in 2020, and it is a 4% improvement from the previous year.
The Content Management System has improved its frequency and grown the business all over and is even developing, leaving behind the others, Joomla, Drupal, etc. Undeniably, this CMS holds a better market reputation, and the graph means of its popularity is rising. Take a look below to confirm the same:
How to Convert a Photoshop Design to WordPress
Step 1. Build the Web Design
There is more to creating a site than making a logo and using that in the menu, sidebar, content, and footer together. The segments in the puzzle are required to be developed initially, and the means of this development are such that it cannot be executed by everyone easily.
The website design you make should be a perfect balance of function and form, the web design that assures a better customer experience.
Research – For making a web design that fulfills the standards of functionality and appearance, you will be required to carry out the appropriate research. First, know who the target audience is and what they actually need. Obviously, these are the significant research aspects.
Find Out the Techniques Your Competitors are Applying – The other point concerning web design is that you need to find out the technologies and methods your competitors are using. They are more established than you.
Hence, you can learn from the designs they are using. After completing the research, you will get an idea of how the site will appear, and consider functionality. What features do you like your web design to hold?
Wireframe – After sorting out everything, not writing it down on paper, make a sketch of how you contemplate your website to appear to have visual help while moving forward.
Design – When the wireframes/sketches creation is complete, you can start the process of transforming the files. Initially, you have to assure that you are leveraging the column-based grid-like XXgrid. It will make your design somewhat aligned and neat. It is not only meant for aesthetics.
The column-based grid to build an aligned design makes it seamless for the front-end developer (developing CSS and HTML) to build a responsive and optimized layout for smartphones and tablets.
Before jumping to the next step, remember to keep the PSD files in a systematic way. That is, every section must have a folder with similar titles.
Step 2. Slice the PSD Files
When you complete creating the web design as per your preference, start working on the actual process. Begin the process of converting a Photoshop design to WordPress.
Nowadays, sites can be created easily with CSS3 and HTML5. These platforms are more powerful than CSS2 and XHTML as rather than buttons, rounded edges, gradients, and borders, the additional features are developed with images.
They are built as the functional components of CSS3 coding. Therefore, PSD file slicing includes simply slicing the PSD background images.
To carry this out, you will need to open the file in Illustrator or Photoshop according to the software you use for design creation. If the web designer has completed the task properly, with rightly aligned design files with layers and folders, then it makes it simple for you to know what you require.
Research the web design and check out the images that need slicing. Basically, these are the images that may not be created with CSS3, generally, the background images and logo. Hence, you can remove unnecessary CSS in WordPress.
After changing the background images with CSS, a drop in terms of website loading time will be noticed. It will appeal to many visitors because the normal user cannot stay on the website which takes more time to load.
Step 3. Make CSS3, HTML, and JavaScript
Now is the time to make CSS3 and HTML5. Here, the primary thing to carry out is to make a new folder to create style.css and index.html. Additionally, make a sub-folder termed as img or images and put the images extracted from the folder.
Create a different folder termed js or JavaScript. It would be used later to store the files of jQuery and jQuery in the properly marked location. When you have created the files, folders, and sub-folders, it is time to create the CSS3 and HTML5.
HTML5 – It is a new language that has HTML and XHTML functionalities. Essentially, this language is used for creating the structure of the general document and designating the elements to the page.
This language has different elements for separate website sections, such as <aside>, <nav>, <header>, <footer> components that allow you to make a well-structured and neat document readable universally. Below are the resources that you could consider to revise HTML5.
HTML Resources
W3Schools – It is a well-known website to learn the fundamentals of HTML5. Each attribute and element is detailed and shown with demos, converting it into a smooth learning experience.
Mozilla Developer’s Section – This section could be used to learn more about HTML5 with the tutorials they include, even if you are a beginner or a professional coder.
Web Design Tuts – It has various HTML5 tutorials, some are paid, and some are free.
W3 – This web platform lets you develop the open web standard to assure the website’s lifespan. Here, you can get in-depth information on HTML5 and recent advancements.
W3 Validator – After completing the HTML5, use it with the validator. It notifies you whether HTML5 fulfills the open web standard of W3 or not.
CSS3
CSS is Cascading Style Sheets; CSS3 is its recent version. The aim of CSS3 is to use the elements built with HTML5 and style, position, and shape them. It enables you to make a uniform web design to correspond with the overall website design.
