Slicing (interface design)

Slicing or slicing ( slice from the English for "slice" and to slice into the meaning of " slice ", " split " ) is a method in the screen and especially in web design. Here, an image is divided into several smaller ones. Since split elements of a website mainly into smaller fragments, fragmented images are geared precisely to the size of these fragments. These sub- images are then placed side by side without any gaps in the markup, so that the finished design looks like the whole image again. The design of the website that is not made ​​up of the overall graphics of the designer again, but from many sub- graphs that arise as a result of the slicing.

Background

The technique of Slicens of graphics was probably mid -90s was first used as the layout of the websites has been compiled mainly with HTML tables. Until the turn of the millennium, this method was the only way to integrate a complex graphic as part of the layout in the site taking into account the compatibility of the browser. In the early days the image files had to be cut with the masking or the free parking Tool EBV software; only from 1998 onwards included image editing programs such as ImageReady or Fireworks specially developed slicing tools, which took over the division of the images as well as the porting in the HTML code.

For slicing you need an image editing program such as Fireworks, Corel Photo-Paint, Photoshop or GIMP.

Application

The graphic designer creates the look of the site with an image editing program. Since all graphical areas must be flexible enough to be integrated later into individual layout fragments of the website, they must be cut to the size of the HTML element. A button, the designer created as part of the layout, must now be cut with the slicing method, so that the web designer can specify this graph later as a background for the button.