Fireworks & Freehand

Jose,

Fireworks is designed almost exclusively for web graphics. Freehand is for more for print layout.

Download both and use them for 30 days as http://macromedia.com

John

If you were to put the graphic program in order of type, it would look like this:

Fireworks = Photoshop = Paint Shop Pro

Illustrator = FreeHand = CoralDraw (I think)

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Yep. And you can add PhotoPaint and PhotoImpact to the top level, since you have included PSP, which is a low end program.

The top row are bitmap or raster programs, with minor vector capabilities and the bottom row are vector or path programs with minor raster/bitmap capabilities.

Suzanne

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Suzanne
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[This message has been edited by Suzanne (edited 01 April 2000).]

Uhhhh, you lost me. First, I make sites using NetObjects Fusion. (simple, rudimentary, amature stuff, but hey, you got to start somewhere!) I have Pagemaker that I use for other stuff (newsletters, magazine ads, etc.), then I use Paint Shop Pro V6 for my digital camera and web graphics. My wife just took a "basic" course in web design and they told her she needs: (1)Pagemaker,(2)Photo Shop, (3)Dreamweaver, and (4)Fire Works, but I'm not clear why.

I understand Photo Shop is the top-of-the-line for digital graphics, but also thought Paint Shop was a close runner-up in the graphics manipulation department. Page Maker is (it seems to me) primarily geared to conventional publishing rather than digital / internet. So can anyone explain the differences more clearly, and verify / explain which ones are "best" for web design and why? My wife and I are both doing this more and more as extensions of our jobs but also as volunteers with different clubs so need to get more educated.

D.A.M.

I dont know why they would say you need those 4 programs for basic web design. It is not even neccesary to have any of those. You can easily get away with notepad and paint shop pro. All those tools are free, they will work just find. If you however looking for more advanced programs with more features, Dreamweaver is a great html editor. That is what i use, and im sure many others in here can say the same. For my graphics program, all i use is Fireworks. Those are two great programs. If you are looking into starting somewhere and getting past more simpler editors, go ahead and download the dreamweaver/fireworks studio and see how ya like it. Hope that helps

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Adam
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Okay, I don't understand why you all are saying that Fireworks is the equivalent of Photoshop. I just started using FW last week and it seems a lot more like Image Styler than anything else - or a simple vector program with some raster capabilities. PS is entirely raster, it has a few simple vector tools now but that's it. FW is basically the oppossite....

I would do something like this:

Photoshop = PSP
ImageStyler = Fireworks
Illustrator = Freehand = Corel Draw

I think Corel has a raster pogram too - PHoto Impact maybe? Never tried it....

Anyway, you don't absolutely need any of those to make a web page. If you're serious, you'll probably want some of the above. If you're just staritng out there's absolutely no reason fork out the money for all of this.

Actually, Photo Impact is from Ulead. Great program. Won't replace PS5, but it has some neat effects built in and it recognizes alot of the PS plug ins. Has a 30 day trial.

Has some idiosyncrosies that irratate me at times if your used to working with PS5, but all in all, great program.

Relatively low cost compared to PS. $79 at staples. Comes with a great Gif Animator and a gif/jpg cruncher which are almost worth the cost and was a tax write-off.

If I were going to recommend software to the new user, guess it would be:
Homesite/Notepad for HTML
Photo Impact and if budget allows, Photo Shop
If budget allows, but not necessary - Illustrator for doing vector graphics

Dan