A lot of interesting, inspirational Photoshop and CSS articles where posted this week. We chose the best for you:

• Create Beautiful Abstract Female Art in Photoshop
• 50 Most Creative Character Illustration Tutorials
• 10 Interesting CSS3 Experiments and Demos
• Ultimate Roundup of 200+ Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
• Useful Tools and Resources for Web Designers

As modern internet technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript are taking over the web, PSD to HTML conversion services are becoming increasingly more popular. Web designers and creative professionals in the Marcom industry leverage these providers not only for their quality and quick turnaround, but they became aware of the fact that they could focus more on their passion, creating more unique and creative designs.  Designs that not only attract an audience, but can capture a feeling or move the viewer to react.   For many professionals, this is a full speed ahead approach with no reason to turn back.

However, many companies prefer in-house development. Of course, they haven’t acknowledged the benefits of the conversion solutions, but also like to have total control over their projects. During busy times, some will confess that it can be hard to manage both the creative design and web development at the same time.

So, depending on the size of the project and the deadline, one should take into consideration outsourcing PSD to HTML conversion services. What are the pros and cons? Should your company hire an external provider to convert your designs into XHTML/CSS?

Here, in brief, are some points you should consider when you decide to outsource PSD to HTML conversions:

• Cost efficiency – 64% of the US companies outsource some of their services in order to save money and maximize their ROI. Particularly, web development is one of the most outsourced services for advertising and branding agencies. PSD to XHTML/CSS services at volume pricing are, on average, more cost effective for a company than doing the development in-house.  However, it is difficult to determine how much the cost savings would actually amount to. Typically, the development cost depends on many variables, such as design complexity, requirements of W3C standard compliance, SEO-semantic coding, markup language, etc. Some companies offer discounts for larger, multi page projects or to returning customers, who continue to take advantage of the sourcing services.  And as the relationship grows, one can always try to negotiate a more favorable offer for your company.

• Time Savings – Project turnaround time will be reduced, thus helping your company during busy periods and also enabling a company to focus on capturing new business.  That is why it is advisable to outsource the most time consuming parts of the project.  PSD to HTML conversions demand a lot of resources and skills, so increasingly more companies prefer to outsource the development portion of their larger projects.

• Cross browser compatibility – Your website will look at its best no matter what browser the visitors are using. Also, you should take into consideration that your design is also compatible with different operating systems:  Windows, Mac, etc.

• The code provided is W3C valid, meaning it meets World Wide Web Consortium Standards, which guarantees the quality of the markup. Also, keep in mind that one should look for a company which does all the coding manually. Unlike machine code, you will get clean, high quality code that not only use features or refinements not supported by the graphical editor or compiler but will also produce more elegant source code to help maintenance and integration. Engaging a PSD to HTML services company to code for you gives you instant access to high quality markup. The website will have a professional look, quick loading time, and meet industry standards. You will not have to worry about solving different coding issues; that is left to the coding company!

• In order to be completely satisfied with the quality of the markup, you should send along very detailed technical specifications with the PSD files and look to be able to constantly communicate (in person is best) with the sourcing partner.  Communicate exactly what you need in order to get the design you want and according to your specifications.

• See what other services the company offers like CMS and eCommerce integration, or whether they have any customizing capabilities so that as you grow, your partner will still be there for you and able to meet your growing needs.

• Try finding companies which allow edits to be made to the design after the markup has been delivered.

• Finally, look for a partner that understands your style and process so that you can get as creative about design as you want, without having to allocate time and human resources to handle the coding process. You won’t have to worry about validation, cross-browser compatibility, accessibility, meeting web standards, etc.  This will help you reduce costs and save even more time!

This week, we picked the best from a lot of articles showcasing inspiring resources, topped with eco-friendly design tutorials. Hope you enjoy this weekly article roundup!

• Eco-friendly design tutorials and resources
• Free Icons Sets for Web Designers
• Inspiring Portfolio Designs
• 30 jQuery Tutorials and Plugins
• Essential iPad Apps for Designers and Creatives

1. Using tables for web design

HTML tables used to create page layouts are under no circumstance acceptable in modern web design. Using them will show your visitors that you are not familiar with the latest technology in web development and will make your website look ancient.

If you want a professional look for your website and aim to ensure a pleasant navigation for your visitors, CSS formatting style is the solution. Not only is it faster and more reliable, but it is also very easy to have the HTML integrated in CSS, as it enables a quick separation of your HTML content.

2. Browser incompatibility

When you create a website, you must keep in mind that there are a multitude of browsers, and each of them interprets HTML/CSS code differently. This is why you need to make sure that your website can be viewed at its best no matter what browser or platform (Mac or PC) your visitors are using. Having a cross-browser compatible website is a must in order for you not to lose visitors over the long term.

3. Overloading the site

Even though you might be tempted to place multiple interactive elements on your website, such as pictures, videos and various widgets, this is highly discouraged. Instead of communicating more information, you will get the exact opposite effect.

Your visitors will be overloaded with information and, in the end, will never return to your website. Therefore, try to keep your design as simple as possible. Keep only the very important information on your website and also make sure that you avoid very large portions of text.

4. Not changing the colors of visited links

First, you should make sure that your links are visible. Your visitors must be able to easily distinguish a clickable link from plain text. Choosing to have your links colored with the standard blue color is the easiest way (unless, of course, your whole site is blue).

In order to ensure the maximum of usability for your website, implement links that, after clicking, change their color. This way, your visitors will know which portions of the website they already visited.

5. Ignoring your target audience

When creating a website, take time to reflect on the following issues:  Is the content relevant? Is it easy to navigate? Do people realize instantly what the website is about? Keep in mind the so-called “five seconds rule”, which states that if your visitors cannot realize in the first five seconds what you are trying to communicate to them, they never will.

The best way to make sure that you are providing relevant information to your target audience is to ask yourself what you would like to read about the addressed issue and how would you like to have that information structured.

This way, you can better understand what your target audience expects from you!

For all of you wondering what is fresh in web design this week, we gathered some interesting resources.

We hope you enjoy the following articles:

• 50 Hand Picked Beautiful Drupal 6 Themes
• Tips and Inspiration on Creating a Great Website Footer
• Creative Sessions:  Creative History
• Web 3-D  - Taking Sites to the X-axis
• 5 Web Files That Will Improve Your Website