Macromedia Fireworks vs Adobe Photoshop for creating website layouts

I have to agree with you. Fireworks is by far an awesome Graphic Editing tool. I too have used it since 2002 and was a big Photoshop user previously. I've found that all my needs have been met with Fireworks and I bearly revert back to Photoshop any more.

Adobe Photoshop I have been working with graphics since 1995 and Photoshop was the only application that time (to the best of my knowledge). Once I got familiar with Photoshop I found it very easy and effective to work with Photoshop. It offers a lot of functionality with limited number of tools in the main menu. Just combine them with short keys and you are done. Result of which you get more work area! I also like some features from Fireworks like creating a dropdown menu etc. I never found a reason to switch to Fireworks from Photoshop. They both could be unique in there own way, but I think Photoshop overpowers Fireworks (for me). I am more comfortable optimizing images, creating shapes in Photoshop. Now Adobe has acquired Macromedia, so I guess it will be interesting how Adobe promotes Fireworks and Photoshop. Thanks

Hm...interesting.being a web designer myself, i have been using photoshop since the begining and although i tried to laern fireworks in between by going through free tutorials on the net and found it time consuming and not that easy to laern also.....so, got stcuk with photoshop for all thse designs.I prefer combination of Dreamviewer, photoshop and flash for my website deisgns and i still don't know what all extrafeatures does fireworks have compared to photoshop and i just know for now, learning fireworks now is time consuming for sure....

Before Adobe acquired Macromedia, Fireworks is similar to Adobe ImageReady for preparing graphic files for web use. Some features of Photoshop cannot be done on Fireworks like the layer effects, etc. while Photoshop cannot do animated gif (ImageReady does this for Photoshop). I would speculate that Fireworks would replace or be integrated with ImageReady in the upcoming Adobe CS3

Hmm...good question. The first image editing software i've ever known is photoshop, but then soon as i started using fireworks, i've forgotten all about photoshop! fireworks offer much more friendly and easier features and interface. and i end up using fireworks for everything graphic. but well, as the more i used fireworks, it has become apparent to me that fireworks offer a little more less than photoshop in terms of quality editing, effects, etc. so now im using both for different and distinguish reasons for each. but well, what the heck, they're both now owned by adobe. :)

I use Fireworks, for my website design, I never have used PhotoShop for webdesign, but I really think that Fireworks is the best, because it has a very friendly and practice interface, a lot of designers don't has time to spend using a lot of programs, just for creat a design or a layout, so Fireworks, in my opinion, is the best image editor program. Good discussion.have a nice day raasha.

Photoshop seems to be unparallel for the varieties of effects that you can create with it, and a simpe picture can be made to look mervellous with Photoshop. Do n't need to look back once you have got some knowledge in Photoshop.

I will choose which one is easy to use and compacting my works. I don't care the program name or whatever as long that program help me to complete my works more easy I will use it.

I have been using Macromedia Fireworks MX since 2 years to make graphics for my web sites or even my MSN Display pictures. I find it easier and i can make best pictures from Fireworks than Photoshop. As far as popularity is concirened that is another reason, Adobe already created its name in graphics editing software then Macromedia is 2nd in the market because Macromedia launched much after Adobe did.

Photoshop is my preference cos lots of tutorials and support can be found easily.

I don't really know what the answer would be but I am glad I saw this. I am wanting to make a website and was wondering what things to try... Now, I'll have to check these out... Thanks for posting this..

i havent use fireworks

I think Fireworks is a very good software meant for only web-designing..whereas I think Adobe photoshop is a versatile software with very large field of its application. so I would vote for Adobe Photoshop CS2 over Macromedia Fireworks.

I think that: Much photoshop's user, use it because it is much popular than Fireworks! Personally i use photoshop because i use it by a long time and i can do everything with it!

Yes Fireworks is really very best for Web Designers, Best Designers prefere Fireworks. Wel i will learn Fireworks because i know this is very good tool to design Web Template. thanks buddy

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 bundled in the Macromedia Studio 8 suite. In December 2005, Adobe completed the acquisition of Macromedia. How the two product lines will merge is still under speculation. Fireworks is most similar in purpose to Adobe ImageReady, in that it is designed specifically for web-based graphics, with somewhat limited print-based capabilities. Unlike ImageReady, Fireworks features vector editing capabilities, and a more robust feature set overall. Fireworks may be purchased alone or included with Macromedia Studio 8. Many web developers appreciate the features and functionality that the entire program suite offers. However, for those who need only an image editor, the stand-alone copy is more than sufficient. The development of Fireworks continues after the acquisition, Fireworks 9 is now in Beta stage.

I actually used Fireworks for a new friends area on my myspace site. Unfortunately, I gave up after the prototype, but it worked like a charm! It looked like the old Polaroid pictures thrown onto a table, and each picture has a picture of my friend in it. And each picture is also a link to their myspace. I thought it was kind of neat, to bad I never went past more than 4 friends on there...I might get back to it afterwords. But anyways, to add to the topic, I tried to do it on photoshop, originally...and I had a terrible time even trying. I couldn't get it to work on the site, properly and it was just a horrible experience.

but i do think photoshop is easier to use than fireworks and the interface look better than macromedia applications has. Beginners might find photoshop easier to use but for the advance graphic artists well maybe fireworks really deserves to be used...

PhotoShop acts as a Graphic Editor for Web layouts adn I guess Fireworks does more than just creation also supports in actually making Animations as well.. I don't really have a clue about Fireworks as i haven't worked on it except Photoshop CS 2

First thing The Brand......Adobe is larger than macromedia.....I think they purchased macromedia recently. Macromedia is not as popular as Adobe. I agree fire works is far supiroir than Imageready given by macromedia. But adobe is trying to have its identity. What happenned to pagemaker got indesign.