[dishedoutbum]

I've recently started a course in Web Design at the Computer Graphics College, Sydney.

Could anyone suggest the average PC spec needed for a freelance Web Designer, including the most important software needed, and any essential peripherals ??????

Here's hoping !!??

Regards
Dishedoutbum

[Fyzbo]

This is a very hard question to answer as there is no correct answer. The more in depth a person goes with webdesign the more resources are needed. Writing simple HTML webpages can be done on pretty much any computer as all you need is a text editor like notepad and hopefully a browser to preview it. Many people like the more robust program DreamWeaver and now you need at least a descent computer. If you plan on creating your own graphics or flash animations you need more power so that you don't have to wait forever. As far as peripherals go as long as you have a mouse, keyboard, and nice graphics card and monitor(so that colors look right) you're fine. Some like a graphics tablet for creating images, but that's only if you want to get fancy. So basically put any relatively new computer with either windows/linus/mac operating system will work just fine. If buying a new pc think about the other things you may want to do with it. What are you interested in using the computer for, this may help in narrowing your search.

For software here are some recommended titles:
DreamWeaver (HTML-Kit is a free program I prefer)
Adobe Photoshop (IrfanView is a free program that many use)
Flash 5

[Corrosive]

Actually, InfranView is not really suitable for web-design: it's an image viewer, not an editor. Paint Shop Pro would be the "cheaper" alternative (the price doesn't run into three figures, unlike Photoshop.)

For this purpose, I would just chuck in another large hard disk to the PC you already have. You could then partition it and have a "drive" for you're work and another for the apps (and Windows). This would mean that if Windows went balls-up, you could re-install it and leave all your pages intact: you wouldn't want to lose that page you had nearly finished coding for a paying client now would you?

As mentioned, get a large, decent monitor and GFX card. The former just makes it easier on the eyes, and the latter allows you to run at many different resolutions and colour-depths, which can give you an idea of what it looks like to other people.

For the software, Macromedia's kit is arguably as the best there is, but you don't necessarily need it. You can use Notepad if you know HTML back to front and inside out. I would also install PWS or IIS on your PC (search the Windows Help to find out how to install it), or even better, the Apache Server. This allows you to test out the server-side stuff before you go live, and also allows you to host the page on your own PC.

Finally, I'd do a bit of research into Macromedia's "Contribute" program. It allows non-savvy users to easily update the site, which really will make the clients happy.

[Fyzbo]

One more comment on the monitor, although LCDs are great space savers they almost always (truly) support only one resolution. It can be changed, but will then look boxy, for this reason I recomment a standart tube monitor.

[dishedoutbum]

Well I thankyou both very much for the help.

Cheers