Web graphics!!!!

I am designing a website for the company I work for. Can anyone advice me about the best softwares for graphics design and also site building.

Right now all I have is fireworks 8 for graphics. For site building I am using dreamweaver 8 because the pages I made with Frontpage looked really amateurish or I was doing something wrong I guess!!!

 

Adobe Photoshop with Macromedia Dreamweaver, easiest way there is.

 

For graphics and web design you already have the two best apps. Photoshop does not do graphics as well as Fireworks. That is likely to change however. Fireworks will likely be rolled into the next version of Photoshop and then discontinued.

 

I currently use Fireworks for all my web graphics. I don't find it as easy to draw in Adobe Photoshop as it does in Fireworks. Sure, one can create much more complex and detailed graphics in Photoshop, but one does not need all the complicated details for compressed web graphics. Speed is more important, and I can draw quicker using the Fireworks interface than the Photoshop interface.

 

are there any cheap alternatives to the expensive dreamweaver/fireworks that yield similar results?

 

Since its obvious you are not a professional, you may want to look at free packages such as Google Picassa for light editing or Paint.NET which is actually quite robust.

As for me, I use Fireworks with DreamWeaver and love it a lot. Lately I have been experimenting with the 2 apps I mentioned above and they do the job quite well.

 

No need to be patronising mate but cheers for the software ideas (you're right i'm not a professional ).

I have decided to invest in an xhtml/html/css book as i am a mere beginner, and, as i'm sure Mr Miyagi once said, must first master the basics (wax on, wax off and all that)

 

Sorry I did not mean to sound like that but if you were a professional, then without question PhotoShop or Firefox would have been your first choice. As you are seeking something cheap, it made sense to me that you were also looking for something for newbies.

 

not sure if i follow. i have photoshop and firefox, but i am unaware of their web site design properties.

 

Oops I meant to say Fireworks not Firefox. What I am trying to say is that those apps allow you to do more advance kinds of graphic work and yes they do have tremendous website design potential. The thing is, and it is especially true of PhotoShop, is that they very complex to learn.

 

oh, im fine with photoshop, been using it for awhile now. i am just a beginner when it comes to coding html and css etc.

 

I use Photoshop and Illustrator for my web sites.

 

Yes, there are free alternatives. There's Inkscape which is like Adobe Illustrator and I guess a little like Fireworks and there's the GIMP which is like Photoshop. The GIMP is very powerful but takes some getting used to. There are thousands of guides online detailing how to use every single little feature. Both programs are free open-source software. You might want to read their Wikipedia articles ( Inkscape's, the GIMP's) first which give a lot of details about them.

~ Brett

 

Some good places for Photoshop tutorials http://www.good-tutorials.com/
and http://www.layersmagazine.com/ and http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials.html

 

I use Photoshop CS, Notepad and AceHTML, which is free.

My friend had Macromedia Studio 8 which is very good and is a walk in the park to use, provided you have good knowledge of code. The suite does have a steep price tag though. I just don't think it's worth $1000....

https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&view=ols_prod&category=/Applications/Studio&distributionMethod=FULL&NR=0

 

For me, I use, old fashion, hand typed HTML with some help from Dreamweaver MX. For graphics and whatnot, I use Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2.

 

If you are a hardcore web designer Studio 8 is worth it.

 

Funny how you accuse some one not being a professional and you don't even mention the most powerful/used program in webdesign; Flash 8, yes Fireworks and Dreamweaver are very nice programs, but Flash is definatly top of the line. I personally don't even use Fireworks, I use Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Photoshop CS2, and learning how to do the HTML by hand isn't a bad idea, thats how I learned it and it helps you to under stand how things work a little better. As for the person that mentioned they bought a XHTML/HTML/CSS book I'm supposing that it is the one published by PeachPit Press and writen by Elizabeth Castro? If so then its a good book, I would definatly suggest the books that Peachpit publishes.

 

I wasn't saying they were professionals or not. If you read some articles on adobe.com or other sites those people will say they are for hardcore web/graphic designers.

 

Agreed, but Flash is not a 100% necessary. I used MX, 2004 and 8, and have to say its really, really, awesome. You can manipulate many things with them and they use vectors, I think that is what they are called, forgot, so you can zoom 300000% times in and the line will be smooth, not pixilated. However, some successful site such as this one, NBR, does not have the flashy stuff as so average sites do.

Also learning HTML by hand is a good idea if you are making web site. It will expand your knowledge so you can become independent from Dreamweaver/Frontpage, instead of dependent on them.

 

Yeah, Flash is mostly for advertisment web sites, but if your a professional web designer(like for a career) then thats where the money is, Advertisement web pages built with flash. Here's a great example of a Flash web page, I'm sure they used other programs too. When you build sites with forums and such then you use PHP and MySQL, databasing languages, also very useful.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/bluetoothwatch/default.asp?lc=en&cc=us

 

Thanks guys!!!! I'll try to get the photoshop as well

 

Ugh, I hate flash websites.

 

Why? They're the most innovative, interesting, and best looking. Yes there are places when you wouldn't want to use Flash, but for alot of applications it is by far the best program available. But each to his own I suppose.

