Adobe® CS4 Web Workflows: Building Web Sites With Adobe® Creative Suite® 4

Chapter 9. ASSET CREATION AND COMPING

To some extent, both Photoshop and Fireworks cover the same territory. For example, both are great at compositing images in multiple layers and both apply nondestructive effects well. However, each program definitely has its own core competencies: Photoshop is the quintessential bitmap manipulation program, capable of adjusting photographs so effectively that "to Photoshop" has become an accepted verb for altering imagery. Fireworks, on the other hand, excels at image optimization and preparing pages for the Web.

In this chapter you'll work with both programs, emphasizing the strengths of each and learn how to use them together in a coherent workflow. You'll also engage with another component of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web bundle, Adobe Bridge. The appropriately named Bridge acts as a conduit from one Adobe program to another through an efficient workflow as you create your Web sites.

In the following exercises, you'll learn these core Photoshop techniques:

• Realigning bitmaps

• Healing photographs

This critical Bridge technique:

• Tagging images

And this essential Fireworks technique:

• Automating with commands

STRAIGHTENING PHOTOS

No photographer is perfect, and often photographs appear perfect for use—if only they were tilted a bit this way or that. And sometimes ...