One aspect of Drupal that I really have been impressed with is theming. Drupal makes it incredibly easy to take a static HTML file and turn it into a Drupal Theme template. In fact it is possible to even use some of the HTML/CSS template sites to purchase the template files, and turn it into a Drupal template in no time. All it takes is some getting used to and it can take only a few hours to get a template up and running.

The one experience that I had with turning an HTML template into a Drupal theme was with a template from TemplateMonster.com. A client came to me with a template from their site and wanted to use it for their new site. Initially I was thinking that it was going to be easy to do, but I overestimated the templates from TemplateMonster.com. The HTML and CSS in the files that I got were absolutely ridiculous. Poor use of CSS classes (the few that they had), and the HTML was covered in tables (no, I'm not an anti-table nazi like all of web developers on the web). While the template looked nice on the site, the actually files weren't very impressive.

Regardless of the HTML and CSS I went ahead and started the work on the design of the site. I ended up taking one of the Blue Marine theme and using CSS to drop in my repeating backgrounds. It ended up looking pretty good, but the only thing that was really helpful from TM.com was the PSD file that they included in the download. Luckily I was able to customize it how I wanted by slicing out parts that I needed rather than using their HTML files.

Most of my Drupal templates for the sites I've done have followed a similar pattern. I get an idea of what the client wants, recommend a few sites to look at, and then, based on their response, I usually go find a Drupal theme that almost meets their needs and customize it. So far it seems to be working, but pretty soon I may go towards finding a standard theme and starting with it each time I do a new site. I find that some of the templates on d.o are a little strange like the TM.com template.

Overall, I feel like theming is a very strong point for Drupal, on top of the many many other things!