after you grasp the different areas, hand coding would probably be much faster
I know that when doing BBS screen/scripting it turned out to be that way because you always wanted to push the simple ascii editors and such futher than they could go...
One trick I learned was to have a pixel map figured out on graph paper and draw out the different locations for main elements, then add and tweak as needed for the fillers of those main splashes...
dunno if that is how they do it or if it will even work, though I guess in Photoshop or paint or whatever app you use, you set your res and do the same process with layers and then cut and save the slices to be used in SStudio, buttons, corners, etc....
still waiting to start learning that myself
