Print vs. web: Understanding the importance of templates

For print designers the word template can often have a negative connotation.…It suggests a rigid consistency and lack of creative freedom from page to page.…On the web, however, a well-planned and consistent template is essential.…Websites can span dozens, hundreds, even thousands of pages, and around each page of unique content…you'll almost always find a consistent template containing all of the site's architecture,…such as headers and footers and sidebars.…It's the only way to keep that much content manageable for the site's creators and accessible for its visitors.…

Before you dive into InDesign to start a web design project, the template should be foremost…on your mind and one of the first things you nail down before working on specific pages.…You can always adjust it and adapt it along the way, but a template is like the framing…of a house.…It has to be there first to support everything you're going to place on and into it.…