San Francisco based web authoring tools company, Macromedia Inc, has introduced its new Fireworks production tool for simplifying the creation of graphics for the web. Fireworks is designed for professional users to solve workflow and the editing problems by letting designers do the whole process of creating and producing web graphics in one environment. Macromedia said this cuts out some of the whole process the designer has to go through. Its example is that to create a simple animated GIF banner at the moment, a designer uses several tools, laying out text in a vector illustration tool, compositing the text with images in a bitmap application, and then optimizing the size of the graphic in a third program. Adding image maps and animation requires additional utilities and then the designer previews the image in a web browser. In addition it said developers often go through this process several times. Other features include the ability to slice an image for faster downloading, then export the component graphics plus the HTML table to re-assemble them in the viewer’s browser; and the Live Effects special effects such as bevels, embosses, and glows. Live Effects are properties of the object to which they are assigned, so if that object changes, the effect updates automatically, so that every object is editable, all the time. Fireworks has a Image Map layer to enable assignment of URL links, as well as an automatic button generation, along with the JavaScript code to control the button behavior. A pre-release beta version of Fireworks is available for download from www.getfireworks.com. Fireworks for Windows 95, NT and Macintosh PowerPC will be out in the summer for $300.
