Description:
Building graphics for a Web site often involves the use of several different tools: one for building vector-based images, one for bitmapped images, and still another for incorporating these images into an HTML document. Macromedia's Fireworks 3.0 is all of these tools--and more--rolled into one.Fireworks is designed from the ground up to be a Web graphics creation package. It is both a vector drawing tool and a bitmap graphics editor, and the different graphic types easily mix on any layer. All objects, whether shapes or text, are editable at any point of production, offering enormous design flexibility. Fireworks also supports layers for maintaining separate elements, and a history palette which can be used to undo numerous steps or to create replayable actions. If creating art within Fireworks isn't appealing, or if you are given material from another designer, not to worry. Fireworks imports most popular formats (including layered native Photoshop files) and keeps layers intact. Fireworks also supports TWAIN-compliant scanners, making it easy to import material from the real world. Most of the palettes and tools are similar to more popular packages, and most of the expected keyboard commands are present. But as one begins to use and explore Fireworks, the Web-specific features emerge. The slices tool is for specifying how an image will be broken down for use in building it in an HTML table matrix. The sweet feature here is that the slices can be exported automatically, and there is an option for generating the HTML code as well that assembles these slices in a table. The software handles big features--like optimizing the file size of graphics--well. At any stage during creation, Fireworks shows dynamic previews of the original file, as well as how it will look compressed to JPEG format or dithered down to GIF format. A statistics bar at the bottom of the window lists the file size and the probable download time at a given connection speed. Fireworks is a fast and flexible tool for creating Web graphics, and Macromedia is determined to make it the only Web graphics tool needed by any Web designer. They are certainly on the right track. --Mike Caputo
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