Best Web Design Software

Although there are many web design packages out there (Image Ready, Fireworks) we have found that good old fashioned Photoshop is the best tool to use. We recommend Photoshop over programs like Illustrator or Freehand because it is pixel based. Web graphics (except for Flash animation where the opposite is true) are pixel based graphics (gifs and jpegs). As you design in Photoshop you will be seeing exactly how the site will look when produced.

Tech note: preparing a Photoshop document for a website layout. Set your "units & rulers" preference to pixels and open a new 72 dpi document in RGB mode to 1024 pixels x 768 pixels. This is not the minimum size, but most machines will display this browser setting with no problem. (It may be helpful to drop a couple guides at 800 x 600 to remind you of the area that the smallest screens will display.