Quick Start Guide to Macromedia's Fireworks

Saving files

Fireworks saves files in the PNG format. We discuss different formats in more detail below. With the image, fireworks will also save other relevant information about the file and thus, when you want to continue work on this image, return to the original PNG file-not an exported version.

File formats

Web browsers are finicky about the kinds of images that can be displayed. The only two safe image formats are the Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) and the Joint Photographic Experts Group format (JPEG). These are identified by the extensions .gif, .jpg or .jpeg. While most new Web browsers can view PNG file, its support isn't universal.

File size

Images that are destined for the Web need to be relatively small files so that users can download them quickly. Rarely will you want to include images that are more than 30kilobytes in size. While high-bandwidth connections such as cable-modems are becoming more common, the slower dial-up connection is still the norm.

Optimize files

Since the quality of file formats varies depending upon the type of image and the file size is so vital, Fireworks includes a tool that helps you address each of these issues while simultaneously viewing the resulting file.

Select Optimize from the Window menu.

The optimize tool gives you all the options pertinent to the file type chosen. GIF is the default so it is likely the file type selected when you open the tool. Change GIF to JPEG to see how the settings change.

In your document window, change the view tab (above the image) from Original to 4-up. This gives us four windows in which we can preview different optimization settings. You may need to resize the window to view each of the images.

Select the second image (top right) in the document window by clicking it.

The select image has a dark border surrounding it. Now I can change the optimization settings for that preview. Set it to JPEG - better quality. Notice that the file size and time to load statistics will update in the preview window.

To compare this setting to JPEG low quality and GIF, repeat the above procedure with the other two preview windows. While previewing the image you may want to see how they look on another platform. From the View menu, select Macintosh/Windows gamma.

Exporting files

To select one group of settings, select the window that has the correct ones and then select the Original tab. The optimization settings for the last image will be saved. To export the file, choose Export from the File menu and again the most recent settings will be used.

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