 

For logo creation and general illustration, I am considering Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Macromedia FreeHand MX. Does anyone have any opinion on this?? Or in general what is the best software for this purpose?

 

I prefer old fashion images, flash files take longer to load and has blinking and flashing images which I personally don't want to see when trying to surf/browse a webpage to find imformation that I need. Flash with sounds are even more annoying because it serves no purpose to me, the more attention it tries to make the more I'll ignore it. I rather not have my internet connection download 750kb of flash files to download before reaching my 300 characters of text.
I use flashblock, adblock plus and no script to make sure that the time I spend on the internet isn't time wasted by having advertisements or usless graphics scroll across the screen.

 

You may not know this, but Adobe bought Macromedia a while back. FreeHand, I believe, is discontinued. I think it was rolled into Illustrator. In fact, the only Macromedia programs out of the Studio Suite likely to survive are Dreamweaver and Flash. Fireworks vector graphics will be rolled into Photoshop.

 

Thanks!!! I guess thats why it's still MX....

 

Flash is just an annoyance. Moving things that have no relationship to content... they're the things that go into my adblock filters instantly. I'll leave static ads alone, no problem. I like them sometimes. But when I see a monkey to punch, it's blocked.

I can't copy information out of a flash ad. I can't link other people to anywhere inside of a flash site (Have you ever said "Go to X site, then click this, then click that, then click, etc., then look at this nifty picture"? That's not how the web should work). It's horrible for information conveyance. It's ok for silly games, and for just "fun" stuff. But if you're making a serious site, it should be taken out back and shot.

Personally, I use Inkscape for vector graphics, saves as SVG, can export to PNG (much better than GIF), and I use the GIMP for other images and for final editing. But I'm a GPL fan.

Just don't use flash if you're trying to do something serious.

 

I also fool around with Inkscape. I posted a few reasons earlier in the thread.

~ Brett

 

What's funny about your example? I have no clue what it's about. I'm not patient enough to sit and wait for it to load, and I can't tell what it does, because there's no text telling me anything, no description of the product, nothing except an "interactive" flash animation that really doesn't say anything. Whoo, fun camera angles! That's ALL it has. You can't even link me to anything interesting about the watch, a list of features, or anything like that.

I stand by my derision of Flash as a valid medium for anything but toys and games.

 

I linked that for an example of what Flash can do, not to tell you about the watch. You all think that Flash is just about the video clips, My brother built a FBLA(Future Business Leaders of America) website when he was in high school, He used Flash and won first in state, qualified for nationals. He got 99/100 on the score, the only thing the judges didn't like about it was 1 single spelling error. I would link you to the site but it isn't online anymore.

 

Does your brother still have the site? I made one for FBLA and placed 4th in the state.

 

So? These are the same "business leaders" who are giving the go-ahead on things like the Microsoft Zune, which will flop in the marketplace.

I don't think that flash is all about video. It's good for things like YouTube videos, though. What I'm saying is that it hides information and limits navigation to basically an "interactive" slideshow. It's NOT good at conveying information. Only advertisements or videos.

I'm glad your brother won. I was also in FBLA as a freshman in high school. I took 3rd in state for their Computer Concepts exam. I got my first Windows computer EVER approximately 8 months before that exam (I had wanted to be an artist of some sort up until high school and internal school politics put me off of it). FBLA's tests and examiners leave a lot to be desired.

I'm telling you as a person who's a consumer of MANY web-services, a hardcore geek, and someone who gets paid to make websites, that flash is BAD for any kind of serious information conveyance. You can't copy from it, you can't deep-link to any parts of it, it's slow, it's hard to navigate in most of the time, and it requires a processor-intensive plugin to run. I'm complaining partially about the technology itself, and partially about it's application. There are valid applications for it, but nowhere near what you imply, and is FAR from a magic bullet. It's got a few useful places it should be deployed, but it should NEVER be the base of a website.

 

Hmm... thats kinda weird how when you go to any high dollar website, or a website for a high dollar product then they are using Flash more and more often. I do underand what you mean by not being able to copy things off of those sites, but now days theres such big problems with copy right that you don't even really want to take some one else's info. Pretty much any site that is good looking has to do with Flash, it may not be Flash based but without Flash they couldn't/wouldn't have made the site the way they did. It can be something as simple as making buttons and importing them into Dreamweaver. I just think that its a very powerful program and it sounds like you guys are just biased against it. But each to his own.

 

Yup. Try posting me a link to information about BMW's pre-owned vehicles. You CAN'T. It's all encompassed in flash. And you can't get to the information in fewer than 4 clicks. And that's AFTER already being on www.BMW.com. I understand completely what the current practice IS. But when you need to convey information and not just advertising, Flash is BAD. That's why www.microsoft.com doesn't have it, and www.php.net doesn't, nor www.CNN.com, or many other informational sites, except for advertising.

Like I said before, Flash is only good for games and annoying ads. Even if the whole site is an annoying ad. It's not a serious information-conveyance mechanism.

 

Actually Fireworks doesn't do graphics as well as Photoshop. However, Fireworks sure does churn out images a lot faster, IMO the workflow just works so much faster.