Fireworks vs. Photoshop

[Buddha]

I noticed that in the Photoshop Camp PS6 is used as the example. PS6 is a bit dated if not "antiquated" so I'd like to share some of my thoughts on the subject:

FIREWORKS vs. PHOTOSHOP

The concepts in that tutorial remain 100% valid and can be applied to any major graphics program on the market today, although there will be some minor differences in command names and locations. Paying attention to key words in the article will make it easier finding the equivalent in the other programs help menu.

Photoshop has been all the rage with graphic designers but today the cost has increased exponentially since the early days of PS6. PSCS3 currently runs for about $999 which is a huge investment especially for someone just beginning to learn graphics and only needs to create website logos, banners and decorations here and there.

Today I do not believe that Photoshop should be the start-up Adult Webmasters program of choice unless the webmaster really needs and wants to create high-end (print quality, professional graphics) and go to the pigmented press.

The alternative program I would recommend is Adobe Fireworks.

Fireworks was originally created by Macromedia and then acquired by Adobe just the other year. Adobe had a program designed to help convert PS files to web formats – Image Ready. IR is being phased out in favor of Fireworks.

Fireworks was designed for the high-end graphic needs of web publishers. It may be a less expensive program but it is by no means cheap. There are professional template producers such as Rocket Theme (www.rockettheme.com) who exclusively use Fireworks to create the templates they sell to the public.

With Fireworks it’s possible to create just about any high end web graphic that could be created in Photoshop without the painful expense.

TUTORIALS

Adobe Classroom In A Book learning aids are great text references to learn Adobe programs. I paid $1,500 to an accredited online college to learn Photoshop CS1 and we used Adobe’s Classroom in a Book. If you enjoy learning from book tutorials, it’s a great resource.

The problem with computer program tutorial books is that they are costly, heavy and take up shelf space collecting dust once they have been completed… making matters worse is within two years a new software version is released with new commands. The book is then destined for the recycle bin.

There is an excellent online resource called Lynda.com (www.lynda.com). They offer incredible multi-media tutorials (Quicktime) that are anywhere from 9 hours or even 17 depending on the program being learned. For a nominal monthly fee (less than the retail cost of Adobe’s Classroom in a Book) you can get access to ALL their program tutorials and learn just about any program in Adobe’s product line. To date it’s the best online training resource I’ve found.

IN CLOSING

If you are getting ready to invest into a decent graphics program and only need graphics for the web, consider Fireworks. As far as web graphics are concerned, it can do anything Photoshop can do at a significantly less expense.

I'm on CS3 using both Photoshop and Fireworks. I will be more than happy to answer any questions that I notice (and it's okay to ping me to advise me a question was made here).

[SharkFace]

Thanks Budda, very informative info.. Personally I have no creativity and cannot even do the simplest things with photoshop, I even watch online tutorials and everything.

[fpanko]

I've always consider Photoshop the ultimate in image creatin and photo manipluation.

Where as fireworks was a great tool for image optimization for finalizing web graphics.

The two go hand-in-hand when it come to creating web graphics. I would have never considere them to be competing programs but rather programs benefit from each other.

With the buyout of macromedia, adobe decided to drop photoshop's competitor (freehand), and drop it's image optimaztion program (image ready) in favor of fireworks. Adobe actually ships the two together now in all of it's we suites.

I think your artical is interesting, but I would would have never thought of a vs comparison here.

[porn punk]

Photoshop verses Fireworks.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

It's like comparing a hand grenade to a nuclear warhead

[porn punk]

Originally posted by fpanko
I've always consider Photoshop the ultimate in image creatin and photo manipluation.

Where as fireworks was a great tool for image optimization for finalizing web graphics.

The two go hand-in-hand when it come to creating web graphics. I would have never considere them to be competing programs but rather programs benefit from each other.

With the buyout of macromedia, adobe decided to drop photoshop's competitor (freehand), and drop it's image optimaztion program (image ready) in favor of fireworks. Adobe actually ships the two together now in all of it's we suites.

I think your artical is interesting, but I would would have never thought of a vs comparison here.

