HTML and PHP Programming
A modern web designer needs to be an expert in many different fields to be successful. It’s not enough to be artistic and understand color and balance. Today’s designer needs a tool set that encompasses many programming languages, design software, photo software, video methods and formats, browser compatibility, and social media functionality. In this series we discuss in greater detail the scope of these tools.
Programming using HTML:
HTML stands for “HyperText Markup Language” and is the standard programming language used in website design. All web browsers can read HTML files and convert them into visible webpage content or audible files. Anyone looking to become proficient as a web designer must be fluent in HTML. Every web page is built with HTML language as the basis and HTML code defines the web page layout and content placement. Text types are also defined using HTML codes like header and paragraph.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):
The term CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets. This is a method and a new feature added to HTML that offers website developers and end users a great deal of control over the way the web pages look and how they are displayed. The term “cascading” derives from the fact that multiple style sheets can be applied to the same web page. A successful web designer will use CSS language to give HTML content more of the WOW factor. For instance adding color and style to boring text, adding background colors, shadows, and even interesting movement across a page.
PHP-Programming:
PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source scripting language used by most website developers. It is easily embedded into HTML to achieve the results the designer is looking for. Developers just starting out can begin writing php scripts quickly. The learning curve is low enough for those wishing to learn to do so.
Using Photoshop to manage images:
Successful Web Design Methods
Photoshop is the most widely used photo editing software for photographers, graphic artists, and web designers. The internet is a visual medium and Photoshop allows for sizing and optimizing images for web use. An entire website page layout may be constructed in Photoshop and then sliced to create specific webpage graphics. A working knowledge of this software is essential for a successful web designer.
Guest blogger: Paul Rose, Multi-media designer and programmer with Inside Design Orlando. Paul has won many awards in the field of website design and we appreciate his input which can be shared by those in our field striving to become top web developers. His latest award is an IAC Industry award for web development. Visit our portfolio to see his work.
