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Originally published at Internet.com Web graphics creation and optimization tools are all the rage lately and the competition should only get fiercer as the big boys continue to enter the fray. Tools like Ulead's GIF Animator and GIF Construction Set brought about the emergence of Web graphics tools, but while these apps focused primarily on creating animated GIFs, the new class of products widens the scope to creation, manipulation, and optimization capabilities for all types of Web graphics.
The latest Web graphics tools from the likes of Adobe (ImageReady), Macromedia (Fireworks), and to a lesser extent Microsoft (Liquid Motion) fill a need currently lacking in commercial graphics applications like Adobe Photoshop. And while most of the new tools are a bit on the expensive side, if you spend any significant amount of time developing or working with graphics for the Web, the high price of one of these tools is more than offset by the savings in time, frustration, and overall satisfaction.
Fireworks is the latest all-in-one Web graphics creation, animation, and optimization tool to hit the 'net. This combination vector and bitmap imaging app especially excels at optimization tasks for GIFs, animated GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs, but it's also a full-scale graphics creation and manipulation program like Adobe Photoshop. If you're a long-time Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro user, you'll probably find the Fireworks interface a bit difficult to adjust to, but after getting by the relatively short learning curve you'll find that Fireworks isn't lacking in many areas.
Like Photoshop, Fireworks supports layers and will import the layering information of a Photoshop file without any problems. The app also supports editable, scalable text (a feature shared by the latest release of Photoshop, v5.0, and Adobe ImageReady); image slicing (cuts an image into separate segments and allows the slices to be loaded selectively on the Web, optimized individually, or even saved in different formats); JavaScript rollover capabilities (automatically generates HTML code for interactive buttons and graphic 'hot-spots'); and the ability to create image maps (both client-side and NCSA server-side image maps are supported).
New features in the official 1.0 release include symbols and instances (create a master object - the symbol - and copies of it - the instances - are automatically updated whenever the symbol is modified); image tweening (a cool morphing-like feature that blends aspects of instances or a symbol and its instance across objects, opacity, Live Effects, and transformations, creating interim frames with transitional attributes); a WebSnap Adaptive color palette for optimizing GIF images with browser-safe colors; and import capabilities for Photoshop, FreeHand, Illustrator, and Corel Draw (with an option for automatic translation of layers into animated frames for FreeHand and Illustrator files).
Fundamentally, Fireworks is a vector-based imaging program, allowing you to create editable bezier paths and objects for more compelling images and animations. This results in editable "Live Effects" — for example, create some text with a drop shadow and when you change the text the drop shadow automatically changes with it. The time and frustration that this feature alone saves you will more than offset the product's rather expensive price tag. Every aspect of a graphic, including text, objects, and image maps, is fully editable and can have effects applied at any time, with the effects following changes in the underlying object automatically and in real-time.
The export preview is one of Fireworks' strongest features. The preview allows you to balance file size and image quality across a number of instances in order to create the optimal graphic - one that looks great and downloads quickly. You can use the preview to place the original image next to an optimized one, or you can create a view with the original image and up to three optimized ones, each with a different setting. For example, you can place the original image next to an optimized image in adaptive GIF mode, one in progressive JPEG mode, and another in 32-bit PNG mode.
Figure 1. Snapshot of the Export Preview Screen
In addition to the image itself, each preview displays the total file size, the time it would take to download the image on a 28.8 Kbps connection, the image format, and the format settings. You can fine tune each image to your heart's content with a number of GIF optimization settings and color depth options for GIFs, a quality scale and smoothing options for JPEG images, and a bit depth setting for PNG graphics. While Fireworks doesn't compress JPEG images as well as ImageReady nor animation GIFs as well as a standalone GIF animation tool like Ulead's GIF Animator (although it does comes very close), its GIF compression capabilities are among the best on the market. Fireworks also supports LZW interframe optimization for better optimization of animated GIFs.
Creating animated graphics with Fireworks is a relatively straightforward process (although ImageReady does rival Fireworks for ease of use in this department), but unless you are creating an extremely simple animation, you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration by using a specialized tool like Ulead's GIF Animator. GIF animation tools offer a variety of features and effects that you won't find in apps like Fireworks and ImageReady. These tools not only make it easier to create animations, they also allow you to create more effective and better optimized animations. One area of animation where Fireworks does excel, however, is in its ability to automatically translate the layers of imported FreeHand and Illustrator files into animated frames.
One of Fireworks' limitations is that GIF and JPG files cannot be previewed in the File Open window like PNG files (which Fireworks uses as its native file format). Images also can't be scanned directly into Fireworks. Viewing an animated GIF is also only available in the export preview window, where you are able to configure the duration of each frame and make additional changes to the animation. And while Fireworks edges out competitors like ImageReady in terms of image optimization capabilities, ImageReady does retain an edge in one area &mdahs; optimizing JPEG images.
Overall, Macromedia Fireworks serves as an ideal all-in-one suite of Web graphics tools, but don't throw out your specialized GIF animation, image mapping, image optimization, and image creation tools just yet. Fireworks is a huge step forward, but in most cases the specialized tools still offer more features and better overall functionality. And compared to the Fireworks' $299 price tag, you could buy a collection of the best standalone Web graphics tools and still have enough money left over to treat yourself to a Web clipart collection or
Author: Forrest Stroud
Read article at Internet.com site