Guide for PSD to WordPress

If you are reading this, there is a reasonable probability that your website design is stunning and was created in Adobe Photoshop and saved in PSD, JPG, PDF, AI, or PNG format. Now that your website or blog has been constructed, you want to turn this picture file into a WordPress theme so that you may use it there. You could desire a PSD to WordPress conversion as well, but what if you could do this conversion on your own and at no charge. 

The process of turning a Photoshop to WordPress theme attacks a lot of talented graphic designers. They also feel trapped. However, they are not to blame. In addition to having the ability to produce a beautiful design, website creation also demands programming knowledge. To convert PSD file into a website, you must be proficient in at least HTML, CSS, JavaScript Query, and PHP programming. The issue is that the majority of individuals are professional programmers or designers. 

However, you worry not. Turing a PSD file into a WordPress theme is not too complicated. All you need to know is the best course of action. I am going to tell you the same thing in this article! Let’s start learning now. 

How do PSD files work?

PSD stands for Photoshop Document, for those who are unaware. It is the kind of file format used by Adobe Photoshop to store usable files. PSD files may be opened in Photoshop for further design customization. PSD files are sometimes referred to as open files (referring to the fact that these files can be edited).

You will probably use Photoshop to construct your ideal website design when you are ready to put it into action. Photoshop is the greatest and most widely used graphic design programme.  

Describe WordPress.

In essence, WordPress is a free blogging platform. Even non-programmers may now establish their websites or blogs thanks to this open-source tool. WordPress was created in PHP and is reliable and scalable. 

A WordPress-based website’s Design is a theme (sometimes a template). 

Responsive Web Design

RWD, or responsive web design, is a method that uses HTML5 and CSS3 Media Queries to automatically change a website so that it looks excellent on a number of devices and screen sizes, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Ensure your WordPress site is responsive and displays flawlessly on all devices and screen sizes since Google recommends using this design style. Here are some excellent resources you may utilize to further your understanding of responsive web design (RWD) and any associated coding:

A fantastic resource Google provides for those new to responsive web design is responsive web design basics.

Basic Principles of Responsive Web Design: It is a helpful blog article by Sandijs Ruluks that explains the distinction between responsive and adaptive web design.

Resources for Responsive Web Design: Here is the UserTesting Blog’s compilation of the top 44 responsive web design resources.

A comprehensive collection of materials on the many facets of responsive web design can be found at responsive resources.

A solid command of CSS3 media queries is a must for building a completely responsive WordPress theme. You may consider utilizing a responsive front-end framework with a pre-coded responsive stylesheet if you don’t want to go into the same. The following are some of the most well-liked and used front-end frameworks:

Bootstrap: It is a responsive front-end framework developed by Twitter that is comparatively simple to learn and use. It employs a CDN to maintain your website’s load speed.

Foundation: The ZURB front-end grid framework, which is the second most popular and has the smallest file size, is highly adaptable.

Semantic UI: It is a relatively new responsive front-end framework that uses natural language concepts to improve the readability and comprehension of the website’s source code.

Bootstrap, one of the many responsive front-end frameworks on the market today, is regarded as the most suitable framework for responsive web design because of its incredibly robust grid system, limitless customizability options, and a plethora of other exceptional features that it provides to developers. It is another critical factor in choosing Bootstrap for this article.

Read More: 6 Advantages For Using Custom Software Development

PSD and the WordPress Theme Are Examples of the Formats and Tools

Photoshop has been the longest go-to programme for creating online design mockups, and the standard PSD (or Photoshop Document) file is where the finished website design generally ends up. The PSD format is used by graphic artists worldwide, who often transmit works in this format. 

On the other hand, WordPress is the preferred Information Management System (CMS) on the web. The critical word is “Content” since WordPress does not impose any limitations on your Design’s nature; instead, it just manages the content and shows it in the manner and order you choose.  

Therefore, a WordPress theme is a terrific method to enhance the user experience of visitors to your website substantially. It is similar to a smartphone or desktop theme in that it can modify how your material appears and feels. 

The WordPress Themes

We refer to a WordPress theme as files that include code that specifies the colors, shapes, icons, text sizes, and styles for every website component. 

WordPress themes are widely available online, ranging from the generic ones with minor differences you have seen on several websites to the delicious free article to the premium ones that cost hundreds of dollars and punch much above their weight. 

Then there are the bespoke designs, which may be used to create a website that most closely resembles or conveys the experience you have in mind. The final product of the effort to depict experience is a PD, which serves as the template for the theme. 

A Step-by-Step Guide PSD to WordPress Theme Conversion

Step 1: Cut the PSD File

When your PSD file prepared, you must first divide it into components. Why? Considering a single picture will be significant and take longer to load. Additionally, you will need to relate various actions to various picture portions. Thus, it would help if you cut it into pieces.  

However, you cannot just clip the picture at random. You should construct your items logically. For instance, although the footer should be distinct, the header may become one component. After that, you separate the backdrop, buttons, menus, etc. 

You may use layers in Adobe Photoshop. The ability to slice a PSD file and save the resultant pieces as independent picture files is integrated into programme. You have the option of saving these pictures in JPG or PNG formats. Because JPG does not allow transparency, you must keep it as PNG if you need clarity to function in any of these parts. 

You must be accurate while cutting the picture. A mistake of even one pixel may prevent the joining of two components. 

You should be aware that CSS is now relatively strong and that it may build many components with only a few lines of code when you are cutting a convert PSD to WordPress theme. For instance, with just CSS, you may design backgrounds with solid colors, gradients, buttons in various styles, lines, arrows, and unique symbols. Therefore, you do not need to save these items as pictures. The fewer photos you use, the quicker your website will load. 

