Adobe Photoshop Vs. Macromedia Fireworks Diffs? Simis?

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

But photoshop itself has vector tools too. Or is there something special about illustrator's vector graphics?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Photoshop has only basic vector capabilites. Illustrator aims for all vector graphics. A good idea is to google for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), that may show you the true power of vector based graphics... W3 SVG site. You may need a plugin to see it. For IE it is simple, for Firefox you need to manually install the Adobe SVG viewer 6 (beta).

 

Take for example a simple line... in Photoshop that would be the pencil tool, line tool, etc and will be a raster layer. In Illustrator anything you put on the scene will be a vector layer.

 

Now back to the topic

 

I have both Fireworks and Photoshop. I can't really say I can compare both, since Fireworks lies closer to ImageReady (personal opinion). I started out in Paint Shop Pro, and found it inadequate for what I needed, but it all depends on what you are looking for of course. PSP uses more system resources and seems slower than PS.

 

Fireworks however is excellent to prepare gif's for the web, I found the optimizer better than the one in PS or ImageReady and the *button state* editor is more user-friendly in FW, but then again I haven't been using ImageReady long enough. Other than that I don't use FW much. All I can say is I prefer PhotoShop over PSP and FW for the graphic design. FW rocks in graphic editing solely for the web

 

Hope this helps some..

[harriko 0]

fireworks bring me back to the old times. its the first professional editing program i ever used. before that i used paint... fireworks is pretty good for new users on picture editing, i say its a user friendly program. from fireworks i them tried adobe photoshop it has much more features but basically the same. you also have more control and functions to do on your pictures. so then on i kept on using adobe photoshop. iam still using this now. so i will vote for photoshop but for new users to digital desgin its fireworks.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

if you're more accustommed to Fireworks, I say stick with it. Personally, I never tried using that application and have only used psp and photoshop for graphics, so I can't provide you with differences and similarities =/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would say depending on what your goal is with the graphics design interest....choose the program. For example, if you intend to build a carreer in that direction, you would probably have to switch to PhotoShop (perhaps Fireworks or any other Pro program). But just for fun, I'd go with what is easiest for you, unless you feel you stagnated somewhere and want a new challenge.

 

Chronic? I have a wee question, how did you do those fonts in your sig graphic and av? I've never had that good results (didn't know how else to get this question in than to ask it as a ps LOL)

[kenjvalip 0]

You know both Photoshop and Fireworks are different. They have different features, but I guess photoshop has more features and power. Fireworks is good for basic graphics and if you want good flash animation use fireworks together with flash. When it comes to power and sharpness go for photoshop. Although fireworks is more user friendly than photoshop. Consider photoshop, it is a professional way of making sharp and crisp graphics for your use.

[iGuest 3]

I think the question of Fireworks or Photoshop is best answered by figuring out what you want to do with it. FW was designed to compete with ImageReady (you know the program connected to PS by hitting Ctrl + Shift + M) and not directly competing with PS.

FW is awesome because everything you create with the Pen tool or shapes are vectors, which makes it easy for resizing elements without losing any quality. 

I started out using PS and a few years ago made the switch to FW for "most" things. I think it's easier to use gradients, fills, strokes, etc... FW is more of a Website Designer tool while PS is generally seen as a Photo Editing program.

It really all depends on what I'm doing. If I need to do some crazy graphic things like using brushes or grunging an image out, I'll use PS. I think the most important thing is to get a good feel for what program does WHAT best and use it accordingly!

-reply by Mark

 

[Atomic0 0]

If you were going to work with vector graphics, you would go straight to Adobe Illustrator, since Photoshop and Fireworks is more on the bitmap editing side of things. I would say working with vectors in Illustrator is much easier than in bitmap editors, since there are features in Illustrator that are designed specifically for vectors e.g. Live Paint and Live Trace.Between Photoshop and Fireworks, both are very good programs. Personally, I feel that Photoshop is more suited in editing photography with its different filters for adding special effects, while Fireworks is suited for web design and development with the ability to control the elements separately.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

Photoshop is much better. Not only are there many more tutorials for Photoshop, but there are a ton more features. Fireworks, I have used a little, and like it (and for the price, I like it even more), but Photoshop simply has more power, and a lot more features.The only bad thing about Photoshop is that it doesn't bridge with Web Programs (like Fireworks and Dreamweaver do), but there are some addons that you can get buy for Photoshop that have to do with web Design.