Fireworks CS6 / FAQ

Adobe Fireworks CS6 software is used to design and rapidly prototype website, mobile, and application interfaces and to create and optimize mobile and web graphics quickly and with precision. It is ideal for developers and designers of all types — mobile, web, visual, and user experience.

No, Fireworks CS6 will not be updated as part of the release of the newest CC apps. Over the last couple of years, there has been an increasing amount of overlap in the functionality between Fireworks and both existing and new programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Edge Reflow. At the same time we have shifted to focus our engineering teams on building smaller, more modular, tools and services for specific tasks in web design. We have decided to focus on developing new task-focused tools instead of adding additional features to Fireworks.

While we are not planning another full release of Fireworks and will not release any new Fireworks features, we will continue to sell Fireworks CS6 and make it available in the Creative Cloud. We will provide security updates as necessary and may provide bug fixes as well. We currently plan to update Fireworks to support the next major releases of both Mac OS X and Windows. As more specific details on the next version of Windows and Mac OS X are made available, we may adjust these plans.

Easy-to-use tools, a high level of integration with Adobe solutions such as Adobe Dreamweaver® CS6, Photoshop® CS6, and Illustrator® CS6 software, and the ability to quickly optimize your mobile and web designs without writing code all result in time savings and superior flexibility for your projects. With Fireworks CS6, you can also edit assets from other graphics programs for wider deployment.

Designers and developers often use Fireworks and Dreamweaver simultaneously, going back and forth as they extract design elements from their comp, optimize and export them from Fireworks, and then reassemble them using HTML and CSS in Dreamweaver. Efficient copy and paste and roundtripping workflows make creating and editing web graphics easy and fast.

Photoshop is the industry standard for digital imaging with a broad array of features and functionality used by photographers, graphic designers, web designers, and many other creative professionals. While Fireworks does have some overlapping functionality, its vector and bitmap toolset is specifically built for designers and developers who need features for wireframing; comping; prototyping; and creating optimized images for web, mobile, and application interfaces. Another important feature is the ability to easily and quickly switch between pages and to make changes and updates across multiple pages. Fireworks imports and exports PSD files with high fidelity for smooth workflows between applications.

There are many resources available on the web and a vibrant and generous community of Fireworks users:

Fireworks Developer Center

Fireworks forum

Total Training

lynda.com

Amazon.com books on Fireworks

Fireworks fan page on Facebook

Fireworks team blog

Fireworks Exchange