Adobe Fireworks CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques

Chapter Four. Staying on the (Vector) Path

Computer drawing tools use mathematical equations to draw lines and fills on the screen are known as vectors. A vector is simply the path between two defined points on the screen with properties applied to them, such as color and thickness. By combining paths and points, a computer can draw almost any shape using vector tools like those found in Fireworks and other vector-based applications such as Adobe Illustrator.

#30 Using Vector Tools

Fireworks has always had a decent and easy to use set of vector tools. Most of them are found in the Tools panel in their own section. A whole series of prebuilt Auto Shapes are also found in the Shapes panel (more on those later) shown in Figure 30a.

Figure 30a. You will ...