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SG3xpress Photoshop Plug-in From Media Lab - Quick Tutorial
April 05, 2011
The SG3xpress Photoshop plug-in from Media Lab is a new product that converts Photoshop designs to WordPress themes and fully-functional blogs.
Starting with Photoshop CS, Adobe introduced a feature with its own palette (like the layers palette) called “layer comps”. Most Photoshop users have never used the feature, but it turns out to be tremendously useful, enabling you to:
• Save snapshots of multiple revisions of your document to try out different ideas, colors, and elements
• Save snapshots of multiple versions of your document to show clients
• Create snapshots of multiple steps in a process for making tutorial graphics or videos
• Make a multi-page website or WordPress theme all in one Photoshop file (with SiteGrinder 3 from Media Lab).
According to the Adobe website, "Without layer comps, a designer might need to save several versions of a file, each with different variations for the layers. With layer comps, a designer can simply save a layer comp as part of the file. Even better, Photoshop also allows you to easily turn layer comps into Adobe PDF documents with each layer comp as its own PDF page. These PDF documents can then be used as presentations to show the variations of a document."
To do this, after you create all the layer comps for a document, choose File > Scripts > Layer Comp To Files, then choose PDF.
What are Photoshop Layer Comps?
Another way to look at it is to think of layer comps as bookmarks that preserve what a document looks like at various points in time as you work on it. You can give layer comps custom names, and later you can return the document to the state preserved in the layer comp.
What we mean by “preserve what a document looks like” is actually simple:
• By default, layer comps just remember which layers were hidden and which were visible at the moment you created the layer comp.
• Returning the document to that state is called “applying” the layer comp, and is done using the layer comps palette.
• When you apply a layer comp, Photoshop just hides the layers that were hidden when the layer comp was originally created and shows the layers that were visible when the layer comp was originally created.
• Layer comps save with your Photoshop document, so they’ll be there after you close your document and open it again later.
Creating a document with several layer comps is quite easy:
1. Create and position the layers that you want to have visible for any specific reason.
2. Make a new layer comp to preserve the current state of the document.
3. Name the layer comp what you want.
4. Hide any layers unique to the design you were just working on and leave visible the layers used on both the previous design and the new design you are starting. Create any new layers you need for the new design.
5. Go to step 2.
Layer comps aren’t fixed and unchangeable. At any time you can update a layer comp you made earlier to reflect the current state of the document by using the layer palette’s “Update layer comp” command if you want to add layers to or delete layers from an existing layer comp.
Say you make a layer comp and then realize you forgot to include an important element like the company logo. Simply apply the layer comp you want to update, and make whatever changes are necessary such as making the logo layer visible. You'll notice when you make changes to a document after you've created a layer comp, the icon for the active layer comp moves to "current document state". Click in the rectangular area containing the name of the layer comp you want to update (not on the square to the left of the name), so it is highlighted. Then right click and select "update layer comp" or click the little circular update button at the bottom of the palette. The little icon will appear next to that layercomp’s name in the palette, indicating that it is updated and active.
Creating Web Pages from Photoshop Layer Comps
You can name layer comps whatever you like to help keep track of them. To tell SiteGrinder that a layer comp is meant to be a page on your site you add the “-page” hint to the end of its name. The -page hint is only used on layer comps, never on layers or layer groups.
Note: No layer comp page can have the same name as another layer comp page. SiteGrinder will warn you if you have two layer comps named “blog-page” for example.
Here’s an overview of how you’d use layer comps with SiteGrinder to create web pages:
1. Create and position the layers that you want to have on any particular page of your site.
2. Make a new layer comp when you are ready to start on another page, or want to do a quick build to see how things look so far in a browser.
3. Name the layer comp what you want (usually matching to a button or menu name) and add the -page hint to the comp.
4. Hide the layers unique to the page you were just working on and leave visible the layers used on both the previous page and the new page you are starting.
5. Go to step 2.
WordPress Special Pages
In addition to creating standard web pages with layer comps, you can also create special pages to include as part of a WordPress theme.
These include the following:
• Unique "single post" versus "multiple post" view pages
• A "404" error page to display when the user clicks on a link to a page of your blog that doesn't exist for some reason
• A search results page used to display results when site visitors search your blog
• An archive page to display archives of your blog
• A "front page" that can act as a unique landing page for your blog
• An "author" page with information about the blog author
Let's take a look at how this is done in an actual Photoshop file.
In our sample template, FancyDesignUp.PSD, let's look at the layer comps menu. Click on the little square next to each different layer comp in turn to see what we’ve included on each page. (Or use the left and right arrows at the bottom of the layer comps palette to cycle through them.)
You’ll see that different layers are set to be visible and invisible for each page. Some of these layer comps, like home-page, about-page, and gallery-page, match the names of items in the menu at the top of the site. The menu layers are visible in all of the layer comps and SiteGrinder is smart enough to automatically link a button or menu item to the page of the layer comp with the same name. So the main pages of the site are all built and linked together automatically for you.
OK, now we’re ready to move from Photoshop to SiteGrinder, so we can see what happens in the browser: Select File>Automate>SiteGrinder 3 from within Photoshop.
We'll skip over the SiteGrinder Report and Compression tabs for now and go directly to the Build & Deploy tab.
1. You'll see a page listed to match each of the layer comps you created and named with the -page hint.
2. Click the pages you want to build.
3. Click Build at the bottom of the column below the checkboxes.
The SiteGrinder Design Manager will open and you can preview your pages here, and make changes to various CSS styles. Since we're focusing on Photoshop today, the main thing to notice is that there is one page built to match each layer comp. You can click on the name of each page in the Design Manager to view it in the browser.
WordPress Photoshop Plug-in Creates Wordpress Blogs & Sites
Designers can now create PSD to WordPress Themes in Photoshop with Media Lab's NEW SG3xpress for Wordpress Photoshop plug-in. In addition, Media Lab has released the SG3xpress Add-on for its SiteGrinder 3 for users who wish to add advanced blog and WordPress Theme-building to the already powerful SiteGrinder 3 website creation software.
If you know Photoshop then you already know enough to start creating WordPress themes and blogs for yourself and your clients. Creating a blog or a WordPress site in Photoshop is easy with SG3xpress. Now you can go directly to WordPress with your design saving even more time and money for yourself and your clients.
"SG3xpress is great! If you are a graphic designer or web developer like myself you will find the SG3xpress for WordPress Photoshop plug-in to be an invaluable addition to your toolkit," said Chipp Walters, CEO of Altuit. "If you are a SiteGrinder 3 Platform user like me the SG3xpress add-on extends the power of SiteGrinder and is a must have for every SiteGrinder 3 user."
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