I'm glad you gave me the heads up on this. I was about to purchase CS3, but had no idea they dropped image ready. Now, I'll wait until I absolutely have to upgrade

[fpanko]

Originally posted by porn punk
I'm glad you gave me the heads up on this. I was about to purchase CS3, but had no idea they dropped image ready. Now, I'll wait until I absolutely have to upgrade

Well they actually took all the functionality of imageready and built it into photoshop. So you won't be missing anything. The image optimization engine that is in photoshop now has been improved sice the last version too.

IMO however, if you are really picky about file size vs quailty; your best bet is still to push your psd to either fireworks or the last version of imageready. Both of those programs were designed for this task and will produce smaller file sizes for the same image quality as photoshop.

[sunfunbill]

So I take it paintshop pro is like a kids plastic dump truck verses a real one when compaired to these two?? That is all I have ever used cause I can't afford the others.

[porn punk]

Originally posted by fpanko
Well they actually took all the functionality of imageready and built it into photoshop. So you won't be missing anything. The image optimization engine that is in photoshop now has been improved sice the last version too.

IMO however, if you are really picky about file size vs quailty; your best bet is still to push your psd to either fireworks or the last version of imageready. Both of those programs were designed for this task and will produce smaller file sizes for the same image quality as photoshop.

The only thing I use fireworks for is a photo album I create in dreamweaver to optimize thumbs on auto. Once they link it to photoshop, I image you'll be able to do the same thing with "batch", and fireworks will be completely obsolete as far as I'm concerned.

I can't believe they got rid of freehand since that actually did stuff better than illustrator and didn't dump fireworks immediately. It just goes to show you how important branding is. Also as much as I like After Effects (because of the familiar quicky keys and etc.), they really don't need that anymore with Flash which is completely superior.

Also, lose Golive. What a joke. Does anyone even use it? More people ask about Front Page. Am I right or wrong?

[fpanko]

Originally posted by porn punk

Also, lose Golive. What a joke. Does anyone even use it? More people ask about Front Page. Am I right or wrong?

I believe golive has also been dropped for dreamweaver.

[balls_deep]

Originally posted by sunfunbill
So I take it paintshop pro is like a kids plastic dump truck verses a real one when compaired to these two?? That is all I have ever used cause I can't afford the others.

sure you can bill, just get an older version. anything from v6-v9 should be fine. check e-bay.

[Buddha]

Originally posted by sunfunbill
So I take it paintshop pro is like a kids plastic dump truck verses a real one when compaired to these two?? That is all I have ever used cause I can't afford the others.

Uhhh... to be perfectly honest: probably.

Paint Shop Pro seems to be geared towards the non-professional average person who has a family and wants to create pretty pictures without going to the trouble of learning artsy technical stuff. I may be wrong but that's the initial impression I have from visiting Corel's website.

Graphic web publishers need a feature called "slicing". Slicing is used to slice up an image into smaller components so that they may be repositioned back into their original place with CSS or HTML hacks.

Regardless of which way you go with programs, stive to express creativity first. Step back and look at "All" of the tools you have at your disposal. The image below was created using 3 programs: Poser, Photoshop & Fireworks (if the image does not appear, it can be viewed directly at:
http://www.buddhashouse.net/portfoli..._20071019a.png ):




There are a lot of pre-made tools out there that can be found through open-source resources or purchased at a relatively minimal cost compared if you want to begin learning graphics. I think it all depends on your needs and what you really want to accomplish with a graphics program.

[Blake]

Photoshop is an attempt to capture as much market share as possible. Therefore it tries to give as many editing options in as many formats as possible. Photoshop has never had access to the proprietary code of specific picture manufacturers like Nikon or Cannon to name but two of the most important. Therefore Photoshop is forced to use its RIDICULOUS layers system to try and add changes to jpg files. This methodology is totally flawed and simply creates increasingly large files. And it gets better – the changes are unreversible once saved! Photoshop attempted to overcome this utter mess with its camera raw plugin which does allow (some) raw formats to be edited. But again since Photoshop does not have access to the proprietary code in which the raw files were created it is just layering by another name.

If you want to edit pictures the best bet is almost always going to be the image editing software that comes with the camera. Why? Because these applications do have access to the proprietary code in which the picture was taken. An example of such an application in Nikon Capture NX. Use it once and you will never use Photoshop again. I could say more but I will limit myself to these comments for now.