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Fireworks vs Illustrator

BuddyMac

BuddyMac

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 30, 2007
58
0
Hi All,

I'm used to Fireworks and very much comfortable with it. I designed some logos and graphics for websites with it.

I heard that Illustrator is similar to Fireworks but with extra features.

Can you please explain me what are the diference between Fireworks & Illustaror?

Will you guys advice me to switch to Illustrator?
 
Use Illustrator for vector drawings that will be commercially printed.
Fireworks is an amalgam of Photoshop and Illustrator, specifically for web graphics.

If you are creating graphics any kind of commercial print work, you should probably learn Illustrator.
For web graphics, I doubt it matters what program you use.
 
Fireworks vs Illustrator

Fireworks and Illustrator ane two very different programs, use for to very different things.

Illustrator is a vector based graphics program that is generaly used for illustrations and logo designs. While working with vectors, Illustrator give you the ability to scale your designs to any size without any loss of quality.

Fireworks is more of an image editting program, geared more to web work. Firework works with pixels instead of vectors, causeing images to look very distorted when blown up in size.

Fireworks is very similar to Adobe's ImageReady, which is what I think you might have meant instead of Illustrator. If you can use Firework comfortably, you will pick up ImageReady quickly.

As for advice on switching, it really depends if you are going to be doing what Illustrator is meant for. If you will be doing logo designs, then by all means download the trial and play with it. It works a little differntly than you might expect, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a valuable tool.

Hope that helps
 
bbeers said:
Fireworks and Illustrator ane two very different programs, use for to very different things.

Illustrator is a vector based graphics program that is generaly used for illustrations and logo designs. While working with vectors, Illustrator give you the ability to scale your designs to any size without any loss of quality.

Fireworks is more of an image editting program, geared more to web work. Firework works with pixels instead of vectors, causeing images to look very distorted when blown up in size.

Fireworks is very similar to Adobe's ImageReady, which is what I think you might have meant instead of Illustrator. If you can use Firework comfortably, you will pick up ImageReady quickly.

As for advice on switching, it really depends if you are going to be doing what Illustrator is meant for. If you will be doing logo designs, then by all means download the trial and play with it. It works a little differntly than you might expect, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a valuable tool.

Hope that helps
Click to expand...

Actually, the main distinctive feature of Fireworks is that it is both a pixel-based and a vector-based object editor.
It's an amalgam of Photoshop and Illustrator functions.
Fireworks is essentially an extended graphics application for Flash and Dreamweaver designers.
 
snickelfritz said:
Actually, the main distinctive feature of Fireworks is that it is both a pixel-based and a vector-based object editor.
It's an amalgam of Photoshop and Illustrator functions.
Fireworks is essentially an extended graphics application for Flash and Dreamweaver designers.
Click to expand...

This true. I was making a broad grenerality and Fireworks is mainly for pixel-based editing. But it does do vector based editing as well. And to an extent so does photoshop. But it is all really a mute point as Adobe killed Fireworks with the merger, even though it did a better job at web based tasks than ImageReady.
 
Hi,

I usually use Fireworks for designing graphics for webpages, designing some logos and some invitations etc..

Will it be a good move if I use Illustartor for the above said tasks and also some advanced ones?

bbeers said:
Fireworks and Illustrator ane two very different programs, use for to very different things.

Illustrator is a vector based graphics program that is generaly used for illustrations and logo designs. While working with vectors, Illustrator give you the ability to scale your designs to any size without any loss of quality.

Fireworks is more of an image editting program, geared more to web work. Firework works with pixels instead of vectors, causeing images to look very distorted when blown up in size.

Fireworks is very similar to Adobe's ImageReady, which is what I think you might have meant instead of Illustrator. If you can use Firework comfortably, you will pick up ImageReady quickly.

As for advice on switching, it really depends if you are going to be doing what Illustrator is meant for. If you will be doing logo designs, then by all means download the trial and play with it. It works a little differntly than you might expect, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a valuable tool.

Hope that helps
Click to expand...
 
