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Review: Professional grade xhtml coding service on demand with PSD2HTML

Review: Professional grade xhtml coding service on demand with PSD2HTML

So here’s the scenario: you’ve finished hacking away at a week’s worth of design work. You probably estimated that you have around 2-3 websites that are ready for coding. Unfortunately their deadlines are at the very least one day apart from each other – and you still have projects in the pipeline, clients to meet or new projects to review. You need to get those designs coded, but you know you won’t get them done in time.

Stuff like this happens. In fact, this is a familiar scenario I’ve encountered myself more than once. It’s hard managing projects especially when you’re the same guy who does them and no amount of organization can really bulletproof you from design and project management being the inexact science that it is (but this is an entirely different story altogether).

During those tight weeks when I need stuff to be coded and I can’t possibly do them all by myself, I usually ask help from my colleagues – fellow webdesigners or programmers who’s quality of work I trust. Unfortunately people can be less than dependable at times and there are instances where I just can’t find anyone to help me – which brings me to today’s review: PSD2HTML.

PSD2HTML is a paid online service that offers professional grade xhtml coding/templating services straight from your design mockup. Basically the idea is that you send them a copy of your design mock in the usual common design file formats (psd, ai, png etc) or even existing html markup (that isn’t standards compliant xhtml) and after 8 hours they’ll send back to you your design coded in semantic, cross-browser, standards compliant xhtml.

They have several packages depending on the type of coding job you’re looking for are priced as follows:

* Basic Package – $117
– W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional
– Table-less CSS markup.
– Compatible with IE, Firefox.

* Professional Package – $153
– W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Table-less CSS markup.
– Compatible with IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari
– W3C Valid Shorthand & Optimized CSS.

* Hi-End Package – $211
– Brings the markup to the highest level.
– W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict Table-less CSS markup under SEO Semantic Coding
– Complete Presentational Separation techniques.
– Special attention to Load Speed optimization.

The Process:
For the purpose of this review I submitted a design mock (of my site) which I’ve already coded myself – just to have something to compare their code to and give some baseline for gauging the quality. After completing the order form for their basic package and uploading my mock (in psd format) I was sent an automated email informing me of my login information to their queueing system.

Support:
Their response to my ticket was very speedy and thorough. They sent me questions regarding on certain CSS related issues and other clarifications on how I would like my design to be implemented – which was also surprisingly cool because these were the same concerns that I had when coding the same design. That says a lot about their attention to detail. More importantly, it also indicates that they tailor-fit their coding approach to each design that gets submitted rather than use indifferent cookie cutter approaches. After a few quick exchanges of clarifications, they informed me that my markup will be available within 8 hours. For this particular test, they sent my markup 3 hours after the last email, which was undeniably fast.

Quality:
The emailed markup consisted of 2 folders (one for images and one for stylesheets), one html page and 2 CSS files (one for IE and one other browsers). Inspecting the markup shows that they’ve done it a very good job in keeping it clean and very semantic. Navigation are link-lists, paragraphs are where they’re needed, proper heading structure and very minimal but apt use of containers such as divs and spans. The overall document structure is very cleanly defined. Apart from a few (personal) differences in choice of html elements for certain parts of the page (I use definition lists in some of my parts) their markup remains very closely similar to how I coded my version. The CSS files are very well organized, and while not optimized for file-size (CSS shorthand comes with the “Professional Package”) it’s still clean and minimal. Having IE hacks on a separate css is also a plus. Considering that this is a service done in mass scale, – the quality of code is really topnotch.

The images are also optimized and they use a variety of image optimization techniques – choosing the right image type depending on the complexity of the graphics involved. I’m personally impressed on the technique they employed slicing up my design – although drastically different from my original approach (I used a lot of alpha transparent 32-bit png files), they faithfully reproduces the layout and look without unnecessary bulk.

Cross-Browser Compatibility:

Here we have screenshots from IE6, IE7 and Firefox.

