Photoshop vs. Fireworks?

[bradshjw]

I work as a web designer which I really enjoy, and I use Photoshop 95% of the time for any graphics (web or otherwise) but my bosses are kinda pushing me to use Fireowrks saying Photoshop is much too simple for web graphics. I disagree, I really enjoy using Photoshop and I think its more powerful than Fireworks. I just wanted to know what most everyone else uses and if they think Photoshop or Fireworks is better.

[limbo]

To say photoshop is a lesser piece of software is demostrating their lack of knowledge, just don't tell them that.

These days photoshop comes bundled with imageready which can do all of what fireworks does - or there abouts - Photoshop is, without question, the defacto standard for image manipulation in the design industry and has as many pluses as Fireworks, if not more.

I use Fireworks daily becasue of the sinergy between vector and raster images - but wouldn't touch it with a bargepole for anything print related. They have their strengths, but I don't think I have seen a job you couldn't do in either when it comes to creating graphics for the web.

Learning Fireworks is easier though - Macromedia tends to be a bit more intuitive imo... for now ;)

[bcolflesh]

Photoshop is much too simple for web graphics

Your bosses are quite deluded! Photoshop is far and away the most powerful package, I rarely see anyone use more than 10% of it's capabilities.

I use GIMP everyday now unless I have to pass it along to another Photoshop user.

[Don_Hoagie]

I don't have anything to add, but I suppose since you're looking for support of either side of the argument, I will concur that Photoshop is in no way inferior to Fireworks... they are both great programs, and though I would still take PS over Fireworks for web graphics, they are close enough that someone should just use whichever brand they have more experience with. Your bosses either have no experience whatsoever with Photoshop, or are so politically glued to the Macromedia bandwagon that it has warped their fragile little minds.

Feel free to direct them to this thread if they need any more convincing. Also, please have them show us some of these magical ground-breaking web graphics that could never be achieved with PS.

[bradshjw]

Thanks for the support, I feel the same way about Photoshop being as good if not better than Fireworks. I would never used Fireworks for print, but sometimes I have to edit my bosses PNG's so I use Fireworks in that case. I think the only plus to using Fireworks over Photoshop might its integration with Dreamweaver, but thats it IMO.

[limbo]

To iterate the point I hinted at - I think the arguement is more or less mute now anyway.

Adobe owns Macromedia - so whether Fireworks dissapears or not I imagine there will certainly be more adobifying of the software in the MM Studio Range - amalgamation of imageready and fireworks has been hinted at by Adobe... as has the illustrator/freeehand combo... is this just rumor mongering...?

[hazard2600]

I was in the video game industry for about 5 years and used Photoshop HEAVILY during that time creating textures. I still use it almost every day working on graphics, sketching concepts and creating web images.

It is a massivly awesome image manipulation tool. Why else would they charge 600 bucks for it? ;)

[Section_8]

I agree with everyone else on this topic. And with the recent buyout of Macromedia, Adobe now holds all the keys. I'm rather excited for one. I'm a true believer in both products, I use Macromedia Flash 8 as well as Adobe Photoshop CS2. I find that Adobe is PERFECT for ANY image editing at all. Macromedia, not so much. It just doesn't incorporate as many features as PSCS2. However, combining the 2 of them is rather ingenious. The possibilities are now endless.

[pixelkat]

time to ask your bosses what they were smokin'!

kidding aside, if page weight is a big factor in your work, fireworks will squeeze about 10% more pixel compression when creating gifs and jpegs for the web. with bandwidth not so much an issue these days with growth in broadband, I don't waste the clients money on wringing every excess pixel out of the images if only a fraction of his visitors are on dialup. this is not to say I've stopped economizing image size, but if after 2 optimization attempts a 28K image is only2 or 3 pixels smaller, I'll leave it as is.

if you're doing a lot of Flash, Fireworks is the best choice.

I suspect Adobe will integrate a few of the best features of fireworks directly into flash and or director and trash the rest.
kat

[energylevel]

Photoshop is some way ahead in graphics design features buy purely as a specialist web design graphics program Fireworks is better .. if your using Dreamweaver you definitely need to consider using Fireworks it will improve your work-flow greatly.. by the way Fireworks has been catching up with the addition of image editing features in the last few versions .. I rarely use Photoshop these days and haven't looked back, I find that the combination of Dreamweaver and Fireworks is a very good one for me ...

[energylevel]

<< so whether Fireworks disappears or not I imagine there will certainly be more adobifying >>

I for one hope Fireworks stays, really it should replace ImageReady, I think Adobe will have to be careful not to lose a large contingent of loyal Macromedia software users. I can understand the Freehand argument more, Macromedia seem o be focusing less and less on Freehand over the last few years anyway...

[ortem]

from personal experience of with both print and web media, I would say that fireworks is a wonderful product for creating web graphics and it beats PhotoShop in its optimization abilitites hands down... you will get a smaller file size with less pizelation everytime

also, if you are working with dreamweaver then you will need fireworks to work seamlessly and save you time

don't stope using photoshop but master fireworks... it will be worth it

[energylevel]

Absolutely .. if you're mainly concerned with web graphics creation you really need to give Fireworks a test run because it really is a wonderful piece of software and if you've been using Dreamweaver for the past however many years with Photoshop/ImageReady you DEFINATELY need to get Fireworks in your arsenal..

Lets pray Adobe don't kill off Fireworks, or 'Adobify' it and ruin it! Dreamweaver should be safe with such a large market share of the web development software market, I don't think they will want to rock the boat ....

[LBmtb]

I use Fireworks and love it. Comes easy and natural to me. I tried using Photoshop for my web stuff for about a week but couldnt get the hang of it. I still use PS for a few things though.

[shigamoto]

Macromedia seem o be focusing less and less on Freehand over the last few years anyway...

Yeah I wasn't impressed at all with the later versions of Freehand. Fireworks is a neat program, but Photoshop is what I use the most. I don't get why choose between the two like that? They are both great programs but in different ways and for different things. Photoshop is however pretty much an industry standard, for print as someone said it's a must have.

[jollygoodfella]

Some users, like myself, may find it harder to use fireworks since I have been using Photoshop from before 5.5 came out. But many of my friends have mentioned that Fireworks works with vector objects much better than that of fireworks. So I will definately give fireworks another shot.

[energylevel]

Fireworks is a breeze to use compared with Photoshop ... really it is ...

[Kevin French]

Your bosses are incorrect for saying that PhotoShop is less of an application that Fireworks. However, you must keep in mind that PhotoShop was originally created for print work, whereas Fireworks was created from the ground up just for Web work.

Yeah yeah...PhotoSHop comes bundled with ImageReady. That's because when ImageReady was sold as a standalone app back in 1999 to compete with Fireworks...it failed miserably.

Fireworks and PS are both powerful apps for and are great at doing what they were intended to do, however, I have been using FW since version 1 and it is the only app I use for my web graphics.

Also, keep in mind that FW works synergistically with Dreamweaver, so if you use DW for your coding, your productivity will greatly benefit by using both apps together.

[energylevel]

I don't think making a direct comparison is fair, Photoshop is by far a more complex image editing program yes this is true but if you want a specialist image editing/creation program specifically for web graphic with some good vector and bitmap editing features then Fireworks is a very good choice and it is much easier to learn Photoshop without a shadow of doubt. Most of the people that slam Fireworks really don't appreciate what the software is intended for. It is not a direct competitor to Photoshop, if you want to make comparisons you should do so between ImageReady and Fireworks