Surprisingly enough, based on the findings from my recent survey there are quite a bit of Fireworks users. Personally, I never used Fireworks. Photoshop is alway my first choice for designing—from image editing to designing mock-ups. But, did you know that Fireworks is way better than Photoshop in term of image compression? I'm not a software engineer, I can't explain why Fireworks can compress better. But I can prove it to you by showing a series of experiments I did.
Loading ...PNG Compression
For testing purpose, I used an un-compressed image with transparency. I used Photoshop to export the image to PNG-24 with transparency and the resulting file size is about 352 kb. Then I used the same image and exported it to PNG-32 with Fireworks. The file size is about 332 kb. Visually, they both look the same (at least to me). In term of file size, the image exported with Fireworks is about 20 kb less.
GIF Compression
Next I exported the image to GIF 256 colors, adaptive, with no dither. The results are: Fireworks = 88kb, Photoshop = 92kb. That is 4 kb less. Also, they don't look the same. I prefer the image exported with Fireworks because it has more image details.
JPG Compression
Now, I'm going to try the JPG compression with a different image. I exported the image with Photoshop to 60% quality JPG and the file size is 80 kb. Then I exported the same image with Fireworks to 80% quality JPG and the result is 72 kb. Both exported images look pretty much the same, but Fireworks beats Photoshop by 8 kb in this case.
Please note: Fireworks and Photoshop have different compression technology. 80% compression rate in Fireworks is relevant to Photoshop 60% compression rate.
What Is The Big Deal?
You're probably thinking: what is the big deal? It is only a few kilobytes... Well, don't under estimate the little difference in kilobytes, it can make a big difference on your bandwidth and load time. Lets use the background image on WebDesignerWall as an example. If I export the background with Fireworks, I can reduce its file size by 20 kb. I get about 16,000 visits per day on average. 20 kb x 16, 000 = 320, 000 kb. Yes, that is 320 megabytes per day! I'm only talking about the background image here. Could you imagine how much bandwidth I can save if I compress all the graphics on the site with Fireworks? Most importantly, I can make my site load faster and that is a big deal!
Conclusion
If you have Photoshop and Fireworks installed on your computer, try it yourself. You will be surpised with the results. From now on, I'm going to use Fireworks to export my web graphics, particularly the template graphics.
I totally disagree. I find photoshop to export a smaller file size. I hate Fireworks.
I thinks , we have to use both PS an FW for design and slide image, actualy PS for design first and FW for slide images to css
I’ve never really used Fireworks, but have heard great things. Thank you for this post. I’ll give it a try.
Very nice article Nick!
I think that working in Photoshop and saving images for the web is just easier and more convenient, so we tend to only use this method. (Yes, I am guilty of that)
I do agree that if we actually take that little bit of extra time to optimise all of the images, it will have really measurable results.
Thanks again for the awakening to this.
Nice Explanation presentation.
i do use FW. its is realy a very portable tool for image work i hve ever used.
and all these things a realy true the the artical writer has written.
Can i link this page to my website
————————————————–
rsuitor@yahoo.com
+91(0)9811669942.
喜欢你们的设计与技术，常来看看
As a web designer for close to a decade, in my opinion Photoshop doesn’t even come close to Fireworks for web comping and exporting. I can do the same work in Fireworks three times faster than Photoshop. When you are billing by the hour, you can charge more for the same work, and get lots more work done. Seems an obvious choice to me.
i dont know about it before, it’s a nice thing
Thanks again, I work with kb a lot on my website, I have to make files less than 40k everyday and the PNG stuff piss me off..
You help me a lot i’ll try to compress them on fireworks
FW is a great tool and i wish more designers would test it …
the mixture of vector and image handling is superb and most of the people that like clean design would really enjoy to arrange the things more faster than in PS ..
Give it a try … :)
I’m Fw user from Fw3 to now Fw Cs4 and trust in Fw
I am user of Fireworks. if you are web designer then its better then photoshop and easier. If you are graphic designer then go with photoshop. personally i preffer designing prototype in FW and some effective graphics in photoshop.
very useful info for my beginners
I’ve actually never used PS for web design, always used FW simply because I can do things FASTER with it. This is because it works with vector and bitmap at the same time, which is very useful.
Thoughts Hosting:- Domain Name Rs.92/-only, 10Gb space, 100 Email id’s, Rs.2600/-only. And for every domain get FREE extras over 7900/-. *Start Your Own Web Hosting Company Only for Rs.4000/-. visit: http://www.thoughtshosting.com, Contact:9059747833
what do 20kb help if people still uns pics with 5mb and just scale it down in the browser? i see it all the time…
I mainly use Photoshop but I have always been disappointed and frustrated with the PNG export. Really good information here; I will definitely have to start using Fireworks.
Everything depends on the type of work that we are going to carry out. If it is a project Web because I advise to use fireworks by its multiple tools and the close relation with dreamweaver. But, if it is a project for impression would be due to use photoshop
Another great tool which can serve as a “file size reducer” is IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/). You have many options and it is really easy to use and the fastest program for images I’ve ever used. For ppl who work with web it is a pain to open up PS just to scale something down or crop it.
I use Fireworks as my primary tool. I am Front-End Developer, so 90% of my work is coding XHTML, CSS and JS, from time to time PHP. I use Photoshop only to hide/show layers, move elements, check font size and color, etc., and then export PSD to PNG (and edit in Fireworks) I can’t even draw a square in Photoshop ;).
I find Fireworks bilion times more _simpler_, faster and useful. It’s a brilliant tool for anyone working betweend PSD designs and code. However it’s understandable that web designers won’t use it – why they should learn two tools, when they can use one. That said, I don’t like bashing Fireworks like it’s some kind of “loosers choice” tool. People doing this are just ignorants.
And what is more, it supports 8bit PNG alpha transparency (search google for more info on that topic).