Converting PSD to WordPress: 5 Key Aspects You Should Know

Make your website mockup a reality by converting PSD to WordPress, but before you do check out these 5 key aspects you should be aware of.

Converting PSD to WordPress

With the evolution of web technologies, developing websites has become more and more convenient. So much so, that you can create out-of-the-box websites without any prior knowledge of web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

This is possible due to varied website development platforms such as WordPress. We’re going to talk about WordPress specifically because it is THE most popular CMS for website development. Many small business owners would love the ability to create a personalized website directly from their own concept or with the aid of a graphic designer. There is always that necessary step of needing a web designer to code it out though.

Well, you’re in luck! PSD to WordPress conversion is one of the most effective methods of developing robust websites straight from your static mockup.

 

What is a PSD and why should you convert PSD to WordPress?

 

A PSD is simply a Photoshop document. You can create the perfect WordPress website layout and covert the PSD directly to a WordPress Theme like this one:

Avenue Fashion – Free PSD ecommerce template

Avenue Fashion - Free PSD ecommerce template

Avenue Fashion is a clean and modern ecommerce template designed with Photoshop and released by RobbyDesigns, a freelance web designer and UI designer based in Plymouth, UK. This template is perfect for building a minimalistic fashion store.

Features:

  • Includes 6 product pages
  • Fashionable design

Free download

 

To do so, you need a PSD which is an abbreviation for Photoshop Document. A PSD contains the structure and layout of a website theme that you want to translate to WordPress. When you create a graphic file in Photoshop it is saved with a .psd extension and this is what we call a PSD file.

In the case of PSD to WordPress, this file contains a website’s design layout like the one shown above.

 

PSD to WordPress conversion involves the process of transforming the Photoshop documents into a dynamic WordPress theme. Thus it is a convenient and effective way of creating customized and attractive websites that meet specific business needs. You can take advantage of converting PSD to WordPress in order to build a responsive, dynamic, and feature-rich website for your business.

 

Benefits of converting PSD to WordPress:

 

1. Pixel-perfect design

 

Pixel perfection is achieved when the website is coded so intelligently that a webpage looks sharp and crisp. WordPress has in-built functionality that makes it use every pixel and provide a pleasant appearance.

 

2. Enhanced usability

 

WordPress allows users to integrate plugins that enable them to enhance their websites’ features and functions.

 

3. Built-in blogging system

 

WordPress has a built-in blogging system that means website owners can create and publish engaging content on their websites.

 

4. Responsive websites

 

A responsive website is a must for any business today that the end-users can access from any device be it mobile or desktop.

 

5. SEO-friendly

 

WordPress is an SEO-friendly ecommerce platform that enables users to create search engine optimized websites that get a good ranking on Google or other search engines. It has many in-built SEO features that allow website owners to create SEO-friendly websites.

 

6. Budget Friendly

Oh, I almost forgot to mention… converting a PSD to WordPress is a much more cost effective solution than opting to create a custom them through a professional web developer.

 

Key aspects of PSD to WordPress conversion

 

The process of converting Photoshop files into WordPress themes is a sum of varied tasks like analyzing the PSD, slicing, conversion, testing, and deployment. If you have enough knowledge and experience, you can perform the conversion yourself.

However, if you lack that knowledge then you can simply hire dedicated WordPress developer to develop your website.

 

  1. Analyze the PSD

 

Start by analyzing your Photoshop documents meticulously to comprehend all the intricacies involved in your PSD. By doing so, you can understand what challenges you will be facing during the conversion of PSD to WordPress. You can also create a robust plan for the conversion process after analyzing the PSD.

PSD to WordPress

  1. Slicing the PSD

 

Once you have carefully analyzed the PSD and have understood all the intricacies of the design, you can proceed further. Slicing is the first step in the PSD to WordPress conversion and it is necessary to produce the desired output. For this, you need to cut your PSD in multiple images. Each of these image files will hold information about a particular element of your websites like header, footer, backgrounds, and more. For slicing, you can use any image editing tool or Photoshop.

 

In fact, using Photoshop is more appropriate as it offers easy features for cutting and manipulating images. All of these image files will be rearranged or synthesized into a complete website. After you have cut all the images, save these images in a separate folder that you name images or something like this. These images will be used on your website.

 

  1. Write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

 

The next step in the PSD to WordPress conversion is coding. Now you need to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. This is possible if you have enough knowledge of front-end technologies. But if you don’t have any knowledge, you can hire WordPress developer to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. HTML is a markup language that defines the structure of a website. CSS is used for presentation and JavaScript defines the behavior for varied elements on your webpage. You can use any popular text editor to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. When converting PSD to HTML, you will need to create index.html and style.css files. After creating these files, you can save these files in a folder.

 

  1. Creating a WordPress theme

 

Once you have created the HTML and CSS files, this is time to integrate them into WordPress. For this, you need to create the theme files. This is the main step in the PSD to WordPress conversion process. You need to break the index.html file according to the theme structure of WordPress. With this process, you can convert your static index.html file into a dynamic website theme. Also, we will add varied features and functions that are associated with it.

 

Typically you need to create files like header.php, index.php, footer.php, search.php, sidebar.php, and more. You need to include PHP tags to make it a PHP file. WordPress offers a bunch of functions that are used to add custom features and functions to a website. After breaking the index.html file into the required .php files, it is now time to include PHP tags to varied theme files like index.php, footer.php, header.php, and so on.

If you’re not quite up to this task, keep in mind, there are a Ton of great and even FREE WordPress Themes available already for you.

 

  1. Final testing

 

Testing is important as you cannot use your website as is since it may have some issues that need to be resolved. Hence testing enables you to remove issues and finalize your website so that you can make sure that is working well with all devices and web browsers. It is an important aspect of the PSD to WordPress conversion process. You need to perform a unit test to make sure your website is ready to be launched.

 

As your website theme will have different types of codes like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, etc, you should always trouble shoot coding issues that occur during testing to make the site error-free. You need to check the functional, visual, and performance aspect of your website to ensure that it is error-free and ready to be deployed.

The ending note

 

You can create your own website just how you want it by converting a PSD to a WordPress Theme. Converting a PSD to WordPress is a great way to reduce costs while still getting a professional and clean coded theme.

This process above defines a set of tasks that you must perform to convert your static Photoshop documents to a full-fledged dynamic WordPress website. In this blog, we discussed different aspects of this process.

 

You need to go through these steps to accomplish the conversion. You can hire a WordPress developer to complete this process and develop a robust website for your business a little more quickly and efficiently.

However, testing is necessary and you should test your site carefully to avoid inadvertent errors that could spoil the spirit of your site.