Internet Explorer 7:
The Site Guy - Windows Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 6:
The Site Guy - IE 6 (Microsoft Internet Explorer)

See Also
YouTube features for Content Creators

Firefox 2.0.0.12:
The Site Guy - Firefox

As you can see PSD2HTML did a good job in making sure the layout was consistent across both Firefox and both versions of Internet Explorer which is very impressive and delivers exactly what was promised in their basic package. Now, let’s see if this consistency extends to other browsers not covered by the basic package.

Here we have screenshots of the same page viewed in Safari and Opera:

Safari:
The Site Guy - Safari

Opera:
The Site Guy - Opera

Amazingly, the layout remains intact even in Safari and Opera. However, do note that they do not guarantee cross browser compatibility for the basic package other than IE and Firefox. It may just be that for this design there are very little or no issues in their implementation even on other browsers. But I will say this – more often than not, good xhtml and css practice ensure cross browser compatibility even without browser specific hacks, which says a lot about the quality of the markup that they delivered.

Everything considered, PSD2HTML is a topnotch service for those of us designers who need help in coding our designs but also demand the same high standards we employ in our own work. For the price – the quality and care they put in their code is remarkable. Even with the basic package which we’ve tried, you really get your money’s worth. I’d surely have no second-thoughts on using their services.

View Comments (25)
  • Great review, I need a good company to do the coding for the redesign of my blog and have been hesitant on who to use. Do you know if they offer any follow up service if everything fails after a while? The great thing about the price is that we are based in the UK so the exchange rate means a great price.

  • Great review, I need a good company to do the coding for the redesign of my blog and have been hesitant on who to use. Do you know if they offer any follow up service if everything fails after a while? The great thing about the price is that we are based in the UK so the exchange rate means a great price.

  • Hi, we are also open for any PSD to HTML undertakings.

    Cross-browser compatibility is really just the beginning, not really that much to brag about. We do maximum browser compatibility by default at a much lower price, $129.

    Also available is up to 40% discount for returning customers.

    Thanks for the commenting opportunity!

  • Those are some really good designs!

    I’m surprised that I never came across this company which doing a review of some of the best Design Shop’s over the web.

    I’m also wondering why there’s very few people creating quality designs nowadays..

  • Is this another paid review by PSD2HTML? I ask because I used them for one of my projects (5 pages / Hi-End package) and I was disappointed, to say the least.
    a.) The 8 hour delivery promise is a marketing gimmick – they took 3 days to start on my project!
    b.) The final pages broke in IE 6 and a fix took them another 2 days.

    Let’s face it – for web design firms, it is important to get the code in time. Markup services are now commoditised and such slack offs are not acceptable.

    Since then, I’ve tried the following:
    – W3-Markup (Expensive)
    – PSDXHTML.com (Poor Code Quality, Good pricing)
    – HTMLBlender.com (Average Pricing, Average code quality)
    – Xhtml.PixelCrayons.com (My provider of choice. Fast communication and timely delivery with great code quality)

  • Hi

    A very professional and reliable XHTML/CSS made a great job last week when I asked for PSD to XHTML conversions

    Custom hand coded HTML / XHTML in 24 hours, PSD, JPG, PNG and even old HTML formats and the best thing WordPress Integration

    http://www.mypsdtohtml.com

  • I had experienced the services of PSD2HTML, it is ok (however I was expecting a little bit more)….. Then, I tried some other service providers, but my search came to an end, when I experienced the services of http://xhtml.pixelcrayons.com, these guys are really cool and always make me happy with their work…cheers pixel

  • I have used many times psdxhtml.com and have nothing but good things to say. They do communicate with you if needed, but in most cases you upload your design, you pay, and in 2 days or so you get your page back. I am always requesting the sliced psd back and it is no problem as well. Highly recommended. Saves me so much time!

