new fad or a real market need?

The idea of a PSD-to-HTML service is quite simple. Using Adobe Photoshop or other software packages, graphic and web designers create digital images — files with *.PSD, etc extensions. To convert them into a webpage template or blog theme, you need to develop HTML code. PSD-to-HTML companies are those who provide such a transformation.

The emergence of PSD-to-HTML services is not just chance.

A while ago we all celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Web. Media actively discussed https://visualmodo.com/ achievements and outlook of the Internet. The appearance of design-to-HTML coding as a separate service also illustrates that the Web is becoming more mature. Really, specialization of labor and tendency to standards compliance are features of established industries only.

The own niche in the web development process

Each of the web development jobs — design, HTML/CSS coding, and programming in PHP, Java, etc. — plays its own important role and requires its own specific skills and aptitude.

I like the analogy with music creation: composers (in case of Web — designers) express their ideas in images. Then the music (websites) is written down by means of musical notation (HTML and CSS), arranged for different types of orchestras (browsers), and complied with recommendations of musicians’ associations (WWW Consortium) and music critics (search engines). Of course, quality instruments, sound equipment, and stage effects are a must (databases, chats, widgets, etc).

If each job is done properly, the website may get “Grammy”, i.e. a lot of traffic and place #1 in SERPs (search engine results pages).

Web standards, compatibility, and accessibility

PSD-to-HTML providers’ advertisements often say that a resulting HTML/XHTML/CSS markup will be “cross-browser compatible, W3C valid, SEO semantic, and hand-coded.” Why is it emphasized?

1. Cross-browser compatibility
Users are free in their choice which of the PC or mobile devices, operating systems or browsers to utilize. Browser producers are also free in which way to treat a webpage. To ensure correct website appearance in different environments and make it accessible to wider audience, browser-specific code is added to a website HTML/CSS markup.