Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Adobe Fireworks
Adobe Fireworks, shown in Figure 8-17, is probably the second most used tool in my
Web Development utility belt, and for good reason. This very easy to use vector and
bitmap editing program is perfect for touching up or compressing graphics, as well as
for mocking up designs and prototyping new projects.
Originally created and owned by Macromedia and later acquired by Adobe in 2009, this
wonder application for Web Designers everywhere hasn't received as much attention as
Adobe's flagship photo editing program, Photoshop, but that is all right because it has
plenty of fantastic features that easily make it a no-brainer for a program that should be
included in your arsenal. In fact, for many of the tasks web developers and designers
tackle, Fireworks is the better product for the job.
Just like Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks is also littered with keyboard shortcuts
accommodating the needs of power users, while at the same time keeping a sparse UI
with easy to find tools, options, and properties to make it easy for any new user of
Adobe Fireworks to easily find their way around the application.
Figure 8-17.
Adobe Fireworks CS5 running on a Windows 7 PC
One of the coolest features of Adobe Fireworks is its ability to create Pages within its
specially formatted PNG file type, which would allow designers to very neatly create
beautiful layouts to be passed on down to their local developer. The pages work by
essentially giving you a new canvas to work on whenever you need a new page. You
can easily access your pages by pressing the F5 key from within Fireworks.
