Macromedia Fireworks – A two-dimensional drawing and photo editing program.
Fireworks Vocabulary
1.Layer – Is the working surface of a Fireworks image. It is like a transparent sheet that sorts the paint and filter effects and can be printed.
2. Bitmapped graphic - Bitmapped graphics are made from a collection of colored picture elements called pixels.
3. Vector graphic - Vector graphics are made up of two or more points that connect to form a path. Vector images are stored as formulas.
3. Pixels - Picture elements, the small dots of color that make up an image.
4.Panels - the basic Fireworks tool icons that help you modify and monitor images. Each panel performs a specific function and may be positioned and resized as desired.
5. The History panel records each step you perform as you create objects on the canvas. The history panel make it easy to see your steps in creating a image and undo multiple actions.
6. Magic Wand - a tool that you can use to select neighboring pixels of the same or similar color.
7. Scale tool - a tool that allows you to rotate or resize an object freely.
8. Swatch - a preset group of colors on a palette.
9. Gradients – two or more colors that gradually blend into each other.
10. Mode – the number of colors available to an image. Options available are RGB, Grayscale, or indexed.
11. Live Effects - creates special effects that maybe applied to an image also commonly called filters.
12.Mask – is like a stencil. The area around the mask is protected from change and the area of the mask maybe changed. It is like a window to something underneath.
13. Thumbnail – a miniature version of an image.
14. Flatten image – to merge all the layers in an image into a single layer.
Fireworks Concepts
Most of the graphics you create in Fireworks will be made from several smaller objects. Once you complete a graphic or a portion of a graphic, you might want to group the individual objects to protect their relationship to one another. When objects are grouped, they move together and can be manipulated as a single unit.
When you draw basic vector object the lines that make the objects are called paths. You can dissect (cut) the paths into two or more paths using the knife tool
Objects in Fireworks may stacked, one on top of the other. You can control the stacking order of objects by dragging their positions up or down on the layers panel or by using the Arrange commands on the Modify menu.
To prevent your layers from being accidentally changed, you can lock the layer.
Text maybe scaled, kerned, or given leading.
Scaling text - changes the text font size.
Kerning refers to the amount of space between letters.
Leading controls the amount of space between lines of text.
B. Here is an example image I made in Macromedia Fireworks:
