Adobe is going to kill Fireworks • Hacker News Board

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#81

Post by crazygringo » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:12 PM UTC

ChrisLTD wrote: post #27

jvzr wrote: post #13

I've been using Fireworks for years, back to Macromedia Fireworks 4. It's much better/faster than Photoshop for web design (rounded square corners come to mind). If you work on a Mac, consider Sketch by Bohemian Coding : http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ It's a great app, is updated very frequently and has come a very long way and could almost be seen as already superior to Fireworks CS6 in most ways.

The best way I've found to make rounded corners in Photoshop is by using the round rectangle vector tool. It's relatively new, so you may not have tried it.

I can't tell if you're being snarky, or just don't have experience.

It's not the creation of rounded rectangles. It's being able to change the radius afterwards (which Photoshop can't do). Also, if you want to change the size of the rectangle later in Photoshop, without distorting the corners, it's not easy -- you have to subselect specific control points, and then move them.

It's not impossible in Photoshop, it's just that modifying rounded rectangles is a huge pain.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#82

Post by tomrod » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #34

Aardwolf wrote: post #24

This doesn't mean the software cannot be used anymore, right?

Not immediately, but once a software product is killed, you won't get updates for future Operating Systems, no security updates, no support for new file formats ... eventually it just dies a death of time decay.

This would be a good time for Adobe to open source it, right? So it can be ported to Linux and live forever?

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#83

Post by intellection » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:18 PM UTC

drivingmenuts wrote: post #68

intellection wrote: post #63

Will it help Inkscape? Could Inkscape advocate Adobe to let Fireworks live to help SVG grow?

Inkscape's QT-based(?) UI looks like a hot mess and feels just as bad on OS X. It's probably fine for Windows, though.

Inkscape interface does most everything I need, except I miss Photoshop's 'Layer Effects' workflow, which makes designing and organizing filters less messy.

I use Linux.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#84

Post by WiseWeasel » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:32 PM UTC

tomrod wrote: post #82

ghshephard wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not immediately, but once a software product is killed, you won't get updates for future Operating Systems, no security updates, no support for new file formats ... eventually it just dies a death of time decay.

This would be a good time for Adobe to open source it, right? So it can be ported to Linux and live forever?

As a competitor to PS and Illustrator, that will never happen.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#85

Post by Shorel » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

brandan wrote: post #36

http://www.inkscape.org/

Nice for it being OSS and all that, but I had to edit XML just to reorder some layers.

Definitely not the same features and polish.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#86

Post by tomrod » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:36 PM UTC

WiseWeasel wrote: post #84

tomrod wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a good time for Adobe to open source it, right? So it can be ported to Linux and live forever?

As a competitor to PS and Illustrator, that will never happen.

I thought PS and Illustrator were terrible tools in the competency domain of Fireworks?

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#87

Post by neovive » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:43 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #62

ericcholis wrote: post #20

Often times I feel like I'm in the minority, but I rarely use Fireworks for anything. Perhaps I'm just more comfortable in Photoshop, but I often found that Fireworks didn't fit my workflow. I've read a ton of articles on how/why I should use Fireworks for web design. Perhaps somebody could inform me on what I'm missing.

I am the reverse of you, so I can't talk with any great authority, either. But every time I've used Photoshop I've gotten sick of having to create dozens of layers for everything i do- in Fireworks everything is it's own independent, editable vector object. I just find it far, far easier.

Not having to think about layers (until they are actually needed) is my favorite core feature of FW. Why couldn't Adobe just add this as an option to PS.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#88

Post by run4yourlives » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:44 PM UTC

jimwalsh wrote: post #17

I see more people writing about how they are using Illustrator to design sites now than Fireworks/Photoshop. Claiming that it helps design responsive sites better/more intuitively. I haven't used Fireworks for years. Once you are proficient in Photoshop, I rarely found a reason to open Fireworks even given all of its benefits.

> Once you are proficient in Photoshop,

I have no desire to ever be proficient in photoshop, which is why I like Fireworks. It's easy for me, a programmer, to open it up, figure out how to do what I need to do, and then get back to working on whatever site I'm working on.

I don't have half a day to spend trying to figure out how to change the white background to transparent because I want to introduce a background switcher to a website. I also don't want to have a designer do it either, not when I can open Fireworks and complete that task in 5 minutes.

That's the power of Fireworks in my opinion - a graphics tool for non-designers.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#89

Post by WiseWeasel » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

jimwalsh wrote: post #17

I see more people writing about how they are using Illustrator to design sites now than Fireworks/Photoshop. Claiming that it helps design responsive sites better/more intuitively. I haven't used Fireworks for years. Once you are proficient in Photoshop, I rarely found a reason to open Fireworks even given all of its benefits.

I use Illustrator to make all my icons now, since I've switched to using SVG for high-res display support. Wouldn't try to use it for mocking up an entire site though; FW is much more suited to that. Working with Illustrator for large numbers of shapes and gradients is insanely inefficient. Illustrator is for precision work and advanced vector shapes, while FW is for throwing a bunch of (commonly shaped) shit at a wall and seeing what sticks, and for that there's none better.

Re: Adobe is going to kill Fireworks

#90

Post by run4yourlives » Mon, May 06, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #5

What do people use Fireworks for?

Quick image creation and editing. Backgrounds, resizes, taking incoming files from designers and making them 'usuable', in whatever meaning that word takes at the time. Prototyping design (i.e. "good enough until we pay a designer" design), etc.