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The Downsides of Using Premade Web Templates

Posted by james on

I'm comfortable with HTML, CSS, and backend web programming. Given a design, I can turn the whole thing into a webpage, no problem. But when I'm not working with a graphic designer, I have to find some other way to come up with designs. I've done a few from scratch, but they're time consuming and I really just don't have the chops.

So that leaves pre-made web templates. I've found quite a few sites with free templates, some are awful but some are actually pretty decent. I've used a few templates for some hobby sites just to see how they work, and it really does pull a site together to see it with a complete design.

However, there is a huge downside to some of these templates, besides the fact that your site may not be very unique. It ends up that some of those very pretty and professional designs is an absolute botch-job in the coding behind them. There's a huge difference between a flat image or photoshop file, and a properly designed webpage. Cutting up an image into squares and listing them in an HTML doesn't