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What is the alternative software for fireworks?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
February 26, 2014
21 replies
87450 views

Fireworks was the best software i dealt with for webgraphics, and as of 2013 it won't be updated anymore, what is the alternative software that might replace it and gets updated?

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K

katherine_mary

Known Participant

so Ive noticed that every single post I make has to be moderated. Thats never been the case before. So why now? And yes, moderator, Im asking you to respond.

Adobe does not want to support Fireworks. Thats on Adobe. All we are trying to do is not lose years of editable work by finding a tool that can do what fireworks used to do. My fireworks no longer functions properly. and I am not about to upgrade to CS6 when you have made it clear its a dead tool.

You took away freehand and did not make illustrator the responsive tool that it was. So we went to Fireworks. Now you are abandoning FW and again leaving a vacuum.

I for one feel completely insulted that after 15 years of owning adobe products not only is the tool of my choice being abandoned AGAIN but you are now watching my every post as if I need your permission to speak here.

Completely insulted.

I will not post here again. And my guess is you dont care.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

The moderation has to do with a spam filter that Jive uses. It's really nothing personal, and Adobe is trying to work with Jive to make the process of posting as easy as possible. But without the filter, the forums get hit my massive amounts of spam. We try and approve the post as fast as possible, but it is limited by how many mods are looking at the forums at any given time.

Herbert2001

Inspiring

Chuck, my posts are also constantly being moderated now. It is a real pain.

Unfortunately, Jive has no "reject all by this user" / "approve all by this user" options. Adobe's rep should be able to put some weight behind the suggestion aimed at the Jive developers to add these options.

It will also help you guys behind the scenes with moderation. It really is insane that a community board system such as Jive is missing these very basic moderation features.

K

katherine_mary

Known Participant

Fireworks to Affinity! Maintain Vector editability, keep content from pages.

Here's how to save your valuable Fireworks Assets, preserve editable vectors, keep the content on alternate pages from completely disappearing, or having to be painfully saved out as separate files.

You may desire to save all your FW PAGES out as individual files preserving layers instead of choosing to include them all in one file.

Before proceeding please note I have not tried this with PAGES that have "shared" layers. SO your mileage may vary.

My testing so far only includes FW files with multiple layers, groups and pages. None of which was shared across pages.

Open your fireworks file and for best results make sure EVERYTHING on every layer and every page is UNGROUPED, UNLOCKED and VISIBLE.

Convert text to paths IF you need to preserve the styles and effects applied to text. If you do not the text may remain editable when you open in Illustrator but it will have lost the styles and colors applied and be a weird pale green color.

EXPORT the file as "FXG and Images" Select ALL PAGES from the Menu before clicking on "save".

Open illustrator C5 or newer.

Create a NEW Illustrator document.

PLACE the FXG file you saved out from FW into the new document.

EVERY page from the original FW file is present but now everything is now on one "page". You have lost individual pages--but at least everything is there and you can add artboards or pages to affinity and move items over to additional pages or artboards. Not as neat as your FW pages were but better than nothing. And considering all Affinity has to offer its a small price to pay.

NEXT Go to the layers panel and make sure everything that can be ungrouped is UNGROUPED, UNLOCKED, and NOT Hidden. If you have not already converted text to paths do it now as editable text will not be preserved when you open the file in Affinity Design.

RESAVE AS an Illustrator CS5 or better .ai file. UNcheck "compression" before you save.

OPEN the .ai file in Affinity. DONT FREAK OUT. The thumbnail preview will look scary but its all okay. Just click to open the file.

Viola. Every vector is there and editable. Though you may have to yet again UNGROUP if you neglected to do this in any of the steps above.

Not all of your styles or effects will have been preserved in the vectors. At least you havent lost everything. And wont have to start from scratch. Select individual vector items and you can ADD their styles in Affinitys style panel for use in other projects.

NOTE: you might ask why cant I just save out as .ai from FW. Well the problem there is that FW only saves out as an ancient version of Illustrator 8 and nothing is preserved when the file is opened in Affinity.

You can also save from illustrator as an EPS and open that in Affinity. I don't like using EPS as the colors "shift" noticeably and the quality of the graphics dont seem to be as well preserved as when you go from Fireworks to FXG and then to Illustrator and back out as C25 .ai or better.

Herbert2001

Inspiring

There are a couple of issues with that approach (depending on the artwork).

strokes with paint effects such as "Fluid Splatter" and a filter applied are converted to pure images. Those strokes are no longer editable.
feathered edges are lost.

I do not mind the second (simple to remedy with a gaussian blur), but the first one is a bit of a problem under circumstances.

For those instances SVG export would be a better option, since it is easier to repair the file later in other software. At least, that is my experience. For simpler files I would also prefer SVG for a simple reason: no reliance on Illustrator. Not everyone owns a copy of Illy.

fiddlesticks411

Participating Frequently

I found saving as a psd file (after ungrouping any groups) works pretty well. Opens in Affinity Designer without having to use Illustrator. Especially if you aren't paying for Adobe products at that point in time (Fireworks CS6 users). Text is usually off the canvas, but I just pull it back onto the canvas. Sometimes I'll place the final file (jpg, etc.) as the background in Affinity Designer then use it as a template for re-aligning anything.

