From Photoshop to Dreamweaver [Paperback]

Colin Smith (Author), Catherine McIntyre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

This book will show you how to combine the power of Adobe Photoshop 7 and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, both the premier applications in their fields.

The book's core purpose is to teach the fundamentals of designing for the web using Photoshop and Dreamweaver, through a combination of theory and practical examples. We will start with a brief look at the history of the Internet and some design theory, to lay the groundwork for what follows. We do not aim to bore you with theory! Projects and step-by-step examples will form a large part of this book—so that you can see the theory and good advice put into practice.

The end goal of this book is to enable the reader to create a visually stunning, fully functional and aesthetically pleasing website. The combination of web design theory and clearly worked examples will allow you to go away and experiment for yourself—more aware of the potential complexities involved in building a website and better positioned to do it more efficiently than before. The outcome: a great visual and well-designed site.

Creating an aesthetically pleasing website that is also universally functional is no easy task. Through the initial concept stages and into implementation a web designer must be aware of the fundamentals involved in taking a flat and lifeless graphic and converting it into a dynamic entity. For an uninitiated artist or potential web designer the traps and pitfalls in creating such a site are plentiful. Walking our reader through this in the simplest and most informed manner possible is the goal of this publication.

Respecting the Internet as a flexible medium as rich in personality as those who use it is the message that were trying to get across. But at the same time we want to make the site design and development process accessible by explaining to the reader the fundamentals in clear and concise language and providing relevant screen shots and graphics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Geared towards intermediate Photoshop users and Dreamweaver beginners, this quick read does exactly as it promises, taking you from the design stage with Photoshop, to editing … and then to a web publishing with Dreamweaver. … this book teaches the fundamentals through a combination of theory and practical examples. If you create and think in Photoshop and want to put your creations, interfaces and navigation on the web, this book is for you." (Design Graphics, Issue 103, 2004)

From the Publisher

The structure of the book aims to mirror the way professional web designers create their sites, as well as providing the background theory that you need to be aware of, in order to create a well-designed, functional and aesthetically pleasing site in the most efficient way possible. Everyone wishes to create their own individual site and together with the practical exercises, advice is offered about how you might wish to personalize the examples given.

From Photoshop to Dreamweaver is the first book to recognise the unique partnership these two industry-leading tools offer you, the designer. In this book, we've used the latest versions of these tools: Photoshop 7 and Dreamweaver MX, but the principles and guidance provided remain the same and most steps can be achieved with earlier versions of these tools. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: friendsofED; 1 edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590591747
• ISBN-13: 978-1590591741
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,365,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Colin Smith is a best-selling author, trainer, and award-winning new-media designer who has caused a stir in the design community with his stunning photorealistic illustrations composed entirely in Photoshop. Colin is also known as a pioneer of HDR photography. He is founder of the world's most popular Photoshop resource site, PhotoshopCAFE.com, which boasts over 20 million visitors.

With over 15 years of experience in the creative industry, Colin was formerly Senior Editor and Creative Director for VOICE magazine. He is a regular columnist for Photoshop User magazine. He has been featured in most major imaging magazines including, Computer Arts, Macworld, After Capture, PSD Photoshop, Advanced Photoshop, Photoshop Creative, Digital Photographer, Web Designer magazine and a host of others..

Colin's graphic design work has been recognized with numerous awards, including, MacWorld Digital Design and 3 Guru awards at Photoshop World 2001 and 2002, for his work in both Illustration and Web Design. He's authored or co-authored more than eighteen books on Photoshop, including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Photoshop CS and CS2 (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005) and award-winning Photoshop Most Wanted: Effects and Design Tips (A Press/Friends Of Ed, 2002). Colin is also creator of the Photoshop Secrets Video training series (PhotoshopCD.com). He is in high demand across the United States as a lecturer, presenting his Photoshop techniques to Photographers and graphics professionals across the nation. He has been a speaker at such conferednces as Flash Forward, NVision, Photoshop World, PIDE, WPPI, PIDE, DL Expo, Creative Suite Conference, Cre8, Create Chaos, Deviant Art Summit and many more. In 2008 Colin was the featured speaker for a Sold out Multi-City Tour (Flash Summer Camp) Sponsored by Adobe and Lynda.com. Colin has consulted such companies as Adobe Systems, Edison International, Apple and Disney Studios.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This IS the book for Dreamweaver and Fireworks Users, March 3, 2003

By 

frankii (Los Angeles.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop and Dreamweaver: 3 Steps to Great Visual Web Design (Paperback)

Ok, who is this book for? If your like me you've used Dreamweaver and fireworks for web sites and jumped around to Photoshop, or PS7 as they call it, to manipluate the images from time to time, then this may be for you, especially if you have created websites with Dreamweaver/DMMX.

