A fireworks like program for ubuntu?

[MadnessRed]

Hi, does anyone know of a program similar to Fireworks for ubuntu. For a lot of the things a do graphcis wise, the GIMP is like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut, (and GNU paint is like using a twig). I would ideally like somehting a bit like Macromedia Fireworks.

I am not saying that GIMP is not good, I think its a great program, but you can't jsut open it and start using it.

Any advice would be great. And I have tried fireworks under Wine, but its a bit slow for me. If there are not alternatives then its fine, but I was just wondering.

[growled]

I've ran Fireworks 8 with Wine before with no problems. Of course, that's old news now but it beats nothing. Graphic programs are one of Linux's downfalls I'm afraid. Or you might try Krita. It's an KDE app.

[Fire_Chief]

May want to check out Inkscape (available on linux and windows).

Cheers!

[mcduck]

What kind of graphics you want? Vectors or bitmaps? Fireworks is mostly vector-oriented so Inkscape would be a good choise if that's what you have been using Fireworks for. If you want bitmpap slicing, web optimizing and that kind of stuff instead then you'd better learn how to use Gimp..

Fireworks has always been a bit of a crossover between all programs made for different purposes, it does a bit of everything but doesn't really specialize in anything. I don't think there's anything similar for Linux, but if you can tell us exactly what kind of things you want to do we can probably make better suggestions for suitable programs..

[eluminx]

Fireworks is such a great program. I have been using it for such a long time, and now i also have to resort to using 8 on wine since i can't be without it. It would be nice to have something similar, i have tried Inkscape but it just felt awkward using it, i still open it from time to time and try to do things on it but i can't get use to it. The GIMP, i have the same trouble with it that i had with photoshop, it seems like is such a great and robust program that its just too much for the simple tasks i have to create sometimes. The GIMP and Photoshop are 2 apps that i haven never been able to master, no matter how much time i spend using them, they are great but personally i think the learning curve is kind of steep.

Back on topic, i would suggest what was already suggested once, run it through wine, if you head over to wines db page you can run CS4 through wine and they have directions on how to do it. Good luck

[alex.rayu]

You can't install CS4 in wine without doing yoga. Recommend to stay with ver 8 of fireworks or use fireworks from within a virtualbox before Wine fixes.

[Sand & Mercury]

Do yourself a favour and invest some time learning GIMPs basic ins and outs. Before you know it you'll be using it for pretty much anything raster.

[Merk42]

Could someone tell me what the point of Fireworks is?
I had it at work since I got one of the CS3 collections but never needed to use it.

[alex.rayu]

Do yourself a favour and invest some time learning GIMPs basic ins and outs. Before you know it you'll be using it for pretty much anything raster.

No no GIMP does not come close to fireworks. Fireworks is strongly vector-oriented, like Inkscape. But from what I understand, MadnessRed wants to use it for file formats compatibility, like layered PNGs. And there is NO alternative for that, not even Photoshop. Nothing else will open layered PNGs, as far as I know.

[alex.rayu]

Could someone tell me what the point of Fireworks is?
I had it at work since I got one of the CS3 collections but never needed to use it.

Fireworks is an app for web design. It is like Photoshop, but with much more leaning towards web design. Uses more vector than Photoshop, has many built-in features that facilitates creation of web elements. Besides, it supports an array of formats, which makes it slowly into a more and more demanded tool for opening different formats for the pro web design industry.

This also answers the previous post. You can pretty much go with anything to draw, even MS Paint, but if you can not open an AI or layered PNG files that other pro developers send to you, if you can't open photoshop PSD files decently, if you send them your designs in a format that is not industry accepted, then you become a garage coder/designer, making websites for your neighbour's pet. So this is quite serious, I absolutely don't recommend to listen to "We have GIMP" talks when it comes to this.