I keep seeing a lot of references to Photoshop in tutorials, tips, etc. I have been an avid Fireworks user for years and have always used it for my mockups without issue. My question is do I need to spend the money on Photoshop and why?

I don't mean for this to be a debate on the best products or anything of the sort. I'm just curious as to the advantages of using it. Any thoughts?

I think that photoshop it's best for some works, like photo editing and so, but at the end for websites I use fireworks like you and I have no complains but Fireworks gets very slow when I have a very big file with a lot of layers in the workspace.

Take a look at this

Anyway at the end I think it's a matter of get used to work with this or that software, I have seen very great website designs made with Photoshop and some other the same good with Fireworks, I think it depends more on the designer them in the software you are using.

Regards

Paluh

If you don't know the answer, there isn't one. I just can't think of any good reason for bell-bottoms, which means I don't need a pair.

I don't think it really matters. They are both excellent products, each has it's own 'special' focus. If you get everything done that you need in Fireworks, I see no reason to buy Photoshop.

I agree with you Lady

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

If you don't know the answer, there isn't one. I just can't think of any good reason for bell-bottoms, which means I don't need a pair.

I hope you don't apply this logic to all your decision making processes! My point was to find out whether or not there were things that would be beneficial in owning the program. Kind of like if I would have said that I was an avid FrontPage user, but were thinking of purchasing Dreamweaver. I could easily list about 25-35 reasons why purchasing Dreamweaver would be worth the investment.

Thanx so far to everyone that has answered.

Photoshop certainly has some excellent features, especially if you have a need to do a lot of photo editing, for that, Photoshop is top of the heap. I have had Fireworks, but never used it much because with Photoshop and ImageReady I could do ALMOST everything. That was pre-CS. Now IR is defunct, Adobe kept Fireworks instead to do things like gif animations and such.

I have Photoshop Elements to do photo editing. I took a look at the feature list on Adobe's website extensively. There is nothing really that I will need to do with a photo that Elements can't do and Fireworks is more than capable of creating vectors, creating mockups, and optimizing photos for the web. Photoshop would be overkill so I think I'll use that $549.00 to top out my memory and a bigger hard drive.

Photoshop certainly has benefits that make it worth purchasing. Do you need it? Absolutely not. If Fireworks does what you need it to then you don't need another program.

If you want to see what Photoshop can offer the best thing is probably to download the trial and play with it for the time they give you and see if you find something to make it worth purchasing.

If you can produce output that looks identical in either program, then it doesn't matter. And if the learning curve is the worst thing about Photoshop, you might do better with Fireworks, since you already know it. Focus on what you're trying to produce instead of how to use the software...

On the other hand, I couldn't live life as I know it without Photoshop. But if you look at my signature you'll see why.

I too have been an avid user of Fireworks for some time now. However, I do feel that Photoshop has more options when it comes to generating graphics. There are also some things that are possible in both, but which can be done faster and easier in photoshop due to the larger community.

After doing some further research I've concluded that Photoshop is unnecessary buy for me. I have yet to find an issue that I couldn't resolve in Fireworks and/or Illustrator when it comes to vectors and other graphics. Not to mention I have CorelDraw as well. For the small amount of photo touch-ups I do, Photoshop Elements will do the trick. Thanx all for your comments.

I think any tool is awesome as long as you know how to use it. If you have good results with a software, then keep on working on it. I like Photoshop a lot and it's the best for me .. things would have been different maybe if I got to use another program instead.

Hi

I think photoshop is greatest program. you can edit /manipulate images, photos, create new creations ......... create a website.. anything...

So Yea I think photoshop can saves you lots of time and still gives you the best quality

Steve

Originally Posted by snapcridge

I hope you don't apply this logic to all your decision making processes!

Why not? You'd do yourself a favor to try it yourself.

Originally Posted by snapcridge

Kind of like if I would have said that I was an avid FrontPage user, but were thinking of purchasing Dreamweaver. I could easily list about 25-35 reasons why purchasing Dreamweaver would be worth the investment.

Then in that case it would make sense to shell out for DW. But if you can list all of 0 reasons to give up your $800 for a copy off Photoshop, you're living proof of what PT Barnum said. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Originally Posted by snapcridge

Thanx so far to everyone that has answered.

You're welcome. Sorry my response was too intelligent for you to understand.

Originally Posted by snapcridge

After doing some further research I've concluded that Photoshop is unnecessary buy for me. I have yet to find an issue that I couldn't resolve in Fireworks and/or Illustrator when it comes to vectors and other graphics.

Duh! The advice you snuffed and turned your nose at turned out to be right after all.

Apology accepted in advance.

Originally Posted by beamup

Hi

I think photoshop is greatest program. you can edit /manipulate images, photos, create new creations ......... create a website.. anything...

So Yea I think photoshop can saves you lots of time and still gives you the best quality

Steve

I went and visited a photographer friend that uses Photoshop religiously yesterday evening. We did some comparisons between his Photoshop CS3 and my Photoshop Elements 5.

You guys and gals are right Photoshop does have a lot of nice tools, but nothing that I don't already have the capability to do with one of the progs that I already own. It kind of combines the great features in other programs I use and packages them all together in one program, but it doesn't really stand out as worthy of replacing them.

There are features in those other programs that Photoshop doesn't really shine in achieving. I think that I'll leave Photoshop for the pro photogs and stick with what I've already got. Thanx again for all the suggestions folks.

One thing no one's suggested yet that you might try is The Gimp. It aims at being a Photoshop clone, it's open source, and it's free.

You might get some of the features you'd like to have without having to spend anything.

Paint.net is another good one ... sort of aims at being a Photoshop clone, but dumped down, whereas The Gimp is maybe "smartened up" from ps; more options and a wildly different user interface. It's another open source and free app.

You should give both of those a try. Photoshop is really nice, and the automation features can be a great time saver, but for the price and with the alternatives, you might see whether the open source ones give you any benefits over Fireworks.

I haven't used Fireworks more than once or twice, so I can't give you a good comparison. But Photoshop might as well be my operating system, and just the "curves" adjustment being missing from Elements is enough reason for me to use cs. Photoshop is exceptionally popular, and you'll never hear people stop talking about it, but it also sounds like what you need isn't what all the other people are chattering about. So you can ignore them.

The idea wasn't really out of necessity as much as it was curiosity as to what benefits Photoshop could offer in terms of prototyping websites before actually creating them. Conclusion: there are none.

Photoshop has a lot features, but the best features are more for the photographer crowd. The other products mentioned seem to be as well, but for the sheer purpose of prototyping, it would seem wasteful for me to try to learn a new program, especially one who's real focus seems to be on digital photography.