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Photoshop – do you slice or crop?

What is it with web designers still using the crop tool to create images for web pages? Isn’t it 2008 already?

When did Adobe first introduce image slices, was it ImageStyler? Sheesh, that was released in 1998! That’s 10 years. ImageStyler then got merged into ImageReady I think, and was bundled with Photoshop – 2001 is the earliest I can find that.

Of the 3.5 web designers in this office, I am the only one who uses slices.

You people out there who still crop, how do you keep track of all your files? Do you create actions that: crop to selection, flatten image, save-as-jpg? Or do you do it manually?

Get with the times people! Slices are the way of the future – heck, they’re the way of the PAST!

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4 April, 2008.

Comments

  1. Nick writes:

    I will die happy cropping—Old skool represent

    Posted at 9:03 pm on April 4th, 2008.
  2. Jennifer writes:

    Have to agree with you – I’m a Sweeney Todd when it comes to Photoshop – a slicer!

    Purely for the ability to make lots of slices and then have photoshop save them as individual files – a HUGE time saver.

    Posted at 10:05 pm on April 4th, 2008.
  3. Cam writes:

    I’m a cropper. Got an action set up to crop selection. I have guides setup all over the place, so its just a matter of selecting the part I need and going for it.

    But the reason why I haven’t moved onto slices is because slices where invented in 1998 right at the time that table based layouts where in full swing. It made sense to slice up your .psd file back then cause there were so many images to deal with and so many little shim.gifs etc.

    Nowadays there’s not nearly as many images on a web page, and actually you can create some really nice effects just with CSS styling, so to setup a bunch of guides, and then slices and all the different export settings that they require just seems overkill when you have a site with minimal images.

    Phew, ok now that’s out I don’t feel half as guilty for not being up with the times!

    Posted at 8:32 pm on April 6th, 2008.
  4. Kent Humphrey writes:

    True, slices were introduced in the golden (??) age of tables and spacer gifs, but that doesn’t preclude them from being used for CSS based layouts.

    And with the designs that the boys here are throwing my way, there’s no shortage of images to be produced!

    Posted at 6:05 pm on April 8th, 2008.
  5. Allen Nation writes:

    do you know how you can set layers of slices? I mock up my whole website in photoshop and since i use css many of the element overlap so I have to adjust slices or clear them prior to saving the separate images.

    Posted at 4:29 am on May 3rd, 2008.
  6. Kent Humphrey writes:

    No sorry, I don’t think it is possible to have a layer of slices. Slices exist outside of everything else, so they don’t change with layer comps, or anything useful like that.

    But then, neither do crops ;>

    Posted at 9:48 am on May 5th, 2008.
  7. Allen Nation writes:

    A great tool I have found in PS3 is creating a smart object out of a group or a few layers. You get all the items you want on the graphic and by double clicking on the smart object you are taken to a psd with only those items. It is easy to save, print or save for web from here. I have used it tremendously for web graphics.

    Posted at 4:07 pm on July 24th, 2008.
  8. noe ruiz writes:

    I agree, using slices are definitely the way to go, I love this technique so much I made a screen cast of how to use slices with smart objects and layercomps. It’s a pretty neat approach. http://pixil.info/2008/02/14/episode-2-web-buildout-workflow-overview/

    Posted at 2:05 am on August 29th, 2008.