Foundation Fireworks CS4 (Foundations) | Date: 28 April 2011, 07:03
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Product Description:
Are you a web designer who is looking for a new and quicker way to prototype and create for the web? Perhaps you are a programmer who finds most design tools to be overkill for what you need to get done. Or, maybe you're an old Fireworks pro, who wants to keep up to date on the latest changes in Creative Suite 4. Either way, this book has something for you.
* Coverage of all that's new and powerful for the Web designer and developer in Fireworks CS4
* Targets developers who want design tools that don't get in their way and designers who want development tools that don't constrain their creativity
* Do all your website and page prototypes and comps in one tool and learn how to take them straight to Dreamweaver to implement your designs
What you'll learn
* Why Fireworks vs. any other graphics Web design tool
* How to use Fireworks as a compliment to web development
* How to integrate Fireworks into an enterprise environment
* How to master a tool that boasts extreme versatility
Who is this book for?
Code savvy designers, or web developers who want to refine their design sensibilities. Either way, the individual(s) will be those who want to enhance their work-flow with a graphics tool that allows them to quickly get things done, rather than getting in their way.
Summary: A good book for any Firework user
Rating: 4
Like all the books in the Foundation series, this book is an good resource for those who want to start using Fireworks and even for those who have already used who will find valuable information within its pages.
This book is divided into three parts:
Learning Fireworks: This part shows the most basic concepts of this application as the implementation and integration with other applications CS4, the work with bitmaps and vectors and the optimization process and export for web.
Using Fireworks: This part explains the creation of common tasks such as using filters and creating animations. A big surprise of this chapter are the most advanced topics as creating and editing skins for Flex, the development of prototypes using AIR, the use of extensions and the use of JavaScript and Flash to automate tasks and extend Fireworks.
Fireworks in Action: This part shows step by step 3 of interesting case studies: a blog, a navigation system that uses CSS and a website prototype for e-commerce.
In general I like about this book:
- The explanation of all the concepts are very clear.
- Use large images which is very important for the screenshots since it facilitates the reading of menus and commands.
I do not like failure to include sample files which is of great importance since it facilitates and encourages them to practice the concepts read.
Marlon Ceballos
Colombia Adobe User Group Manager
Summary: Unhelpful to those who know Photoshop and Illustrator but not code.
Rating: 2
This is the first time I have posted a negative review, but because there are so few reviews on this book and so few books on Fireworks CS 4, I felt it was important for people to understand what they were getting with this pricey and thin book. This book will not help you unless you already know how to write code (maybe not even then, since I can't get past the code speak and other assumptions this book makes). The author should not have named this book Foundation Fireworks CS4.
What you do get: a basic overview of the graphic tools within Fireworks - not such big news for people already familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator.
What you don't get: helpful basic information about how to use Fireworks as a Web Tool - not even how to create a button. Sure, they give you an overview, but this is so vaguely described that one would not be able to do it, unless they already knew how to do it... They do go into great detail about how to apply effects, filter, gradients etc to a button, but what about how to actually create one?
Summary: Love it!
Rating: 5
I've been really pleased with Foundation Fireworks CS4 and constantly use the book as a reference for inspiration and motivation!
Summary: Great for someone moving from photoshop to fireworks for web design
Rating: 5
I'd like to add a good review for this book after seeing the low stars by others.
I have primarily been using Photoshop for all my web design comps, but many of my friends and peers use fireworks for their own work. I heard Fireworks CS4 had some newer features that caught my attention so I looked into them. I was sold and wanted to start using Fireworks.
This book answered many questions I had about certain situations, and also had some great examples that helped my workflow. It may be too basic for a Fireworks veteran, but for a transplant like myself, It was worth the read.
You might find all the info you need about Fireworks on the web, but that holds true for almost anything these days. When I can, I prefer to read a book and learn rather than the screen. Foundation Fireworks CS4 brought me up to speed, taught me some new tricks, and gave me some great ideas for future comp/protyping of websites. I'm happy with this purchase, and Friends of Ed (the publisher) has satisfied my learning needs again.
Summary: A bit variable but contains some gems
Rating: 3
This is not a beginner's guide to Fireworks, nor is it an advanced reference. Instead, it is a selection of various topics about Fireworks. Early sections that present an overview of the various Fireworks bitmap and vector tools are rather straightforward, but with creative examples. Later sections, such as creating Flex skins and AIR applications are for more advanced users. The fact that the book has several authors is rather evident as you read the somewhat disjoint topics in each chapter.
However, even with this variability between the different chapters, there are plenty of "gems" hidden in this book. I've used Fireworks for many months, and I still didn't completely understand how some of the different tools worked until I saw some of the excellent examples in this book. One problem with Fireworks is that some very important features are often hidden within extensions in the Commands menu, or hidden in some far-off panel that needs to be enabled. This book helped me discover some of those hidden gems within Fireworks.
This is not intended to be a Fireworks reference book. But as a stroll through various features of Fireworks (especially those features that make it unique compared to Photoshop or Illustrator), it was a pleasant journey. Reading this book while Fireworks is open so you can try some of the interesting examples will help you better appreciate the features that the authors are trying to highlight. If you just read the book without trying the examples, you will be missing much of the fun.
One downside with this book is that the various images were obviously intended to be published in color, but they are only in black-and-white in this book. If you look at the sample images at the top of the back cover, you can see how some of the images were intended to be shown. By printing these images in black-and-white, many of the examples loose a lot of their value. Another reason to be trying the examples within Fireworks yourself to see how they really look. If the images had been printed in color, I probably would have rated this a 4 instead of a 3.
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