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Fireworks or Photoshop?

I

iKwak

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 20, 2003
62
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I would like to learn either one of the software to build experience.
Looking at the education price for each license, Fireworks is much lower compared to Photoshops...which is a PLUS.

I understand Photoshop is the leader in image editing but Fireworks can do what Photoshop does, right? :confused:
Which would you personally recommend out of the two? And why?
I doubt I have time to learn both program and once I start, I would like to remain with that program.
 
Photoshop is the best and industry standard. If you're doing this to learn for experience, you'll get a lot farther having photoshop on your resume than Fireworks.

D
 
Fireworks cannot do what Photoshop does, and Photoshop cannot do what Fireworks can. If you want to build images for Web pages, you should be using Fireworks. It is *much* more powerful for creating image maps, interactive graphics, animations, text effects, and more. If you want to enhance graphic images and photos for general use (including the Web), use Photoshop. Photoshop has expert print color management tools, many, many more ways to enhance images, and is more expandable with third party filters and masks.

If you're looking for a cheap way to learn some of the principles involved in Photoshop, you might try GIMP, which is a free image editing program which can run in the X11 environment. It's difficult to install, but once you have it running, it works in much the same way as Photoshop. I highly recommend the Web page Grokking the GIMP for an advanced tutorial in GIMP.

Edit: Another cheap way to learn Photoshop is to buy Photoshop Elements, a $99-ish version of Photoshop that has nearly all the essential features of Photoshop.
 
Photoshop... period. If you are going into a creative field, print, web, video, you will have to learn photoshop sooner or later. Fireworks is basically a web image tool. Even in a web design house you are more likely to use Photoshop than Fireworks.
 
Listen to wordmunger. If you are more interested in web graphics, learn Fireworks. If you are interested in print graphics learn both, but Photoshop will be much more useful there.
 
Originally posted by wordmunger
Edit: Another cheap way to learn Photoshop is to buy Photoshop Elements, a $99-ish version of Photoshop that has nearly all the essential features of Photoshop.
Click to expand...

yeah, i second this. PSE is a good and cheaper way to learn the essentials of photoshop.
 
It also sounds like, from the descriptions here, that Fireworks is similar to Adobe's ImageReady, which is packaged with Photoshop, so I don't see any reason to use Fireworks at all.

Then again, I love Photoshop. That is the program of choice, and will look much better on your resume. It's "the standard," so...

--Cless
 
Fireworks and ImageReady do the same thing. If you are used to Photoshop then ImageReady is easy to use, if you are used to Dreamweaver than Fireworks would be easier. I find Fireworks interface a bit clunky compared to Photoshop.
 
Originally posted by Cless
It also sounds like, from the descriptions here, that Fireworks is similar to Adobe's ImageReady, which is packaged with Photoshop, so I don't see any reason to use Fireworks at all.
Click to expand...

... well, you don't get ImageReady with Photoshop Elements, so if you're looking for a cheap solution, you're stuck there. But again, it goes back to your purpose. For building Web pages, Fireworks is a damn fine tool (esp. for the Education price) and integrates well with Dreamweaver. For print, obviously Photoshop is the choice.

Regarding "resume-padding," yes, Photoshop will give you more "hits" when resumes are loaded into a database, but everyone and his brother uses Photoshop, so I'm not sure this is going to make you really stand out. Good design always will (and if I'm looking for a designer, I spend about 5 seconds looking at a resume and the rest of the time looking at portfolios).
 
Reasons to get Photoshop:
1) industry standard
2) solid piece of software
3) comes with ImageReady
4) all scanner software is written and tested with Photoshop in mind
5) biggest reason: from Photoshop you can upgrade to Creative Suite, saving you tons of money on Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator & GoLive.

If money is an issue, go buy a scanner -- Photoshop Elements will be included for free.
 
Learn both

Fireworks works very well with Flash, the way boxes with edge and solid work in Photoshop doesn't translate as neatly. I love photoshop to death and could not live without it,however Fireworks is a very powerfull tool in its own right. I can produce variation mock web site layouts far far quicker with the way Fireworks uses its drag/positioning of multiple elements within layers. If you plan correctly you can create symbols and then cut your work in half banging stuff through to Flash. Just don't try to edit large Photo files, I don't think fireworks was set up to move big lumps about.:)

So, Photoshop earns it keep and so does Fireworks.

Illustrator or Freehand and I go Illustrator.

Don't write Fireworks off, learn it and you will have a fine tool. BTW the variation in human interface is down to petty patent squabbles between Macromedia and Adobe. Don't let it get you down.:)
 
Probably doesn't matter now that so many people have posted already, but I have used both extensively so I can definitely say that Photoshop wins hands down in my opinion. However, I would recommend learning both - they both are good tools to know for different situations.
 
