[IxDA Discuss] Illustrator vs Fireworks

[Anthony Armendariz]

If you compare apples to oranges we all know there are many pros and  
cons to the macromedia vs. adobe tools. Photoshop will be better for  
some jobs where Fireworks will be better for others. Web design and  
production is the one job that Fireworks will always surpass Photoshop.

If you are working on a large web site re design in a team  
environment, you can save exponential time and energy on production  
while easily maintaining creative direction and quality across  
multiple layouts.  These savings help your maximize quality and  
efficiency and your company’s bottom line. Here is how to optimize  
web production with Fireworks.

1. You can design on a component level: Design your interface  
components as separate PNGS and import them into one master Fireworks  
layout. Design them independently and update your master documents.  
Think of how much time this saves if you have multiple layouts that  
use a shared navigation bar for example.
I created a example of this and will send it to interested members.

2. Find and Replace: If you have ever had the daunting experience of  
making a font or color palette change across multiple unorganized  
heavy Photoshop files, then you will love this. Lets say using  
Photoshop it takes you 20 min to edit 5 files in any given project.  
That’s over an hour and a half! With Fireworks you can do find and  
replace on both hex colors and fonts. Yeah that’s right, changing the  
same files would only take 5-10 min.

Our company Behavior is considering using Fireworks to maximize  
production and design between Information Architects and Designers.

Photoshop is slow and archaic. Yes it has great layer effects, but  
guess what so does Fireworks. Fireworks was build solely for web  
production teams, and it does a very very good job.

Anthony Armendariz
Creative Director
______________________________
Behavior
http://www.behaviordesign.com
212.532.4002 x211
212.532.4090 fax


On Aug 8, 2006, at 8:34 AM, Dave (Heller) Malouf wrote:

> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted  
> material.]
>
> I have never been able to make the switch from Fireworks to  
> Illustrator.
> I never was a "drawer" and the toolset in Illustrator always seem to
> speak to those folks.
> It is however GREAT for type manipulation on a poster type page  
> (Quark,
> InDesign is better for typesetting in a book page).
>
> But for doing GUI design I have not found a tool I love more than  
> Fireworks.
> Of course if you grew up in Photoshop/Illustrator and feel comfy  
> living
> there, then why move? I don't see any reason to move from one to  
> the other.
>
> Now, Photoshop vs. Fireworks that is a completely different story. ;)
>
> -- dave
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