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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 bett

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.

WiseWeasel 13y ago
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.
quink 13y ago
I don't really like this approach. Don't do web design in Illustrator, do it in HTML5 + CSS3. Sure, it might take a little longer at first, but the time saved over a longer time frame makes it worth it in so many different ways. Instead, graphics software should be used for elements in the layout rather than the layout itself. It turns out that positioning is quite orthogonal to colour. Borders are orthogonal to textures. Sizes are orthogonal to form design. Not entirely, but that's, in the first instance, how they should be formalised before further dependencies. It is in combining them that we find beauty. And CSS3 is a far more suitable way of doing just that in a considered fashion than Illustrator could ever be.
- jimwalsh 13y ago
  I agree, I do a lot of design in browser now as well. I was just stating you tend to see more articles about Illustrator and its benefits to a design workflow over that of Fireworks.
run4yourlives 13y ago
> 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.

WiseWeasel 13y ago

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.

quink 13y ago

I don't really like this approach. Don't do web design in Illustrator, do it in HTML5 + CSS3. Sure, it might take a little longer at first, but the time saved over a longer time frame makes it worth it in so many different ways. Instead, graphics software should be used for elements in the layout rather than the layout itself. It turns out that positioning is quite orthogonal to colour. Borders are orthogonal to textures. Sizes are orthogonal to form design. Not entirely, but that's, in the first instance, how they should be formalised before further dependencies. It is in combining them that we find beauty. And CSS3 is a far more suitable way of doing just that in a considered fashion than Illustrator could ever be.

jimwalsh 13y ago
I agree, I do a lot of design in browser now as well. I was just stating you tend to see more articles about Illustrator and its benefits to a design workflow over that of Fireworks.

run4yourlives 13y ago

> 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.