Photoshop or Fireworks

Hi, I’m quite new to web design but wondering if someone could give me an insight into the design software used to create websites.

I have seen a lot of people talking about using Photoshop on here for designs, but a few tutorials online I have watched use Fireworks. Firstly which one of these is most effective- I understand Photoshop has a lot more features, but Fireworks is easier to use?

Also, do you fully design the website then use slices to import it into dreamweaver, or do you just design elements in photoshop/fireworks?

Thanks in advance?

IMHO, you would be best off starting with just a text editor and refining your HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills! While products like Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, etc. are certainly helpful, you will ultimately find yourself somewhat crippled if you rely on these tools for your initial efforts. Good luck!

Thanks @moretea I am currently using Dreamweaver to build websites, and have used wordpress in the past to build a website (<snip>) I am now getting into learning Javascript.

I suppose I was just intrigued of how these different pieces of software were used- I am obviously a long way off using illustrating software, but just wondered if you built the whole website in say Photoshop and then coded that or just used Photoshop to create backgrounds, images etc?

Thanks for your response

I’m so used to Photoshop that I have problems with Fireworks. It is true though that Fireworks does a better job of saving a picture for the web.

The reason that many people still use Fireworks is because it only leaves you with the bits and pieces that are related to web making (cropping images, saving them, creating maps).

It doesn’t have as many tools to create pieces of art but then webmasters used to receive all the images and do only small adjustments. That was the work of the designer.

Nowadays many designers had to learn to multitask though

I thought that was the answer- I have seen that you have to be a lot more well-rounded in the production of websites now- both design and coding.

Yep. Competition out there is fierce :slight_smile:

Hey there

Fireworks seems to be better suited for web design tasks (like preparing images etc.) but it seems Adobe is going to phase it out pretty soon, so I guess there’s no point in falling in love with it at this stage.

Really? Where have you seen this?

I was reading about it the other day, but can’t remember where. There’s no Fireworks for CS7, apparently. There is plenty of discussion online. E.g. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1210073

Thanks for that information, I’d better start learning Photoshop then before I put all my efforts into Fireworks!

Why wouldn’t people use Photoshop over Fireworks anyway? Looking at it from a complete beginner it looks as if Photoshop has a lot more features?

Fw seems to be more tailored for the work a web designer needs to do, but Photoshop gets a lot more press, and Fw seems largely to have been forgotten … so I guess Adobe feels it’s not worth continuing with.

FW does a better job to prepare photos for the web and not everyone needs all the features that Photoshop has.

I’m not surprised that FW will be discontinued furthermore when Photoshop Elements is in the market.

It always seemed bizarre to me that Adobe would have two seemingly similar products in the same family, so I can understand why they might phase it out.

Shame though, as I always found FW more suited to simple web-related tasks.
Seems like it’s time to learn PhotoShop GIMP.

I’ve always wanted to dig into Fw, but guess it’s not worth it now. I’m tempted to check out a bunch of much cheaper alternatives to Ps and Ai anyhow, and I’m not keen to continue with Adobe.

I can understand that, especially in light of their cloud-based subscription model.

So now I’ve established that Fireworks isn;t the way to go… What are the main differences between Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, which one would be better for use in Web Design?

To be honest, I tried the cheaper alternatives and they’re simply not good enough for what I do. But, in my particular case, I do make use of Photoshop advanced features which many other softwares don’t have or, if they do, they’re crap compared to Photoshop’s (either results and how “easy” they’re to use)

Will I ever upgrade from CS6 to the cloud model? I may do so… but do I want to? No, and I’m going to avoid it like the plague.

And that comes from someone that has a special price if only because I already own the previous version.

Illustrator is vector graphics while Photoshop is bitmap graphic. There’s little relation between each other.

OK. Photoshop has the pen tool and basic vector capabilities but vectors are not its forte.

Illustrator does have some nice effects for jpgs and pictures but, again, if compared to photoshop, it is limited.

Which one is the best for web design? both. Or none.

It really depends on what you want to do.

Photo manipulations, beautiful and very sophisticated gradients (no linear or regular), millions of colors, collages and more = photoshop

Logos, graphics with solid colors or “basic” gradients, creating typography, drawings with smooth lines and curves = Illustrator

Fireworks (and Dreamweaver) were Macromedia products, until Adobe bought out Macromedia and took them over. I’m actually quite surprised they’ve kept Fireworks going as long as they have.