  • Just wanted to note that Xhtml.PixelCrayons.com code quality is not so good as they advertise. Their html css seems to be cumbersome and not SEO friendly as well as poorly commented. Expensive!

  • @ Ernst.

    Hey buddy may be you dint interpret your specifications to them properly because I have been with them for couple of projects and I found their work impeccable.

    Yes, if you really had some problem with their coding then you must share and show it to us. As it would be nice help for them and for others too.

    Some time back I had seen some similar ranting on their name at freelancer magazine.com too and their CEO had cleared the air with reasonable explanation.

  • Used them. They are good, code is high-quality, support was good. But, price was a little high…

    I used codemyconcept.com a few times recently, support was good…code was awesome – and the pricing is amazing. $75 for first page and $40 per subpage…where else can you find that?

    But psd2html….thumbs up.

  • Check this: http://www.psdtohtmlcompanies.com

    It has a detailed listing of psd to html service providers. You can refine, compare and contact HTML coders. The best part is you can send inquiries to up to 10 providers by using their form. I found it pretty impressive.

  • @William

    Nice resource for psd to html service providers :)

    Kudos to the psdtohtmlcompanies.com team!

    Cheers!
    James

  • I have worked with couple of companies but recently I came across this company http://www.xhtmldevelopers.com and was pleasantly surprised with the kind of response they gave at times of sales and while developing my project. I would recommend more people to use their services.

  • Thanks for this great article,
    There is also an outstanding service bought you from SEO Semantic XHTML. (http://www.seo-semantic-xhtml.com ). You can hire Psd to HTML professionals for trouble free PSD slicing for you.

    Again, thanks for this Review!

    Continue writing this type of Reviews.

  • I know this is a dated post but I just had to vent my fustration.
    Psd2Html are really unprofessional!
    It has been 2 whole weeks and I am still awaiting the completed page. I also requested for Expression Engine implementation. This was done promptly but in a very careless/haphazard manner. The “comments” system was buggy and several areas of the page had bits of code written on it. I am utterly shocked and unhappy at their service.

    I mean how can they ever call themselves professionals!

  • In reference to the comment above –

    We are surprised to hear about your frustration. If this was left by an actual client of P2H we like to remind you that in addition to our live chat support and contact us form, our toll-free support line (888-752-3076) is available Monday-Friday 9am to 6pm EST. We are always willing to help answer any questions before, during or after a project is ordered. Please feel free to contact us by phone if you would like to discuss your situation further.

    Best,
    P2H.com
    888-752-3076

  • @P2H

    I am 1000% sure that this comment must have been posted by pixelcrayons, because such type of filthy marketing techniques can be employed by pixelcrayons only. Now a days many small or cheap service providers, who are not competent enough to challenge their competitors on quality terms do employ such kind of tricks to tame others reputation.

    Shame on you!

  • Thanks for recommendation. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve used http://www.seo-semantic-xhtml.com for couple of my psd to html projects.

    They will provide you with excellent code and pixel perfect quality web layout.

    Kudos to the team! Keep up the good work…..

  • Sorry friend. I have worked with many IT Companies, but the quality and fast turnaround time of makeXHTML is amazing. Now all of our designs and PSD to XHTML conversions are handled by this team. I’m very much satisfied with their work. http://www.makexhtml.com/

  • Conversion don’t take more time but in today’s scenario it has to be proper & clean coded because website success wholly depend on user experience and if we are following all web designing community standard then it can be more beneficial to improve fast loading,cross browser as well as devices compatibility. Thank you

  • Dear Admin,
    I am Mark Wilson; I had found your article on PSD TO HTML Conversion in my Google search. I was impressed with your article drafted well. I’m a professional programmer & part-time writer at Mypsdtohtml web development agency. I have an article titled with “How to Find PSD TO HTML Service Providers” which can help your users.
    I would like to share the same related content on your blog to help your readers. Looking to hear back from you!
    —-
    Regards
    Mark Wilson

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