Hey im 15 and my dad wants me to get into web desighn a little bit. And i think its a good idea. any tips? Whats a good software to start with nothing real expensive but i dont want some crappy software you cant do anything cool with?
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starter to web desighn
- Thread starter Rasheem
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well actually first you should learn to spell design 
as mentioned before, learn to code by hand before touching any WSYWIGS. Your code will be better for it.
As for design software I'd suggest picking up photoshop elements (I think it's less than $100) to start, yeah it lacks a lot of the power photoshop does, but at least it'll get your feet wet with photoshop.
as mentioned before, learn to code by hand before touching any WSYWIGS. Your code will be better for it.
As for design software I'd suggest picking up photoshop elements (I think it's less than $100) to start, yeah it lacks a lot of the power photoshop does, but at least it'll get your feet wet with photoshop.
Elements will work just fine -- and then some
To clarify, Elements will do everything you need as a Web designer. If you branch out to print work and need the pre-press capabilities, at some point, you'll want to invest in a full version of PhotoShop.
I'll echo the suggestions to learn html first before using WYSIWYG software. A good html book also is a lot less expensive than the applications: Until you know you're going to like Web design, you may want to keep your costs to a minimum.
dornoforpyros said:
To clarify, Elements will do everything you need as a Web designer. If you branch out to print work and need the pre-press capabilities, at some point, you'll want to invest in a full version of PhotoShop.
I'll echo the suggestions to learn html first before using WYSIWYG software. A good html book also is a lot less expensive than the applications: Until you know you're going to like Web design, you may want to keep your costs to a minimum.
Are you doing a gnvq?
I learn't HTML when I did my gnvq.
All the Html books I have seen are a bit crap. But thats just my opinion.
I learn't HTML when I did my gnvq.
All the Html books I have seen are a bit crap. But thats just my opinion.
dornoforpyros said:well actually first you should learn to spell design
as mentioned before, learn to code by hand before touching any WSYWIGS. Your code will be better for it.
As for design software I'd suggest picking up photoshop elements (I think it's less than $100) to start, yeah it lacks a lot of the power photoshop does, but at least it'll get your feet wet with photoshop.
sorry. about spelling design wrong i just noticed that this morning right before i read yours. As for photoshop i have already used it. I took a class in school we used Cs2. Any good book reccomendations or should i just go browse through barnes and noble to see what works for me?
Rasheem said:
Guess you're not from england either. I don't know why I know this but at GNVQ is a General National Vocational Qualification ... I think in the UK they take these GNVQ classes in high school that are more specialized to their eventual field of study.
Anyway, I first started playing around with web design back when I was your age. I learned HTML and basic javascript from a book in my local library. I've yet to find another that I like as much. Here's the authors website: http://24hourhtmlcafe.com/ .
Rasheem said:
Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm is the best design (with web standards) book on the market, in my opinion.
Before starting with that you should read and understand the basics of HTML. It's not complex, and can be understood in a day... of course, the subtleties are more challenging to pick up.. but that's 75% of what a WEB designer does.
EDIT: I should clarify that most of the subtleties are on the CSS side, rather than the HTML side.. but you get my point (I hope)
Check out the books from O'Reilly. There are a couple of books on HTML and CSS plus Pocket Guides, as they call them, plus Web Design in a Nutshell. Each of their books has a lot of examples for tackling specific things.
As far as software goes, the fewer products you use, the better. You should learn how to code it yourself first, even if you do less ambitious projects. Then, when your web design application doesn't work as planned, you can jump into the code and fix it without waiting.
As far as Photoshop Elements goes, it's a good tool at a good price for editing photos. It's quite well-equipped for web design.
As far as software goes, the fewer products you use, the better. You should learn how to code it yourself first, even if you do less ambitious projects. Then, when your web design application doesn't work as planned, you can jump into the code and fix it without waiting.
As far as Photoshop Elements goes, it's a good tool at a good price for editing photos. It's quite well-equipped for web design.