After using CSS3, HTML5 will become more organized and cleaner. That is, it will make it load faster and let it index quickly by the search engine. Check out the resources below to revise CSS3:
CSS Resources
W3 CSS – It is a leading resource for CSS3 tutorials and patterns of different CSS3 values, properties, and selectors. It has a “try it yourself” web page that makes it easy for you to use the learning means.
Learn CSS3 – It is an outstanding place to learn CSS3 and update your language knowledge.
CSS Web Design Tuts – The site includes comprehensive tutorials; some are paid, and some are free. These tutorials will give you an excess of knowledge about CSS3 values, properties, and selectors.
W3 CSS – It is a great site to remain updated on the recent CSS3 news. It is a community that makes the CSS3 web standard and finds technical details on the language.
CSS Validator – It is the validator with which you can operate CSS3 before making the website public. It is done to assure that CSS3 has fulfilled the W3 web standards.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a well-known programming language around the globe. The reason is only that it includes the libraries, like jQuery, and the browsers that are every browser-support, backend systems, like Node.js, and frameworks such as AngularJS.
Though these days, JavaScript has become outdated, most of the functions are captivated by CSS3 animations that enable animating the transitions among styles.
Javascript Resources
W3 – It is a great place to begin if you do not have knowledge of JavaScript. Great tutorials have made it possible.
jQuery – After gaining experience in JavaScript, you can use libraries to code seamlessly. jQuery is by far the most popular JS library.
NodeJS – When you consider backend systems, however, at the same time, like JavaScript, look into this website.
AngularJS – Include Java and HTML with this framework and have a few compelling views. Assure to look after the below resources before leveraging JavaScript for animating the elements to the site. CSS3 can also be used.
CSS3 Animations – Repeatedly, use w3schools for the latest tutorials. Check out the demos on the site to know various CSS3 animations.
Mozilla Animations – Enhance your skills related to CSS3 animations using the examples and the nine samples provided.
Step 4. Create the WordPress Theme Files
As of now, the conversion process from PSD to JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5 is completed. Now, convert the HTML to a fully responsive WordPress theme. It is advised to accompany the WordPress template hierarchy to know if all the themes are working or not.
Begin with the header.php, later use index.php, footer.php, and then, style.css. Each of these templates will be used on every website page.
After understanding the working of the template hierarchy, break down HTML files into sections. Begin by making a folder from the theme folder that could find out from the WordPress installation (/wp-content/themes/).
Make a file header.php in the same folder. It is the file that would be used for representing the document type and the file in the page header, such as javascript, stylesheets, title, meta, etc.
After completing this, make footer.php and paste every part of the footer to the HTML document. When the site design has the sidebar, create a file name, sidebar.php, and embrace the related coding in the file.
The next step after building the elements of the website in the file, work on the homepage. Many ways to execute it. That is to say- make index.php, page-home.php, or frontpage.php. Each of the files is appropriate for whatever you are doing; ultimately, the choice is yours.
When you have created the three templates for the homepage, integrate the .php file you have created just now. Till now, the side, top, and bottom have been completed, you only have to paste the HTML5 of the homepage, and the website homepage is now created successfully.
Repeat the same procedure for every website page, and move to the last step.
Step 5. Leverage WordPress Inbuilt Functions and Tags
After creating a WordPress theme for your site, assure then you can amend the website in the admin panel despite changing the theme file each time you like to edit something.
Basically, the popular WordPress feature to edit the content is by integrating the “add_meta_box” function. Create the meta boxes of content on every page, and that’s it!
Forming deep website functionalities is an easy task with WordPress. As in, showing details, like, links on the sites, can be done with WordPress functions. Just examine the function reference web page for this CMS to know every accessible function.
On the same note, WordPress also provides template tags. Essentially, these are the functions only, with the simple difference which is made particularly for some theme that makes it more effective.
WordPress Menu – While logging into the Admin Panel to the site, you will like to edit the menu items in Appearance and menu so that you do not need to edit them with the Admin Panel.
It is an easy job because of the facts you are leveraging from WordPress. You only have to change the menu list from the template file; one line of PHP. After this, you can include the menu items.
Maybe, there are some inner pages that have various footers and headers. To include this website functionality, only include the conditional tags. These permit you to use various codes for chosen posts or pages.
When your WordPress site is operating on the development server, you only require to take it on the live server.
Conclusion
Now, you have all the steps for convert a Photoshop design to WordPress. Do not take it easy-breezy! It is a complicated process. Follow the details mentioned above to get the benefits. However, you can also hire a WordPress development company for the same.
Do share your thoughts related to convert a Photoshop design to WordPress below. In case of a query, let us know. Thanks for reading!
