It means you can “import” or “place” an image or a vector file in a document and keep a link to the original. Can we move on now?Ģ- External assets management : This is another feature that has been present in most graphic applications for years. The Web safe palette has never been safe and has been irrelevant for 10 years if not more. Worse, Fireworks still opens and uses the absolutely useless Web safe palette by default. This is the type of thing designers have taken for granted in Illustrator for over 2 decades. Fireworks still only deals with “color palettes” as groups, not individual swatches. Fireworks still has no concept of an individual color swatch thus no concept of a global color you can edit in one place and have all instances where it is used updated automatically. So, with that in mind…ġ- Color management : It is really incredible to me that, a graphic design application in its 11th major release still has such primitive color features. That will give you a better idea of the breadth if its scope. If you must compare it to something, don’t compare it to Photoshop but think of it as InDesign for the Web.
#ADOBE FIREWORKS CS6 REVIEW FULL#
Fireworks is a full featured creative design application. It might be focused entirely on Web or screen output, but it’s still a creative application first and foremost, not a glorified slicing and optimization tool to replace ImageReady and not a “cheap” alternative to its big brothers Photoshop and Illustrator. Keep in mind that, in spite of many people’s misconceptions, Fireworks is primarily a graphic design application. While I don’t know what’s in store in for Fireworks in the future, here’s a few areas where I think the application needs improvements most urgently. But there’s still so much more room for improvement in its creative tool set. Its mix of bitmap and vector tools mixed in with amazing workflow features make it an unparalleled Web centric graphic design workhorse that is still unmatched in flexibility and efficiency. What has always been Fireworks’ strength and still makes it unique in the world of graphic design applications is its incredible integrated hybrid tool set. Now that so many bugs have been fixed and Fireworks is more stable than ever, let’s hope that further development efforts will finally bring some long overdue improvements to Fireworks’ creative tool set. What I think Fireworks CS5 brings at this time is a great foundation for the future. I still think major mistakes have been made and great opportunities have been lost.
People who know me and long time readers of this blog know that I have been very critical of Fireworks’ development direction in the past. Like I said, nothing earth shattering here but these are welcome additions that bring a little of long overdue sophistication to Fireworks. Refer to Bruce’s article above for a complete list.
It may not sound sexy but I assure you that the team delivered. As Fireworks Program Manager Bruce Bowman has stated in his “ Introducing Adobe Fireworks CS5” article from mid-April, Fireworks CS5 is a release that focuses on “Stability, Performance and Polish”. The first thing you need to know about this version is that, unlike other applications in the CS5 Suites, Fireworks CS5 doesn’t have big shiny new features.
As is becoming a tradition here on, here are my thoughts on the new version as well as a few thoughts on the future… I have been using two products in the suite for a while now, including of course, Fireworks CS5. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, or you are not a Web designer or working in a related field, you cannot have missed the announcement of Adobe’s new Creative Suite 5 a few weeks ago.