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Photoshop can help you design a polished website mockup, but it does not build or publish the working website. Use it to plan the visual layout, create desktop and mobile designs, prepare images and graphics, and hand an organized design to a developer or site builder.
By the end, you should have a layered Photoshop document with desktop and mobile artboards, reusable design elements, exported assets, and a clear next step for turning the mockup into a live site.
What Photoshop can—and cannot—do
Photoshop is well suited to image-heavy web projects such as painting portfolios, artist websites, landing pages, promotional banners, online-store concepts, and gallery pages. Its artboards let you create several independent layouts in one document.
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It does not automatically create semantic HTML, CSS, responsive behavior, working forms, shopping carts, SEO metadata, analytics, hosting, keyboard navigation, or screen-reader semantics. After the design stage, the layout must be rebuilt in HTML/CSS/JavaScript, a CMS, or a visual site builder such as Webflow.
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Prepare before opening Photoshop
First decide:
- What the site should accomplish: display work, sell products, collect enquiries, book appointments, or share information.
- Who it is for and what action visitors should take.
- The main call to action, such as View portfolio, Request a quote, or Buy now.
- Which content belongs on the page: logo, navigation, headline, introduction, images, services, testimonials, contact details, and footer.
Gather your logo, brand colors, typefaces, artwork or product photographs, icons, and final copy. A quick paper sketch of the page hierarchy can prevent you from decorating a layout that has no clear purpose.
Create the Photoshop document
- Choose File > New.
- Enable Artboards.
- Set the document to RGB for screen design.
- Use a practical working width rather than an enormous canvas. A desktop artboard around 1440 px wide and a mobile artboard around 390 px wide are useful starting points. These are conventions, not universal website requirements.
- Name the document and select Create.
Use names such as Home — Desktop, Home — Mobile, and About — Desktop. Adobe’s instructions for creating artboard documents cover the current setup process.
Add desktop and mobile artboards
The Artboard tool is grouped with the Move tool. Select and hold the Move tool if necessary, then choose Artboard Tool from the Options bar. Draw a custom artboard or select a preset.
- Create and name the desktop artboard.
- Duplicate it for mobile, then rename the copy.
- Rearrange the mobile layout instead of simply shrinking the desktop design.
- Keep both artboards visible so you can compare hierarchy, spacing, and image crops.
You can add artboards with the plus controls around an existing artboard. Holding Option on macOS or Alt on Windows while using a plus control duplicates an artboard and its contents. See Adobe’s guide to adding artboards.
Build a grid and page structure
Before adding decorative effects, establish guides for the content margins, maximum content width, header height, columns, and section spacing. Align headings, paragraphs, buttons, and images to shared vertical axes. Repeated spacing values make a page feel intentional.
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Organize the Layers panel with top-level groups such as:
Website — Homepage
├── Desktop — 1440
│ ├── Header
│ ├── Hero
│ ├── Benefits
│ ├── Featured Work
│ ├── Call to Action
│ └── Footer
└── Mobile — 390
├── Header
├── Hero
├── Benefits
├── Featured Work
├── Call to Action
└── FooterKeep sections in groups and use descriptive layer names such as Headline, Hero image, Primary button, and Card — 01. Keep text editable, lock finished backgrounds, and avoid unnamed layers such as Layer 34 copy 2. Artboards support layers and groups beneath each canvas, as Adobe explains in its artboard documentation.
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Build from large areas to small details:
- Page and header backgrounds.
- Hero section with its headline, supporting copy, image, and primary action.
- Benefits, services, products, or featured work.
- Testimonials or supporting information.
- A final call to action.
- Footer with contact details and secondary navigation.
Use shape layers for rectangles, backgrounds, cards, and buttons whenever possible. Shape layers remain editable and scalable. Text layers preserve copy. Raster layers contain pixel-based artwork. Smart Objects preserve source content and allow nondestructive transformations. The practical rule is simple: keep anything likely to change editable.
Use typography and color deliberately
One display typeface and one body typeface are usually enough for a first project. Create a clear hierarchy for page titles, section headings, body copy, labels, navigation, and buttons. Check contrast, line spacing, text width, and wrapping on both artboards.
Do not treat a styled Photoshop text layer as the final web typography specification. The implementation will need CSS values for font size, weight, line height, letter spacing, and responsive changes. Also verify that each font is licensed for web use; a font available on your computer may not be licensed for publication.
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Add and edit images nondestructively
- Place images instead of permanently flattening them.
- Convert images to Smart Objects when you expect repeated resizing or editing.
- Use masks to create crops and shaped image areas.
- Keep original photographs in a separate folder.
- Use reasonably sized working copies instead of embedding huge camera originals unnecessarily.
Embedded Smart Objects travel inside the PSD. Linked Smart Objects can be easier to update, but the linked files must remain available. If a linked asset goes missing, use Photoshop’s relinking command to point to its new location, or embed it when portability matters more than centralized updating. Adobe documents the difference in its Smart Object workflow.
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Design interactive states
A Photoshop mockup does not contain live buttons, but it should show how interactive elements are intended to work. Document button hierarchy, form fields, navigation behavior, link destinations, and whether an element is decorative.
Create separate groups or layouts for relevant states:
- Default
- Hover
- Focus
- Active
- Disabled
- Error
Including a visible focus state is especially useful because it tells the developer how keyboard users should identify the current control.