BuddyMac said:
Hi,

I usually use Fireworks for designing graphics for webpages, designing some logos and some invitations etc..

Will it be a good move if I use Illustartor for the above said tasks and also some advanced ones?
Click to expand...

It really depends on the quanity and scale of the logo designs you do. If it is mainly for friends and family, or for small companies that won't be looking for this be printed on thosands of things, then you are fine.

But if you are looking to do more logo designs or at a much grander scale then learning Illustrator would be benficial. It never hurts to learn more, it is more about the cost or aquiring Illustrator. From what you said above, I think that staying with Fireworks will be fine for the time being. I do reccommend playing with Illustrator though, even if it is only the trial and only to play.

Adobe Trial Page
 
Generally, Fireworks is the equivalent of Photoshop and Freehand is the the equalent of Illustrator.

Industry wise, it's pretty much all PS and Illustrator. Freehand made inroads at one time, but I don't see as much future down that line.
 
This is an enlightening thread. I had no idea that people thought of Fireworks as being more of a raster, than vector program. I see it as the complete opposite, but maybe it's just because of my workflow. I actually use Photoshop for my raster work, and Fireworks for my (Web) vector work. To me, Fireworks is far more valuable as a vector ap than a raster one.

The Lynda.com tutorials for the app seem to focus more on the vector side of things too.

Back to the initial question...

Illustrator for print and Fireworks for Web is an excellent combination, especially if you're using Dreamweaver. The integration between the two is flat-out amazing.

Illustrator is definitely the more powerful pure drawing program of the two, though. Should you switch? What have you been unable to do in Fireworks that you feel Illustrator might handle? If there is nothing, maybe it's best to stick with Fireworks.

I use Fireworks/Photoshop for Web work, Illustrator/Photoshop for print work. I am gradually distancing myself from Photoshop on the Web side.
 
JasonElise1983 said:
sorry. i realize i sounded snooty and like i was doing the "who's your daddy" dance. Not how i meant it. Anyway, sorry if i came off sounding like a douche bag.

-JE
Click to expand...


It is ok, I forgive you. A little peace and happiness is all we need here. I don't really understand why people get so agressive the second theye get on the internet. Maybe it is the distance/annomous thing.
 
bbeers said:
It is ok, I forgive you. A little peace and happiness is all we need here. I don't really understand why people get so agressive the second theye get on the internet. Maybe it is the distance/annomous thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i really didn't mean it as rude. Bad day around here, and was trying to add in some helpful info, without going on and on about it. Just came out wrong. Anyway, sorry again.

-je
 
Photoshop is in fact less useful for web design than Fireworks. And so saying Photoshop is the industry standard for web design is either very wrong or very sad. Fireworks is basically photoshop FOR web design, with the entire program geared towards this one goal. And yes, one huge benefit is vector and bitmaps working together in harmony.

My advice for designing web graphics is to edit your images in Photoshop, build your complex vectors in Illustrator, and bring them all together into Fireworks for pixel-perfect layout, tweaking and exporting.

Illustrator and Fireworks do not compete with each other. Use each for what they are meant to do.
 
Heavy Doody said:
This is an enlightening thread. I had no idea that people thought of Fireworks as being more of a raster, than vector program. I see it as the complete opposite, but maybe it's just because of my workflow. I actually use Photoshop for my raster work, and Fireworks for my (Web) vector work. To me, Fireworks is far more valuable as a vector ap than a raster one.

The Lynda.com tutorials for the app seem to focus more on the vector side of things too.

Back to the initial question...

Illustrator for print and Fireworks for Web is an excellent combination, especially if you're using Dreamweaver. The integration between the two is flat-out amazing.

Illustrator is definitely the more powerful pure drawing program of the two, though. Should you switch? What have you been unable to do in Fireworks that you feel Illustrator might handle? If there is nothing, maybe it's best to stick with Fireworks.

I use Fireworks/Photoshop for Web work, Illustrator/Photoshop for print work. I am gradually distancing myself from Photoshop on the Web side.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Actually, I don't know anything about Illustrator inside. Thats why I expressed like... if it is an advanced tool than fireworks, I can switch to it. Actually I'm not going to print anything and I'm stick to webdesigning and making some simple logos and few invitation cards. So, after going through all this conversations.... i think i can better stick to Fireworks itself. I never fell anything lagging in to during my work.

