Does anyone slice these templates they are selling anymore?

I have had the sad fortune of noticing that many of these templates sold here and not sliced and if
they are it is not done properly , more like just a bunch of images with no place for text.
The designer* says "Well you don't use text you use all images" My reply is usually "what, what, what????.." .. lol

Have bought a couple that said PSD/HTML/Fonts/Images/Sliced...
Although when we got them the HTML was just a HTML file that loaded the ScreenShot of the template
not sliced or anything. Others are sliced but not correctly just images that if you delete the main
text image breaks all up when you add text.

In closing...
I think when people post templates they should put if they are going to slice them correctly or not....
Also a sample watermarked template of their slicing skills would be nice also.
I think this would greatly effect the possible sale of your templates.

Ok rambling is done.. carry on. :)

Well, I want to make the designs help whomever bought it succeed, so I always slice my designs properly..

I've never bought a template so hearing that a lot of them aren't sliced/ready for html customization is news to me... wow... that's awful

slicing takes 2 seconds with fireworks or other freeware out there...

fireworks even exports the html, has rollover js if you had those as well as popup menus too..

all designers should use it. lot cheaper than photoshop, and because its meant for web work, it loads and performs faster too..

also if designers give you a png (firework's native format) file with the slices embedded in it, thats the best thing they could do for you.. that way you can choose what size you want you're end result to be and decide on which file format/compression you want to use..

I totally disagree with everything you just stated.

I slice everything manually.

It's the only way to truly get an efficient layout pop out.

But I've noticed the "Pictures" being sold here as templates, when all they are are a flat representation of a photoshop layout, mostly bad too.

I've only seen a couple that would be warranted as worthly to be sliced and bought.

Fireworks is lame compared to manually slicing and templating a layout.

i guess its because if you have photoshop you have imageready and image ready allows you to export in html, so they can say its html although its actually all the images just shoved on a page.

I recently bought a template that was "html" and now ive spent ages trying to turn it into proper html

Yea.. the default image-ready export is not a good slice..
I wont name the people that sold the *picture* templates..
But would be nice if they would be honest and tell you what you are really getting..
instead of saying HTML (code name html file that loads the screenshot) lol..
Makes it hard to buy any templates anymore because scared of what your going to get.

They should be willing to show you a local running example of the "Picture", or they are not offering anything but a picture.

Sliced, diced, kicked, smashed, and sauted.

Yep i saw one the other day I liked.. asked him to slice up a example and show it to me he did and it was just the default photoshop export and not good at all.
I told him that it messed up when adding text instead of a image where text should be and he replied "Well you just make the site and use all images (no text)"

*sigh* :rolleyes:

Yep, seen that before.

I am by no means perfect, but I am a front end designer and truly do slice manually, it's the only way. But people want 8 hours of photoshop., 4 hours of slicing, css, php including for 50 bucks.... hahaa yea right.

You know why? Because sometimes it's harder than hell to get it to work without using the default Photoshop export! It's the lazy mans way of using a technicality to sell something; the template IS in fact sliced, but doesn't mean it will work the way it should. I bought a template and modified it pretty heavily to look the way I liked it, and it took me 3 weeks of working on it EVERY night for some period of time at least to get it to work properly. Pain in the ass! And I'm still having problems with it in some areas. The person I bought it from did slice it correctly where I could easily just insert text, but like I said, I modified and changed a bunch of things that completely distorted the original template. Couldn't believe how long it took me.

heh, who has used fireworks before? raise your hands..

Originally posted by anantatman
heh, who has used fireworks before? raise your hands..

I have. It sucks.

Anyone have good sites with tuts on slicing websites? :)
Wouldn't get so frustrated when I got _ _ _ _ _ _ _ after buyin a design from someone that was just a *picture* if I knew how to slice things good!
:eek:

i think slicing is the best way to make a site, its just that some people forget to take out the white space (or whatever space that remains the saem color for a lnog period of time)

hehe and what sucks about it? whre does it lack in functionality?

I only slice when I play golf. :stickout

I've only bought two templates, and one of those was not sliced very well at all. :(

- James

My templates aren't sliced, because they don't need to be. When I show a screenshot, it's only so that people don't rip off the HTML - the actual template is *always* HTML with images, not one giant sliced image - example is www.thisisben.co.uk/templates/red_screenshot.jpg - the middle is a proper table, as is the rest; the right menu is an image map.

We aren't all sharks :D

how does slicing help ease the web design process?

I just bought a book on digital imaging.. and "slicing" isn't even in the index.. Since its a nice book, and it's not in there, maybe it's not that important at all ... .Makes you wonder...







j/k! :)
btw its really not in there, and after reading this topic, it seems I didn't buy a really good book .. :(

so thats how come they sell the templates so cheap! I sold my last template for $300 but I put it in html and everything.

Slicing is a lot of work :cool:

Slicing helps in that you have to "Think" what is going to optimize the layout. Tiling of images to take advantage of filling a larger area with a tile, versus a slicing program that will recognize two colors over a given area and just make it a very large background cell image, x amount of pixels high and wide.

You have greater control, better optimization, and end up with more of what you want, versus what looks good in your image program.

Manually slicing also sets in your head what you need to know to alter the look later, versus dealing with what a program decided for you.

After 5 years of self taught web design not one slicing program has ever come close to what I can do with manual pixel edited slicing.

For what it's worth, I tried PSP 7 for slicing and found it always includes one pixel below where I sliced. I don't understand why, but do know it should not be there. I'm the first to admit that I'm no Graphic Artist, but even I can see that one pixel extra. Screwed things up royally for me.

What I do use for slicing, is a program call XnView http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/index.html
Free for personal use and only US $21.00 for commercial. Handy tool to have. Very limited compared to some others, but what it does, it does well. Does more than slicing as well. ;)

BTW, I prefer an image template and do my own slicing -- unless some images are stand-alone and then they need to be provided. Since they can included "as is" it is no problem for the Graphics person. Been working on a new site layout actually, for Sept. 02 release. As I'm moving to "tableless coding" I wouldn't want someone else to do the coding anyway.

Originally posted by archie2
how does slicing help ease the web design process?

Well if you really want to know:

Basically, you think up an idea in your head, "What do i want this site to look like?" Well just draw the bicth. After you draw it, Cut it up (slice) so you can add text. An example site would be mines which isnt up causing its being backended (working on the php scripts) and a site thats not would be a news site for example: datakill.com, tlsecurity.net, pscode.com, you get the point. any sites that change the text on the home page more than 3 times a day...should be done without slicing (just my 2 cents).

Overall point: Slicing is = to you drawing your site on paper, coloring it and scaning it into your computer. Nice eh? Well if you design on a computer and slice it, well it gonna be looking good.:stickout :stickout :stickout :stickout

I slice my templates manually by cropping. I dont know why but I find that I slice PSD files faster by manual cropping and it usually ends up fine without any errors.

If you aren't sure if the template is going to be properly sliced or not, make sure that the author mentions that it will stretch to fit the width and height of higher resolutions. If the author says that, you know that he knows how to slice... well at least you can assume. Sometimes templates are not meant to stretch across the whole width, but part of a good web design is to have the design look nice and fit on all resolution. My website isn't an example of that but my templates are. :)

part of a good web design is to have the design look nice and fit on all resolution. My website isn't an example of that but my templates are.Dont'cha just love this Web stuff. :eek: :D

you pay for what you get...

What do you expect for a 20 layout?? :bawling:

I use fireworks and its great. But I never let fireworks do the actual slicing automatically. I have to do it myself using fireworks because it doesn't come out right in fireworks. But it is a great tool

Thanks