Graphic artists have long relied on four or five separate applications to create small, good-looking graphics for the Web. Macromedia’s Fireworks aims to simplify the image-creation process by combining several tools into one graphics program.
On launching Fireworks, you encounter a plethora of palettes — enough to take the phrase cluttered screen to new levels. Palettes include Brushes And Fills, Layers And Frames, and so on; you can’t reorganize or regroup them as in Photoshop. Other palettes allow you to specify shapes and URLs for image maps or to set an object’s opacity.
Fireworks uses Bezier curves (paths) — a concept foreign to Photoshop experts — to control images and objects created with brushes, text, and other tools. Drawing in paths takes practice, but the results can be extraordinary. Imagine painting a squiggly line, then editing the path and the brush pattern; adding a drop shadow, then reediting it.
While Photoshop 5.0 pushed imaging software forward, Fireworks outdoes it in several areas. Aside from supporting Photoshop files, plug-ins, and layers. Fireworks lets you place text on paths, create JavaScript-based rollover effects, and undo actions multiple times. Advanced image and tool options enable you to do some niffy stuff. Beyond using the standard set of bevels, gradients, and shapes, you can combine textures such as Vein, Scratch, and Smoky with patterns such as Aggregate, Bricks, and Tweed. With enough experimentation, you can create realistic textures on everything from water to toys to buildings.
Fireworks facilitates batch processing, though it doesn’t support the creation of droplets as Adobe’s ImageReady does. But it definitely eases the struggle many Webmasters face of slicing images and reassembling them into a table. Its two-step process allows you to slice images easily and write the HTML code to create tables. In working with files, we had some dis^pointments: Using Fireworks to create animated GIFs is a bit of a pain, and Fireworks lacks tweening tracks — you can’t apply a fade or move text along a path in a set number of frames, but must do it dl manually.
Fireworks’ greatest feature is its export ability, which allows you to preview up to four different versions of your image. This side-by-side comparison and optimization alone is probably worth $299 to those who spend their days creating Web graphics.
Fireworks’ export preview, patterns and textures, and reeditable paths make this application worthy of serious consideration for amateur and professional Web artists alike.
Barzeski, Erik J. (October 1998). Fireworks 1.0. MacAddict. (pg. 50).
Macromedia, Inc.
Applications
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mm-fireworks-1-mac.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
SheepShaver
