6 Months later, why I still prefer Illustrator to Fireworks
At my job I have to be the web designer, the print designer and the flash animator. So it’s easier for me to stay in the one drawing tool that makes the transition between those tasks easiest.
That doesn’t mean I’m poo-poo-ing Fireworks, I’m not. Fireworks is freakin’ awesome. It’s just not the best tool for my specific role at my company. But rest assured I spend time in Fireworks weekly so I’m ready for the day when I work at a company that has Fireworks as it’s primary work flow tool.
So until that day, here are the main reasons I still prefer Illustrator over Fireworks.
1. I’m always Flash ready. If I’m always in Illustrator then I’m always sharpening my vector drawing skills, which means I’m always ready to create artwork for Flash. Bitmaps do not work in Flash for the simple reason that they are HUGE in file size, let alone the fact that you lose all the transformation abilities of a vector image.
2. I’m always Printer ready. We all know bitmaps make horrible printing compared to vector illustrations. Besides that, who would ever work in 300 dpi when they are doing web design? Maybe the iPhone’s retina display will change this.
3. It’s the best damn 2D vector tool out there. People always tell me “But Fireworks does vector too!” That’s like saying WordPad lets you write term papers just like MS Word. Yea Fireworks does vector, but why would I purposefully hurt myself like that?
4. I’m just way f-ing fast in it. I spend time every week trying to make myself just as fast in Fireworks, but you can’t argue with the speed I can go in Illustrator. I’m definitely at that point where there is no delay between idea in my head to realized drawing in Illustrator. It will take years to get that fast in Fireworks.