Recompose the mobile design
Photoshop artboards show selected snapshots; they do not automatically reflow a design between widths. On mobile, decide what changes:
- Collapse or replace the navigation.
- Stack columns vertically.
- Make buttons full-width when appropriate.
- Reduce heading sizes without making text difficult to read.
- Re-crop images so the subject remains visible.
- Remove or reposition decoration that competes with content.
- Keep the primary action near the beginning of the page.
- Check long headings, cards, tables, and the footer for crowding.
Test the eventual website at intermediate widths too. A desktop and mobile artboard cannot prove that the CSS will behave correctly at every browser width.
Perform an accessibility check
A visual design cannot validate the finished site’s semantics, but it can catch obvious problems. Check text and background contrast, readable type sizes, clear link and button styling, a logical heading hierarchy, visible focus states, and layouts that do not depend on color alone.
Mark which images need alternative text and keep important copy as HTML text rather than baking it into images. The final implementation still requires testing for keyboard navigation, screen readers, browser reflow, and form accessibility.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Export the mockup and assets
Save the editable PSD before exporting. Export the complete artboards for visual reference, then export individual assets such as the logo, hero image, product photographs, icons, textures, and other graphics.
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Depending on the Photoshop version and output required, use File > Export > Export As, File > Export > Save for Web, or configured Quick Export. For Save for Web, Adobe’s current steps are:
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- Choose File > Export > Save for Web.
- Select JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WBMP.
- Adjust quality and format settings.
- Preview the file size.
- Select Save.
The export is separate from the PSD, so the original remains unchanged. See Adobe’s Save for Web guide.
Choose an asset format
| Format | Typical use |
|---|---|
| JPEG | Photographs where some compression is acceptable. |
| PNG | Transparency, screenshots, and flat graphics needing lossless output. |
| SVG | Clean, compatible vector artwork such as simple icons or logos. Verify the export contains no unwanted raster content. |
| GIF | Limited-color animation or legacy requirements; not the default for photographs. |
| WebP or AVIF | Modern web delivery formats chosen by the developer, CMS, or optimization pipeline when supported. |
Exporting an image does not optimize the entire website. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts, browser behavior, and performance remain separate implementation concerns. Adobe also documents exporting selected artboards, layers, and groups.
Package the handoff
Use a structure like this:
Website-Design/
├── Website-Homepage.psd
├── Exports/
│ ├── homepage-desktop.jpg
│ ├── homepage-mobile.jpg
│ ├── logo.svg
│ ├── hero-image.jpg
│ └── feature-image-01.jpg
├── Fonts-and-Licenses/
├── Original-Images/
└── Handoff-Notes.txtInclude the intended fonts and licenses, color values, type specifications, image sources, asset dimensions, interaction notes, breakpoint assumptions, and any content that must remain editable. Never assume stock photographs or fonts in a mockup can automatically be published.
Turn the mockup into a live website
- Rebuild the visual design in HTML/CSS/JavaScript, a CMS, or a visual builder.
- Implement responsive layout with CSS Grid, Flexbox, or the builder’s layout system.
- Add working navigation, forms, links, content, metadata, analytics, and any required integrations.
- Test at desktop, mobile, and intermediate widths across browsers.
- Optimize images, fonts, code, accessibility, and loading performance.
- Connect hosting and a domain, then publish and maintain the site.
Is Photoshop the right tool?
Choose Photoshop when the project is image-heavy, you already know Photoshop, advanced photo compositing matters, a client requests a PSD, or you are producing banners and branded graphics alongside the layout.
Choose another tool when you need many interactive states, real-time collaboration, reusable interface components, structured developer inspection, or a functioning website without manually rebuilding the design.
Figma is generally better suited to interface systems, prototyping, collaboration, auto layout, and breakpoint-aware design. Webflow or a comparable visual builder is more appropriate when the goal is to publish a functioning hosted website. Photoshop remains a sensible choice for visual design and image editing rather than publishing.
Photoshop on the web does not contain every desktop feature; Adobe says advanced workflows may require opening a document in the desktop application. Check the Photoshop on the web FAQ if your interface differs from a desktop tutorial.
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Quick Recap
Troubleshooting
- The PSD is slow and difficult to navigate.
- Reduce unnecessarily large working images, use realistic artboard widths, group sections, and avoid one enormous canvas.
- Everything is hard to edit.
- Undo flattening where possible and preserve text, shapes, masks, groups, and Smart Objects until delivery.
- The mobile design looks like a tiny desktop screenshot.
- Recompose it: stack content, alter navigation, adjust type, resize controls, and recrop images.
- Exports look blurry.
- Check the source resolution, export dimensions, scaling, and compression settings. Do not enlarge a small raster asset beyond its useful resolution.
- The developer sees missing images or fonts.
- Package permitted assets, document font names and licenses, and embed or relink linked Smart Objects.
- The export is one giant picture.
- Export the full mockup for reference, but also export independent assets and provide editable copy and specifications.
Final checklist
- Desktop and mobile artboards are included and clearly named.
- Text remains editable.
- Layers and sections are organized.
- Shapes, masks, and Smart Objects remain editable where useful.
- Images and fonts have verified licenses.
- Full mockups and individual assets are exported.
- Interaction, focus, content, and accessibility notes are included.
- Intermediate responsive widths remain a developer testing task.
- The original PSD is backed up.
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