[IxDA Discuss] Illustrator vs Fireworks

[Dave (Heller) Malouf]

Anthony Armendariz wrote:
> 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.
You are definitely preaching to the converted here. I've been using Fireworks since 4.0 and haven't really looked back at Photoshop or Illustrator since.

We didn't even mention its interoperability with Dreamweaver and Flash as other killer reasons to use the tool.

I find its mix of raster and vector, its text abilities, etc. to be the best of photoshop and AI in one tool.

one trick I LOVE in Fireworks ...

Use frames ...
1. create a bottom layer or set of layers(that you know repeat across all screens) and set it to share across frames.
2. For each distinct screen either create a new frame, or duplicate an existing frame if there is enough carry over.

Print to PDF and it creates a single page for each frame.

This is REALLY great when doing small flow sequences when all you are doing are showing dialogs, and other alternative and exception behaviors.

One problem with this is that it soaks up a ton of memory as the system creates duplicates of images in each frame, but the pain point is worth it over time. 

-- dave


-- 
 
David (Heller) Malouf
Vice President
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