Being a developer myself, I know creating Joomla Templates from scratch can be time consuming process. When you develop templates for Joomla, you need to be perfectly correct with CSS and HTML that conform to web standards.

The entire Joomla Template Creation process requires that you possess good amount of technical knowledge on topics like CSS, PHP, HTML, Jquery and other web related technologies. Even for seasoned programmer, developing Joomla Templates is no easy task.

That's one side of the story, now the other side, think about people using Joomla for building websites, but with no technical knowledge. How they create joomla templates…either they hire a template developer to design custom templates or purchase ready-made templates from template club. Ok.. that's not bad approach either.

Based on my exposure to template development, even for seasoned developers creating Joomla Templates can be challenging and time consuming. How about non-technical Joomla users?

Can they develop Joomla Templates on their own? Simple and straight forward answer would be NO. But hold on! That's not true anymore…even non-technical Joomla users can create stunning Joomla Templates..but how... Using a Template Design Tool called Artisteer, the Joomla Template Maker.

What is Artisteer anyway?

You can use Artisteer to generate templates for following systems;

Content Management Systems

• Joomla
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Blogger
• DotNetNuke

Web Design Templates

• ASP.NET Application
• CodeCharge Studio

Who can use Artisteer, the joomla template maker to develop Joomla Templates?

Every Joomla users out there…no barriers at all. You need not possess any technical skills what so ever to develop Joomla templates with Artisteer. Start designing templates like a Pro, without possessing any technical skills.

Let's begin the show -

How to create Joomla Templates using Artisteer?

All it takes is 3 simple steps to create Professionally Looking Joomla Templates

1. You choose basic template design from wide array of predefined templates provided by Artisteer.
2. When you find a good design idea you customize chosen design elements like colors, layouts, menu styles, article style, buttons, fonts or page background separately.
3. When you're done with customization part, export the created design as a Joomla Template or WordPress theme, HTML template or any other format you like.

That's it. As simple as it can get.

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Artisteer Features in a Nutshell

Artisteer interface is simple, clean and straight forward. Interface looks similar to Microsoft Word and Power Point, you'll master the Artisteer interface in no-time.

Let me run you through Artisteer interface with all excellent features it has to offer us -

Artisteer Home Screen

The developers of Artisteer software have made Artisteer interface extremely user friendly. I would say Artisteer editor contains 2 main layers;

1. Top layer is the design layer, where you choose your template designs and other customization options.
2. Bottom layer is design output layer which displays template designs based on customization options. When ever you make any modification in the design layer, changes gets reflected in design output layer immediately.

Ideas Tab

• The Ideas tab is a great way to quickly envision your Website design right before your eyes. 
• Most intuitive feature of Artisteer tool is it's Suggest feature. 
• Suggest feature allows you to see the various designs available within Artisteer and helps you determine which styles and themes you like. 
• The Suggest feature can be applied to whole template or individual components like fonts, layout, background, menu and so on. 
• The Ideas tab also has an option to export template to CMS like Joomla, Blogger, WordPress, Drupal and DotNetNuke.

Colors and Fonts Tab

• The Colors & Fonts tab handles colors and fonts customizations.
• When it comes to choosing colors for templates, Artisteer has wide array of in-build color schemes. You can choose one that fits your taste.
• You can also customize heading and text fonts for your templates using Colors & Fonts tab.

Layouts Tab

• The layout tab is where you can quickly change the overall positioning of elements on the page.
• Through layout tab you can customize padding, width and margin of sheet.
• You can select total number of columns within template and width of each columns.

Backgrounds Tab

• The Background Tab helps to manage the design of the area outside the active content of the website. 
• You can fill background with colors or with background images. 
• Artisteer provides you with large collections of background images and textures to design background area. 
• You can also import background images from file. 
• Adjust background effects using Options features available in background tab.

Sheet Tab

• The Sheet tab provides the ability to change the overall positioning and look of the sheet or page. 
• For example, you can customize a sheet with rounded edges instead of square edges. 
• You can customize to move the sheet down a bit from the top of the page, add a shadow effect, or change the width of the borders, or change the background transparency or the color of the sheet.

Header Tab

• The Header Tab controls all aspects of the Header, including the size, colors, fonts, foreground and background images, flash, headline text, and slogan text.

Menu Tab

• The Menu tab is used to control the position and design of the horizontal menu. 
• The menu tab also includes tools for managing the design of menu items and sub items. 
• You can select the appropriate level of customization using the fully automated suggested design, or manually, using the customization options on the Menu tab. 
• Artisteer supports three of the most popular Web 2.0 menu styles: classical (with separators), tabbed and buttons. 
• You can adjust the margins and text alignment as well as add effects such as texture, gradient, and transparency to menu and sub menu items.

Articles Tab

• Articles tab provides customization options for article contents. 
• Using this tab you can customize article image sizes, article Content, article Text, article Padding, images used for date, pdf, print, email and author buttons. 
• Customize fonts used for heading text, hyperlinks, quotes, tables and so on.

Sidebars Tab

• Sidebar is the column on your page with additional content. 
• Sidebar can appear on both right and left side of template, with content in middle. 
• You can set the appearance of the sidebar to be either styled blocks or plain blocks. Styled blocks are blocks with background colors, transparency and glare options. Plain blocks do not have any background colors, transparency or glare options.
• You can also choose custom template layouts. Layouts can be 1 column or 2 column or 3 column.

Vertical Menu Tab

• Both horizontal and vertical menus are the elements of navigation and design. Vertical menus are located at top of right or left sidebar. 
• Using vertical menu tab, you can choose the module position to display vertical menu. 
• Pick vertical menu style from wide array of existing menu design. 
• Configure fonts, menu colors and borders for menu's main items and child items.

Buttons Tab

• Artisteer provides you with wide array of predefined button shapes which can be used for your designs.
• Artisteer button comes in rectangle or oval format.
• You can also customize texture, gradient, borders, colors and shadow for the selected buttons. 

Footer Tab

• Footer tab specifies style of footer at the bottom of the page.
• You can choose predefined RSS icons or import new RSS icons on your own into footer section.
• Footer tab can also be used to configure footer links for your site.
• Footer background can be selected from prexisting background image or gradient colors which Aristeer provdies.
• Footer width and height can also be adjusted using footer tab. 

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What Customers say about Artisteer?

Templates Created Using Artisteer

Here is the list of few joomla templates created using Artisteer software,

Summary

• Artisteer makes creating great Joomla Templates easier.
• Simple and clean interface. You'll feel comfortable with Artisteer in no-time.
• No technical knowledge required. No need to learn CSS, Photoshop, HTML and other Web related technologies. Using Artisteer, you can design joomla templates like a PRO.
• Designing Joomla templates is fun using Artisteer.
• Joomla Templates can be created in few simple clicks. Customize Joomla Templates to suit your needs with ease.
• Focus more on template designs rather than coding. Artisteer takes care of coding part.
• Export designs to Joomla, Blogger, WordPress and other CMS products.
• Artisteer generated templates are compatible with all major web browsers.

Final Thoughts

Using Artisteer, you can create stunning looking and professionally designed templates with few clicks. You need not be a programmer at all to create Joomla Templates. Artisteer is a boon for all Joomla template coders and non-coders.

Artisteer is the best Joomla Template Maker out there in market. For template coders it saves development time, as they can focus more on design rather than coding. For non-coders, they can create their own joomla templates without possessing coding skills or what so ever.

Kind of flexibility Artisteer gives is truly awesome. I would certainly recommend Artisteer to every one who loves creating Joomla Templates. Enjoy and Have Fun! God Bless You All.

Download Free Trial of Artisteer Now