Welcome To Fireworks; What Is Fireworks - MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS 2-USING FIREWORKS Use Manual

Welcome to Fireworks

What is Fireworks?

Fireworks creates the smallest, highest-quality JPEG
and GIF graphics in the fewest number of steps. It is a
total solution for creating and producing web graphics.
Fireworks simplifies and streamlines the process of
making web and screen graphics, while providing the
ultimate in flexibility and editability.
Fireworks also makes it easy to minimize file size
without sacrificing quality, which results in faster web
sites and higher satisfaction among web site visitors.
Without Fireworks, for example, a web designer creates
an image in a vector-based drawing program such as
FreeHand, then imports the vector art into a bitmap
graphics program to rasterize and apply filters.
Continuing the creative process, the designer exports the
graphic for import into a color palette-conversion utility
and then optimizes the palette and image format for
either web- or screen-based delivery. The designer might
also use an animation tool or image map utility to create
a dynamic image.
To test the graphic, the designer must view it in a web
browser application. Revising the graphic at this point
may force the designer to start from the beginning and
repeat every step.
With Fireworks, the designer' s creativity is no longer
complicated by switching from tool to tool, and
valuable time is saved by avoiding repetitive procedures.
Fireworks is a single tool that handles all the
necessary steps.
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By creating editable paths with bitmap attributes,
Fireworks ensures that your work is fully editable
throughout every stage of the design process. Fireworks'
powerful export preview capabilities integrated with
color palette and graphic formatting offer the designer
control over exporting.
Fireworks is a solution to the challenges faced by web
designers. Accordingly, Fireworks is not optimal for
creating or modifying images intended for traditional
commercial printing. The Fireworks environment is
based on the RGB color model, ideally suited for images
rendered at screen, rather than print, resolutions.
The advantages to using Fireworks over other tools
include efficiency, convenience, and adaptability. With
Fireworks, the designer is free to focus on design and
creation without the distraction of switching from tool
to tool.
This efficient workflow is even more convenient with
Fireworks' incredible power over color palettes and file
formats. Advanced preview capabilities allow the
designer to see the effect of palette and color depth
changes without the time-consuming step of viewing
graphics in a browser.
Amazingly, both text and objects in a Fireworks graphic
are fully editable at any time. This means that graphics
can be easily modified without recreating them.