PDF / HTML ??? Confused and need Help!

jor3000

Hi

I'm planning on launching a website idea for a business and need to get the website designed, and to also get some stuff developed.

I've identified a really good developer and am looking for a web designer. I've met with a guy I'd possibly use, but he's stated that he provides his designs to the developer in pdf format.
My developer says that he needs it in html, and that if the guy insists on pdf then he probably can't do it in html.

The analogy I'm getting is that if I ordered a steak dinner from that designer he's bring me out a photograph of the steak!!!!!

So - I'm slightly confused, as the designer says pdf is fine, but the developer says that a pdf file just doesn't work and that a really good web designer will work in html.

Any guidance from you good folk who would appear to live and breathe this stuff on a 24/7 basis??????


Joe

Eoin

Are you sure it isn't PSD? As in a large photoshop document that can be diced up into a web-page? That wouldn't be completely unusual, but as someone who's not particularly proficient in graphic design, I'd prefer to get a HTML template.

slavigo

The analogy sounds about right.

I think your designer needs to figure out what he/she's designing for.
Flyers or web pages.

The first can be just handed over and used as is but the second still needs to be populated with content, as it's only a shell after the designer is finished.

The later needs to come with html code defining the structure and layout and also all the images/graphics that are needed for the design.
The developer then wraps this around the dynamically generated content on his/her side.

Edit: Eoins PSD works too but puts layout and structure of site effort back on the developer. Who might not be to keen to start messing around and breaking up images.

That would be my understanding of it anyway.

Dades

Are you sure the designer didn't say PSD rather than PDF? A .psd format would at least provide the graphics required to build the site.

Your two guys appear to have issues in understanding their briefs for the project. The developer obviously believes his work is on the back end/database of a site pre-built in HTML - a "shell" as it were.

Your designer seems to think he is only responsible for the design concept, and is expecting the developer to implement it from scratch - including the HTML.

I suspect your answer as to what to do lies in the skill set of the two. The developer I'm sure could build the HTML, but your designer may not have the skills to do this.

Do you have a contract yet or are you still nailing it out?

EDIT: I see eoin has suggested the psd element also...!

Eoin

By the way, if the graphic designer isn't that experienced with HTML, then the developer could really be dodging a bullet if he just gets one image he can cut up himself - and he can do the HTML from scratch.

The markup that some packages generate is horrendous. More nested tables than a furniture store.

onemorechance

The developer should be able to work with the pdf document, which is essentially an image of the design that the designer comes up with.

It must be a case of that the developer doesn't want to take the time needed to create the designers design in HTML, so that the developer can concentrate on implementing the functionality that you want on the website, such as shopping cart, database integration etc.

From the designers point of view, either they cannot do HTML designs, or they also do not want to spend the time creating the HTML version of their design.

You must (pay extra?) and get one of them to do the HTML design.

If you are on a tight budget, you may decide to use a free template, so that the developer can go straight in the development of the site. They will still need to adjust the template (HTML template) a little to suit your need, but it shouldn't take anyway near as much time as it may take to create a HTML design from images / pdf's.

Both your designer and developer are making valid points, as both their methods of work are valid, as it would be more work on both to do the HTML design. You will however find designers who will do designs in HTML for you, but you may find that traditional or "real artists / designers" cannot do or do not like code / HTML and prefer to design using their artistic nature and not worry how the design may be practical to implement in HTML.

Liam Byrne

onemorechance wrote: »

.....traditional or "real artists / designers" cannot do or do not like code / HTML and prefer to design using their artistic nature and not worry how the design may be practical to implement in HTML.

And therein lies the problem. In the worst cases the word "possible" can be swapped with "practical", because of graphic size, overlapping, etc.

There's a gap between the two methods being used, OP, and you need to ensure that one or the other of them undertakes to do it - and is paid to so - in order to make the site work.

Eoin

onemorechance wrote: »

The developer should be able to work with the pdf document, which is essentially an image of the design that the designer comes up with.

Do you not mean PSD? I don't see how a print format document is an appropriate format to work with for a website.

onemorechance

eoin wrote: »

Do you not mean PSD? I don't see how a print format document is an appropriate format to work with for a website.

I don't mean PSD. PDF stands for portable document format, not print document format.

Eoin

But is that generally the format used for this type of stuff? Genuine question, I'm not a graphics person at all. As a (now part-time) developer, I wouldn't know what to do with a PDF I got if it was for converting into a HTML template, other than open it in acrobat reader.

Dades

onemorechance wrote: »

You will however find designers who will do designs in HTML for you, but you may find that traditional or "real artists / designers" cannot do or do not like code / HTML and prefer to design using their artistic nature and not worry how the design may be practical to implement in HTML.

Agreed - a good designer should have a basic knowledge of how a webpage is put together, otherwise their design has the potential to be impossible or completely impractical, and require a lot of compromise.

onemorechance wrote: »

I don't mean PSD. PDF stands for portable document format, not print document format.

The images that can be 'retrieved' from a PDF would require so much manipulation to get them web-ready, it would make much more sense for the designer to send on the image files in the first place instead of making things any more difficult for the developer.

Bluefrog

Hmmmm, your 'web designer' sounds more like a graphic designer with an interest in web design. A web designer should provide HTML templates, any images required (fully optimised and sliced) and the CSS to lay it all out.

On the other hand, if your developer is balking at the idea of marking up HTML to match a graphic rendering of a template, he may feel entitled to charge extra for the extra work but he should be able to do it IMHO.

Gordon

You've found yourself an artist/designer, not a 'web designer' there. Worst case scenario he provides sliced up imagery of a high quality image file, but calling himself a web designer while only being able to provide pdfs is a bit rich.

p

Here's the deal.

If the designer can only provide a PDF file, then quite simply, don't use him. That is not industry standard not acceptable, and not a good practice way of doing web stuff.

If the designer said PSD, then it is a different story. That is acceptable, but the problem is that the visual design of the document, needs to be converted into HTML. It seems that neither your designer nor your developer are wiling to do that.

You need to either find a developer who will HTML or a designer who will. Most web designers know HTML and quite a few web deveopers know it too. The problem is that it's not clearly defined who should know it in the industry.


I think this team of people you have is a bad one. They obviously don't have a workflow that works with each other. It's not a good idea to find two people who work seperately and hope they work together well. Ask the web developer to recommend designers he works with and pick one of those, or ask the designer to recommend some developers he's worked with.

Sounds liek at least one of these two is a amateur, but I would storngly advise ask them lots of questions, suss out who's the most professional, and ask them to recommend another person to fill out the skillset for the project.

Hope that helps!