There are many steps involved in ecommerce web development. One of the most vital steps is converting the planned design to HTML. Without this PSD to HTML conversion, it is not possible to launch a website in a web browser. The conversion from PSD to HTML is the most basic and traditional ways to convert design into HTML. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and serves as a design to code converter. Technological improvements have given birth to a newer and improved version of HTML – the XHTML or Extensible HTML. Better results are obtained with XHTML. This article talks about the differences in PSD to HTML and PSD to XHTML conversions.

A basic difference is that HTML is a SGML based language and it allows the omission of certain tags; however, XHTML is a XML based language and it does not allow the omission of any tags. HTML allows for attribute minimization whereas XHTML limits its use to a large extent. XHTML permits the use of shorthand notations while HTML does not permit anything of that sort. As far as semantic coding is concerned, XHTML fares better than the traditional HTML since proper nesting of elements is a feature of XHTML while it is not in HTML.

In terms of quality of design to code conversion, PSD to XHTML comes up with much better results than PSD to HTML, the main reason being that it is an advanced language with added features and functionalities. XHTML ensures that your website is very well structured and does not include errors of any kind. Thus, for obvious reasons, XHTML is preferred over HTML. Using HTML, you will be able to achieve clean and hassle free coding that improves website creation radically. However, a designer should always bear in mind that in XHTML, proper nesting is an absolute necessity and it cannot be avoided.

While XHTML fares a little better on most grounds, there is no way to deny that both PSD to HTML and PSD to XHTML conversions are completely reliable techniques in creating a very well structured and efficient website. While businesses with good in-house support can do things themselves, the ones without such support should opt for professional conversion service providers with good reputation in terms of coding quality. Check their portfolio and ensure that you hire a good web design company.

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