Everyone agrees that PS is the way to go but I won't be using 90% (or more) features of what PS has to offer. So I'll just opt for the Fireworks as it is for websites.


I downloaded the tryout version of Fireworks but received an error saying the tryout expired.

Can Fireworks create 1)online images from scratch (banners & logos), 2)cut and paste two photos together (stitching), 3)change colors of an image, 4)crop images, and 5)adjust brightness & contract?

Those would be the main features I am looking for. I don't I'll ever use all the goodies that PS has to offer.
 
Originally posted by wordmunger
Fireworks cannot do what Photoshop does, and Photoshop cannot do what Fireworks can. If you want to build images for Web pages, you should be using Fireworks. It is *much* more powerful for creating image maps, interactive graphics, animations, text effects, and more. If you want to enhance graphic images and photos for general use (including the Web), use Photoshop. Photoshop has expert print color management tools, many, many more ways to enhance images, and is more expandable with third party filters and masks.
Click to expand...

I totally agree.

Start with Photoshop and learn how to edit and make images (the filters for example r just great).
When u did it, ask yourself if u want to build professional webpages. If your answer is "yes", get yourself Studio MX with Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash.

Dreamweaver does the HTML stuff,
Fireworks the images and
Flash the animations.

Look at my page and I explain:
http://www.clanraubspinne.de/default.html

The rotating "Mofos" in the upper right corner was made with Flash.
The grey frame, which is splitted in little .gif files, and the graphic stuff was made with Fireworks.
With Dreamweaver i put all these things together to one .html file and wrote the text in the middle.

Dave
 
Originally posted by iKwak
Can Fireworks create 1)online images from scratch (banners & logos), 2)cut and paste two photos together (stitching), 3)change colors of an image, 4)crop images, and 5)adjust brightness & contract?

Those would be the main features I am looking for. I don't I'll ever use all the goodies that PS has to offer.
Click to expand...

Fireworks can share most of your ps plugins, but not as live effects.

Fireworks can do some amazing things, it's just that most people know how to do it in PS and never bother to find out how fireworks does it.

answer: all those things and much more. :)

my main worry is the way Fireworks does live effects, maybe it's just slow on my 450 Sawtooth, but PS manages the big multi megapixel files really well, fireworks has to spend much more time rendering once I get over 1000x1000 pixels or use 300dpi and alike.
 
Photoshop and Fireworks are 2 totally different app's aimed at 2 different area's within design.

As pointed out, ImageReady is Adobes equivalent of Fireworks, which is to say it's for web production graphics, optimising images for online deployment, creating animated GIF's etc etc and this is bundled with Photoshop.

Fireworks is not a Photoshop alternative... (no where near) it's a imageReady alternative, I really wouldn't want to create designs, and layouts and structures in Fireworks at the concept stage but I would utilze Fireworks or ImageReady when it came to the production stage.

Photoshop, ImageReady and Fireworks are all industry standard app's... if there's such a thing... ;) but to be honest, I've found that you can never know enough software, and you'll discover Fireworks creative and design limitations quickly enough.
 
Fireworks vs Photoshop

I have been in commercial printing for over 30 years and most since 1981 (scitex pixet work station) has been in desktop publishing. I started with Photoshop 2.0 and now use Adobe CS suite (Photoshop 8) Since I belive vs 6.0 Photoshop comes with "Adobe Image Ready" that is attached as a separate application but has a "linking" icon at the bottom of the tool bar. Once graphics are made using however many layers and effects in Photoshop and saved as a .psd file you just click on the icon or "shift+command+m" to go to Image ready and finish all the html work or animation there then save "optimized for the web". viola done!
Anyway having the availability of a $900 package helps.
 
iKwak as long as you've made up your mind, check either Barnes & Noble or Borders or Amazon for the IDG BOOKS series. They have by far the best in "Bibles" for the desktop publishing genre. I have spent hundreds on titles such as Acrobat PDF Bible, Photoshop 4 Bible, etc. Each book is about 600 pages in length and some come with CDs containing tutorials and feebee stuff as well as demos in whatever you are using. They run about $40 - $50 each but are well worth the investment if you are a newbie. The only set back is that by the time you finish reading the book and think you've mastered the software BANG— the next version comes out and you're back at the starting gate. But by then you should now enough to be able to learn the next version with little trouble.

Good Luck and Have fun!
Sparky
 
Being a Graphics Professional I couldn't agree more. Photoshop is #1 in the world bar none.
 
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