Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Design Premium All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter 2. Free to Create

In This Chapter

• Understanding layers in Fireworks

• Finding the difference between vector and bitmap images

• Using the bitmap and vector drawing tools

• Discovering masking

You can easily import graphics into Fireworks from the other Creative Suite 4 applications or create your own graphics. Fireworks comes with a full set of tools for creating both bitmap and vector images. This chapter briefly discusses bitmap and vector graphics; you can find out more by reading Book I, Chapter 6.

Knowing What Happens in Layers

Create a new document by choosing File

Web Layer is reserved for Web objects, such as hotspots, slices, and other interactive objects. You can't delete, duplicate, or rename objects in this layer. You find out more about the Web Layer in Chapter 6 of this minibook.

You also have Layer 1 as a default layer. Everything that you create or import, whether it's a bitmap or a vector graphic, lands here, essentially becoming a sublayer of Layer 1.

You can rename both main layers and sublayers. You can also reposition, delete, and duplicate them by using the tools at the bottom of the Layers panel (see Figure 2-1).

Understanding this layer organization and how it relates to drawing in Fireworks is important. When you use bitmap tools to paint and create pixels, everything falls onto one layer, much as you would expect. But when you start creating vector shapes, every new ...