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Macromedia Fireworks Tutorials

Introduction | Buttons | Digital Imaging and Photography | Little Known Tools | Animation | Text Tools | Cool Graphics | Exporting Fireworks | Optimizing Images | General Tutorials | Complete Tutorials | Links

Updated: 21Feb07


 

Introduction to Fireworks

Features | Toolbar | Pointer Tool | Scale Tool

Macromedia Fireworks (also known as FW for short) is a bitmap and vector graphics editor, developed by Macromedia and aimed at web designers (with features such as: slices, the ability to add hotspots etc.). It is designed to integrate easily with other Macromedia products, such as the popular Dreamweaver and Flash, and is part of the Macromedia Studio 8 suite.

 

Features of Fireworks

Fireworks contains a number of features that make it a unique alternative to Adobe ImageReady. The primary difference is Fireworks' emphasis on vector editing, similar to Adobe Illustrator, with limited bitmap capabilities. This is opposite to the approach used by Photoshop, which is primarily for bitmap graphics with limited vector editing features. Vector objects in Fireworks can be resized with no loss of quality, just as in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Bitmap objects suffer a similar loss in quality whether resized in Fireworks, ImageReady or Photoshop.

The Fireworks Toolbar

Fireworks buttons can be held down to reveal a submenu of variations on each tool. For example, as the dodge and burn tools are used to lighten or darken an image and are similar, they can be found within the same submenu. This system of organization saves a lot of space and is very useful to graphic editors trying to save as much space on-screen as possible. The toolbar on the right is from Fireworks 8.

Pointer Tool

The Pointer Tool contains a submenu of 2 items. It is represented by a black-filled cursor.

  • Selection Tool - The Selection tool allows the selection of an entire entity within the canvas, or a group of entities by shift clicking multiple items in succession.
  • Select Behind Tool - The Select Behind tool allows the selection of an entity that is below another in the layer order.

Scale Tool

The Scale Tool contains a submenu of 3 items. It is represented by a box with a diagonal arrow.

  • Scale Tool - The scale tool allows you to resize an entity in the X or Y dimensions, and also allows you to keep the image size in the proper ratio by holding SHIFT while scaling. This tool also allows for rotation of an entity.
  • Skew Tool - The skew tool allows the skewing of images.
  • Distort Tool - The distort tool allows you to twist the image and add perspective.

Source: Wikipedia

Tool Bar Fireworks Toolbar

A major source of confusion is that several of the tutorials use images from Macromedia Fireworks 2004 MX desktop rather than the more recent Macromedia Fireworks 8 desktop. Directly below is an image of the MX workspace, and below that is the image of the 2004 MX version...it is this latter version that is used in the tutorials and the source of confusion.

 

Fireworks 8 Panel with Two Dropdowns Open

Fireworks 8 Panel with Two Dropdowns Open

 


The Fireworks 2004 MX Effect Panel

The Fireworks 2004 MX Effect Panel


 
Fireworks Tutorials

Buttons

Create a Glass Orb Button
Create a Gel Button
Battery Icon
Create a Windows XP Type Button
Apple Aqua Button
Create a Forum Button
Create a Web Button
The Ultimate Aqua Button
Glassy Navigation Bar
Cool Chat Icon
Pill Button
Windows Media Player Orb
Disjointed Rollover
Glassy Navigation Bar
Professional Navigation Bar

 

Digital Imaging and Photography

Creating Realistic Images
Using Background Matting
Smoothing an Image
Creating Shadows
Selecting JPEG File Format
Photo Torn Edge
Photo Effects
Photo Retouching Bitmap for Creativity
How to Optimize an Image
Export the image to JPEG for use on the Web
Creating a Curled Page
Creating Thumbnails
Creating a Collage
Create a JPEG Mask

Top

Fireworks Tools You May Want to Learn

Ten Little Known Fireworks Tools
Automatic Shapes
Build Visual Identity for Your Site
Creating a Layout for Dreamweaver Using Fireworks

Text Tools

Chocolate Text
Textured Text
Sleek Text
Photo Inside of Text
Text Along Line
Rotating Text

 

Currently All of the Pages Below Link to External Sites

Animation

Fireworks MX - Animation Using Tweening
Macromedia Fireworks MX - Creating a Basic Animation
Create Animation with Fireworks

Cool Graphics

Creating Inner Outer Curve
3D Bar
3D Bar II
Night Vision Effect

Optimizing Images

These are some great sites on learning the about image compression.
Selective JPEG Compression
Optimizing Web Graphics
Optimizing Extreme HTML
Fireworks Basic Image Editing

Exporting Fireworks

Exporting from Fireworks
Exporting Fireworks HTML
Setting HTML Export Properties
Overview of Slices and Slice Issues

Complete Tutorials

Complete Tutorial via Training Tools

General Fireworks Tutorial

Fireworks Tutorial
Working With Fireworks

 

 

 

Links

Macromedia Fireworks
Macromedia Fireworks Extensions
solarDreamStudios - The site of a very talented FW user, contains some useful tutorials
Playing With Fire - FW resource site
CBT Cafe Fireworks Video Tutorials
Fireworks Guru - Online community of Fireworks users
Firenet - Russian tutorial and community site
Fireworxfun - Request free fireworks graphics
Demon Web Design - Download Free Ebook of Fireworks Tutorials

 

 


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