Adobe Fireworks Editor's Review

Adobe Fireworks CS5 is the latest version of Adobe’s popular bitmap and vector graphics editor. Its sleek interface provides you with all of the tools that you need to make highly optimized graphics, for both the web and a truly massive range of devices; everything from kiosks to smartphones. This new version also includes a wealth of feature refinements, as well as a wide range of general performance and extensibility improvements. 

For website creation, Fireworks’ sophisticated prototyping abilities are invaluable in keeping development time to a minimum. You can design rich Internet applications and website layouts without having to write code, and take your prototypes directly in Adobe AIR. With full and intuitive Photoshop integration, you can import your PSD and Ai files, safe in the knowledge that they are supported with perfect color matching, editing abilities and element fidelity.

Pros: Refined features, best series performance by far, ASE support.

Cons: No truly standout new additions.

Conclusion: Be prepared, the latest version of Fireworks isn’t going to knock you out with dazzling new features, but what Adobe has achieved is a more stable, more polished and higher performing version of their popular web-design suite, with nearly one thousand bug-fixes on its previous version. Updates in vector polish, gradients and multi-page PNG handling are especially valuable, and what new features there are, are also appreciated. Snap to pixel is a welcome addition, as well as ASE file support, stroke alignment and compound shapes.

All in all, Adobe Fireworks CS5 might not surprise or wow you with new features, but this is a very welcome new release, based on real customer feedback, intelligent refinement and polish. Worth the upgrade.