Also, you are at a loss as to how some websites place images and slice them up to place in dreamweaver tables. I mean, c'mon ,how did they get that line, small color 1 pix image gif as a background as well as a rounded boardered image jpg to line up? Fireworks? Dreamweaver? I'll never understand this.

Maybe I should look at GO-Live? Maybe fireworks can do this? What is the story here?

Well the story is this. (according to these authors), photoshop is best for design, and dreamweaver is best for web publishing. You heard me right. Did you ever think we would see a book, and a book from Friends Of Ed no doubt, that placed to of the top selling software authors in the same book???

Well they did and the reason being, that these two programs are the best for what they do.

I've been building websites from Dreamweaver and Fireworks but to be honest, wouldn't it be cool to just draw what you want and then publish it? Well now you can.

This book takes you from the design stage (PS7) to editing (/slicing via image ready - although I'm sure fireworks would have worked) and then to dreamweaver where you then set up the tables for the pages you just created. The photoshop section is so good that I used it myself for a tenative client, and changed the text and images to say what I needed them to say.

Also, what I'm really enjoying is that having built websites from MX Dreamweaver, I now feel the freedom that I've been searching for with a book that puts it all together. i.e. how to get something from your mind (PS7) to Dreamweaver.

I've also found that the PS7 example, creates the whole page in PS7, but once you have the general concept down, you can create just the sections you need, i.e., just the nav bar or side bar... AMEN and AMEN. The dreamweaver section is easy and they show you how to replace, or import what you've done in PS7 to Dreamweaver.

Lastly, since you learn to work in Layers in PS7 (pre-dreamweaver), you now have a numerous pallet of templates that simply by turning off one layer, or changing another gives the site a fresh new feel, all with the click of a few buttons.

Excellent excellent book.

I also recommend Crash Course in Dreamweaver MX and make yourself complete the whole book to grasp the basics of dreamweaver. I also like Photoshop Studio Techniques, VTC online training and Fireworks MX Bible.

I would also like to see them (friends of Ed) put out a FIREWORKS MX and dreamweaver, just to see the results. There doesn't seem to be that many Fireworks books on web publishing with real work (classy and clean) examples.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The manual for taking Photoshop creations to the web., March 5, 2003

By 

"buell88" (Agoura Hills, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop and Dreamweaver: 3 Steps to Great Visual Web Design (Paperback)

Photoshop to Dreamweaver, or should it be called Photoshop to Image Ready to Dreamweaver to Really Cool Site published on the Web. This book does exactly what it says it will do, geared toward Intermediate PS users and Beginning DW users. I found the section on Image Ready most helpful. IR was not an application I ever found much use for. Well, I have been doing some things the hard way. This book demystifies IR, slicing, and quick cool rollovers. I found the DW sections to be a little novice, but it is designed to be. I also found myself thinking a bit ahead in the PS chapters, but you are always being led in a direction for a reason. So, follow the steps... Having complete and accurate tutorials in important. This book is complete and correct. If you create and think in Photoshop and then want to put your creations, interfaces and navigation on the web, this book is for you. If you are new to web design, it is standardized on the best applications for the job, Photoshop/Image Ready and Dreamweaver. By the way, this was a very fast read. You will be shocked that you have finished the book and have a nice site mock-up to show for it.

Great designers, aren't always great writers. Colin & Crystal are rare exceptions, blending engaging design with virtual story-telling ability. Well Done...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 3 Steps is Right !, January 2, 2003

By 

James T Moretti (Philadelphia,, Pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop and Dreamweaver: 3 Steps to Great Visual Web Design (Paperback)

If you are a casual or novice web designer and thought how do the professionals build web sites, than this book is for you. I have dabbled in web design without knowing the tricks of the trade and the web sites I have created lacked a professional touch. The book takes you from the initial web site mock up that you create in Photoshop too slicing up the web site in Imageready and finally creating the website in Dreamweaver. At the end of the book you have your completed website and you are ready to upload to the server.

There are a lot of wonderful tips and techniques that focus on web design-using photoshop and Dreamweaver and you will get a lot of useful information out of this book. The instruction is clear and straight forward, the examples are easy to follow, no need to download anything. I highly recommend this book.