K

katherine_mary

Known Participant

did you find anything? the essential for me was that it had superior vectors and having pages in addition to layers and groups. no other software that I know of has pages. I cant stand illustrator and its lame artboard

photoshop comes closest with layers and groups but the "shapes" is a joke.
Im so lost if I cant do everything I did with fireworks. iterations with pages and ability to create assets for web pages in addition to ads for marketing are best in fireworks. I loved and needed to be able to save out some or all those pages at once. you cant do anything like that in any other program that I know of.

N

Nostromov

Participating Frequently

ateer1‌ Fireworks, by far, the best - of the best (hehe); & it's unfortunate how it won't be developed any longer. Although I have high praise for it, I guess that I wouldn't go as far as to compare it to the MURDER of Logic Audio (Pro), for example. ;-/

Apple acquired Emagic in July 2002.[1] Support for the Windows version was dropped with the release of Logic 6 shortly thereafter.

@The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

^^ It was been unbelievable, what Apple had done (it's, really, too bad that -like- a class-action lawsuit, or something, hasn't /hadn't come-up, meh. ), not to go offtopic 2 much, hear... I remember what, just, starting-out w/web development & installing and loading Fireworks (w/teh, back-then, Macromedia DreamWeaver), for the first time!.. What wondrous experience, LOL!!

In any case, yeah, thank you for the thread - gonna look around /read some more - good luck, tc. =)

Edit:
*an ^^ EXCITING -new- experience (revolutionary, even, bc there had been *nothing* like it, b4), the premise of the software - interface, menu(s), options; the sheer potential of what had become available... It was like flying to the moon: sky was the limit!! No telling WHAT this thing could do, hehe (simply loved it)!

Jay Nandu

Inspiring

Muse for the time being.
Maybe Project Comet coming in 2016

Herbert2001

Inspiring

Neither are replacements for Fireworks. Muse cannot edit bitmaps, or create vector graphics like Fireworks does. You will still need a bitmap editor and perhaps a vector editor to accomplish that (Photoshop, Illustrator).

Comet will be a user interface design and prototyping app: again, for asset generation you would need other applications.

I suppose currently Xara Designer Pro comes pretty close on WIndows (if you require it all in one application). For Mac, Sketch seems to be a popular alternative. I prefer Photoline with Inkscape and a smattering of plugins and other small external utilities.

fiddlesticks411

Participating Frequently

I've been a Fireworks user since before MX and 8 (Macromedia). For the past half a decade I've used it on a daily basis (literally) for my work. What Adobe has done by killing Fireworks is pathetic, IMO. Couple that with their monthly fees, and I just shake my head and hope for a way out.

So I've been toying with a relatively new app and just this past week I came to the conclusion that it's time to move on from Fireworks. Enter Affinity Designer. I've tried Sketch, Illustrator and more, but none of them felt "comfortable" after Fireworks. Affinity Designer is what I've been looking for, and it keeps getting better and better. If I save my Fireworks files as psds, I can open them fairly well in Affinity Designer. Text is usually out of whack and groups have to be ungrouped first, but it's doable. Coupled with the ever-improving Affinity Photo and the anticipation of Affinity Publisher, the day is nearing where I use the Affinity software—along with Capture One Pro (like Lightroom) and Final Cut Pro X (pro once again)—and say adios to Adobe.

Or Adobe buys up Serif and I'm back to square one.

L

lucyo

New Participant

I agree. I am SUPER bummed out that it is no longer available with creative cloud. As much as this product costs I pretty annoyed that one of my favorite adobe products is no longer available. I hope the version I currently have don't stop working.

M

MJCO

New Participant

Fireworks CS6 is still available in CC, under the previous versions section:

nononononon12

New Participant

These days I would say you should have a serious look at Sketch 3, which is in the App Store on Macs: Sketch 3 on the Mac App Store

MACinTUTOR

Inspiring

Is there a specific use, such as wire framing or pro to-typing, that you have been using Fireworks for? That would help answer your question.

This recent article suggests some general alternatives such as Sketch, Macaw and Anetype.
What Does The Future Hold For Adobe Fireworks?

Sketch

Macaw

Antetype

Other possible replacements for Fireworks include:
Evolve UI (Open Source) by Tribaloid
Tribaloid | Engineering creativity

Gravit (currently in Beta and available by invitation)

Gravit

If you continue to use Fireworks today, you will be interested in Fireworks extension resource sites such as these:

Fireworks Extensions from John Dunning

Project Phoenix – An Adobe Fireworks Extensions Revival Project

Orange Commands – A Collection of Scripts for Adobe Fireworks

Adobe Fireworks Extensions & Commands for Web Designers

E

eGranville

New Participant

I just learned about Affinity Designer (Apple Design Award winner) and I'm getting excited again for the first time since hearing Adobe will kill off Fireworks. Love the speed!

Affinity Designer - Professional graphic design software for the Mac