It’s time to move on to the following step now that you have different visual components for your website design. 

Step 2: Create HTML and CSS Files

The process of transforming a PSD file into a website now moves into the essential coding phase. You must build a website and combine all the sliced photos to resemble your PSD perfectly. 

You must first produce an HTML file. You may give it any name, but let’s stick with index.html for the time being. To display different picture fragments from your PSD, you would need to add HTML or XHTML code to this file. DIV components may be used to build the basic layout. DIV components are reasonably adaptable. You can stack DI components on top of one another, side by side, and with overlap. You may place DIV elements precisely at specific coordinates on the site and center, left and right, to align them. 

Additionally, CSS makes it simple to create a grid layout. 

You may refer to the stored photos by name in these DIV components and display them that way or as the DIV’s backdrop. 

You need to stylize your website after you have completed the basic layout to make it seem precisely like your PSD. Use Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) rules for style. Using these guidelines, you may utilize different font style, sizes, colors, text shadows, pictures gray scaling, borders, etc. 

You should create another file named styles.css and then call this CSS file into your index.htm page to write CSS style rules. Your HTML files’ different components will have CSS added to them. 

Ok, hold on! Don’t worry if you have no experience with HTML or CSS coding. You may quickly study these programming languages online since they are pretty basic.  

Step 3: Split an HTML File into Files for a WordPress Theme

You would have one HTML file (index, htm) and one CSS file at this stage in the PSD to WordPress theme conversion procedure (style.css). The HTML file must be divided according to the WordPress theme structure in the third stage. Are you feeling perplexed? WordPress, however, has a predefined collection of files combined to create a website. For instance, WordPress requests the content of the header file, post file, sidebar file, and footer file, among others, when displaying a post. However, index.htm is the only file that contains all of the code. Therefore, you must distribute the index.htm code among different WP files. Mostly, it’s a cut-and-paste job! The following list includes some of the critical theme files for WordPress:

• Archive.php
• Category.php
• Comments.php
• Footer.php 
• Header.php
• Index.php
• Page.php
• Search.php
• Sidebar.php
• Single.php
• Style.css
• 404.php

You would need to build at least header.php, footer, php, sidebar.php, single.php, and index.php to construct a basic WordPress theme. 

Create these PHP files in any text-editing programme and paste the necessary code from index.htm into them. The code for the header portion should go in header.php, and the code for the footer should go in footer.php, so on and so forth. 

If you are unfamiliar with PHP, these files may be tough to create correctly. For learning PHP, there are several excellent and cost-free online courses. Easy-to-understand PHP support is available from W3Schools and PHP.net. to learn PHP. 

Step 4: Include WordPress Tags and Functions

Turning your straightforward PHP scripts into WordPress theme files has come. You would need to include WordPress tags in your files for this. But you could question, what precisely are WordPress tags?

WordPress is a fantastic and reliable platform, as I already said. You may quickly call many of its built-in functions to complete tasks. 

To further grasp it, let’s use an illustration. You may wish to display a list of the most recent articles on your homepage (index.php). This list should update immediately as soon as you create a new post. In order to get post data from a database and display it on the webpage, you may create your PHP functions. However, WordPress creators have made your life simpler! You wouldn’t have to create your intricate functions from scratch. Simply use WordPress’wp get recent posts ($args, $output) function to show the list of recent posts!

WordPress includes extensive online documentation that details all the features and other resources offered in WordPress. The documentation is straightforward to grasp since it consists of many examples. 

When the theme files are prepared, you should place them in a folder with the same name as the new theme. Additionally, this folder may have subfolders for image files, CSS files, and JavaScript files. 

You may also add a screenshop.jpg or screenshot.png picture file. This file will be shown as your theme’s thumbnail. Learning how to snap screenshot is simple.  

Your theme folder must be uploaded to the WordPress installation’s /wp-content/themes area. The theme files should be located under/wp-content/themes/ Minerva, for instance, if your theme is called Minerva.

Once your theme folder has been uploaded, click on Appearance > Themes in the WordPress Dashboard. Your newly created, self-designed theme will be featured here among the articles that may be activated, much to your joy. Choose your theme and turn it on. 

Step 5: Include More Functionality, Such as Custom Functions and Search

Your WordPress theme is finished, installed, and functional. The transition from a PSD to a WordPress theme is complete. Howecer, you could still wish to give your theme extra features. 

For instance, you might write the code that displays the search results from your website in a search.php file. 

Additionally, you might write your PHP functions and utilize them in other PHP files. To store the customized tasks in one location, you need to create a functions.php file. 

You may create a 404.php file to handle 404 (page not found) issues. When a visitor tries to access a URL for your website that does not exist, WordPress will display the content of this file. 

Additionally, you may wish to include certain JavaScript features. The most popular client-side programming language is JavaScript. In.js files, you may create JavaScript functions that you can call from PHP code. For instance, JavaScript is often used for form validation. JavaScript will notify a user to input search criteria if they attempt to find anything on your website without using any terms in the search box. 

You may make your custom WordPress theme by following these instructions. Your PSD file will become a working WordPress theme when you follow these procedures. Some individuals do, nevertheless, search for free PSD to WordPress converters. Several businesses out there that promise to take your PS file and create a similar theme. You can hand these businesses your PSD if don’t want to deal with learning programming. However, they do charge for this.

Conclusion

The following five easy steps will enable you to convert any PSD file to WordPress. You might contact a WordPress development companies that offers conversion services if you encounter difficulties.