What's the difference between a web designer and web developer.?

And more importantly, why do companies that are hiring want web designers to have skills in web developing, and vice versa. Isn't that like asking a dentist to have skills in oral hygiene and asking an oral hygienist to have skills in dentistry?

What's the difference between a web designer and web developer.?
Web Developers work on the functionality of the web site - they "make it work" through programming (coding) in various languages like ASP, PHP, JAVA, ColdFusion, C# etc...





Web Designers work on the "look and feel" of the web site and use tools and technologies like Photoshop, Illustrator, CSS, etc...





There are some mixed breeds that are able to develop and design (I happen to be one of them).





I guess companies are wanting a person with both skill sets because a designer with development skills will know how to layout/setup an HTML document "correctly" (to a programmer/developers standards).





It's also probably cheaper because instead of paying two salaries they only have to pay one...
Reply:All answers so far have been spot on. I make a site that is pleasing to the eye, but my main strength is the programming part, the developing.
Reply:Web Designing is more about the layout and fancy graphics - e.g. what it looks and feels like. Often this is just a series of images.





A Web Developer is more about converting the ideas of the Web Designer into something that actually works.
Reply:Web designer is just a page creator, the developer developes the software that goes into that design
Reply:To put it simply a web designer is only there to make the site pleasing to the eye. In other words they worry only about graphical content.





A web developer is the one who takes care of the inner workings of the site such as PHP scripting or coding that makes the site run, like login interfaces etc.

botanical garden