I've been
using Macromedia Fireworks just about every day for the last
year. I've been impressed with its ability to crunch large files
into tiny JPEGs with virtually no loss in quality, and I've
fallen in love with its effects and batch processing capabilities.
Now, for the last few weeks, I've switched to Fireworks 4, which
is available as a stand-alone product or in a bundle with Dreamweaver
4. This latest release builds upon the firm foundation laid
in Fireworks 3 with a refined interface, some improved functionality
and a smattering of new features.
For those
of you unfamiliar with Fireworks, the program is basically an
image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop but much more heavily
geared toward Web production, with a particular emphasis on
vectors. I would never choose Fireworks as a replacement for
Photoshop, but it does make an excellent companion, particularly
for Web designers. For example, you do not get the control over
bitmap images that you find in Photoshop (not even close), but
you do get a whole slew of features that make editing and creating
graphics for the Web much easier than in Photoshop or ImageReady.
It's not just a tool for making buttons and bevels; those sorts
of tools are freely downloadable from shareware sites. Rather,
you get a full-featured application that can create rollovers,
selectively compress JPEGs, create and edit vector objects and
apply effects while maintaining their editability.
JPEG
compression
The thing that has always impressed me the most about Fireworks
is its ability to reduce images to the barest kilobytes while
maintaining outstanding image fidelity. If Fireworks could do
nothing else, I would still use it every single day for crunching
images. It reigns supreme for compression.
The latest
version goes even further by adding the ability to compress
images selectively. So you can munch the bejeezus out of the
background of an image while still maintaining crystal clarity
in the foreground.
Fireworks
4 adds selective JPEG compression, which allows you to
select an are of the image to be compressed more or less
than the rest of the image. (The pink area surrounded by
a marquee in this image is the selected area.)
Selective
JPEG compression can be applied to any area of an image with
any of the marquee tools you're familiar with, as in the example
above. You simply select an area and then choose Modify >
Selective JPEG > Save Selection as JPEG Mask. The selection
can be either higher or lower than the rest of the image, and
you can even feather the selection for a gradual transition
into the more compressed areas.