By the way, I am using Fireworks MX 2004 in Windows Xp and recently switched to Mac and got a trial version of Adobe Fireworks CS3. Do u feel any huge upgrade between Adobe Fireworks CS3 & Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004?? I couldn't find any :( except CS3 is taking more system space to load it's bridge files etc..

Do u guys have any idea that we can get Fireworks MX 2004 for Mac now? I think I'm very much comfortable with that rather CS3 version.
 
This true. I was making a broad grenerality and Fireworks is mainly for pixel-based editing. But it does do vector based editing as well. And to an extent so does photoshop. But it is all really a mute point as Adobe killed Fireworks with the merger, even though it did a better job at web based tasks than ImageReady.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I am wrong on this but the vector tools in fireworks are just that ....vector tools. Where as Photoshop, even though you might produce something that resembles a vector image it is still raster based. At least that's how I've understood it.

I usually use Fireworks for designing graphics for webpages, designing some logos and some invitations etc..

Will it be a good move if I use Illustartor for the above said tasks and also some advanced ones?
Click to expand...

One big difference between fireworks and illustrator is that the former cannot do CMYK. That is one of the main reasons you would not use it for print work.

I am a long time fireworks user and would recommend it to anybody interested in web design. The interface is completely intuitive and is simply a joy to use. I have recently started using illustrator more and am really beginning to respect it. If you have the money to spare or want to do the 30 day trial from the adobe site, I say go for it. Head over to Veerle's blog and jump through her tutorials to get started.
 
My advice for designing web graphics is to edit your images in Photoshop, build your complex vectors in Illustrator, and bring them all together into Fireworks for pixel-perfect layout, tweaking and exporting.
Click to expand...


Right on! That is exactly what I have started doing.
 
BuddyMac said:
Hi,

Do u feel any huge upgrade between Adobe Fireworks CS3 & Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004??
Click to expand...

I don't remember. I get so deep into a product once I pick it up that I tend to forget what's changed.

I think the 9-slice guides are new. And I think the flyout menus are CSS now, instead of Javascript, which would be huge.
 
Heavy Doody said:
This is an enlightening thread. I had no idea that people thought of Fireworks as being more of a raster, than vector program. I see it as the complete opposite, but maybe it's just because of my workflow. I actually use Photoshop for my raster work, and Fireworks for my (Web) vector work. To me, Fireworks is far more valuable as a vector ap than a raster one.

The Lynda.com tutorials for the app seem to focus more on the vector side of things too.

Back to the initial question...

Illustrator for print and Fireworks for Web is an excellent combination, especially if you're using Dreamweaver. The integration between the two is flat-out amazing.

Illustrator is definitely the more powerful pure drawing program of the two, though. Should you switch? What have you been unable to do in Fireworks that you feel Illustrator might handle? If there is nothing, maybe it's best to stick with Fireworks.

I use Fireworks/Photoshop for Web work, Illustrator/Photoshop for print work. I am gradually distancing myself from Photoshop on the Web side.
Click to expand...

After reading all of these responses, I agree with Doody completely. I was getting a little frustrated hearing people calling Fireworks a raster program, when it is much better suited for vectors. With CS3, they all work incredibly well together and can all edit both vector and raster, but Fireworks is definitely my preference for web work. I learned vectors 1st on Illustrator, which is a bit more complex, but as soon as I picked up CS3 I found myself quickly addicted to the ease of Fireworks. I've seen alot of people using PS for everything, but I typically save that for pixel images and Illustrator for really advanced vector stuff or print.
 
Fireworks is still a very capable application. I use it for web, UI and (purely vector-) icon design and enjoy how some of the tools are geared compared with Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm kind of in your shoes, but I decided to slowly move towards Illustrator mostly because of it's superior pathing tools and rendering. Fireworks has some annoying quirks when work on the paths of 32px and below icons.
 
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