Fireworks CS4 Beta - Stronger PSD support

1. In CS4, when a psd file is opened/imported a dialog box will pop up from where the user can choose the way objects will be brought into Fireworks. The dialogs can be suppressed through this preference setting.
2. Image Layers refer to the bitmap objects of Photoshop. Either the bitmap objects can be brought into Fireworks with editable effects or the effects along with the object can be converted to a complete flat image using this preference setting.
3. The text preference setting can bring the text as editable or as a bitmap converted image.
4. Shape Layers refer to the vector objects in Photoshop.
• The “Editable path and effects” setting will bring the object as editable vectors. But this may changes the appearance.
• “Flattened bitmap images” preference setting will bring all the vector object and effects applied on them as a single bitmap image.
• The last preference option seem to bring the best of both, where the shape layers will converted to bitmap object but the effects applied on to it will be editable in Fireworks.
5. Fireworks has two sets of filters, one being its native set and the other one borrowed from Photoshop. Through this preference setting, when a psd file is imported/opened the user will have the option to map the effects contained in the psd file to either Fireworks native filters or to the Photoshop filters which are also present in Fireworks. Since the algorithm for same filter might differ, there may be slight difference in filter appearance also.
6. The appearance of clipping masks in psd files when brought into Fireworks as editable, changes quite a lot. This preference setting will solve this problem to a certain extent where the clipping masks and the base object will be converted to a single bitmap object maintaining the same appearance as seen in Photoshop.

Thus all the object types can now be controlled independently through this preference settings dialog. The tooltips for each of the preference is also quite self explanatory.

NOTE: The above preferences will be applied to the objects when user selects “Custom Settings From Preferences” option from the Import/Open dialog’s last drop down menu.

When a file is saved as a psd file from Fireworks, the user can control the individual object’s save type settings. Controlling the individual object type saving setting is possible after selecting “Custom” from the first drop down menu.

Other feature details

1. When a file is saved from Fireworks, the layers have the blend mode set to “Pass Through”. This will be helpful in some cases where the blend mode is set to Screen for layers in Fireworks.

2. When a mask has been created through Paste Inside option, it will be flattened when exported as a psd. This will maintain the appearance but the tradeoff is that the mask will be lost.

3. Content layer solid fills, all color spaces and bit depths and Color profiles in a PSD file will be converted to RGB 8 bit when opened/imported into Ignite.

4. When a psd file is opened, slices and guides are carried into Fireworks CS4.

Fireworks CS4 Beta - Pages panel Improvements

1. Master Page can be collapsed now. The thumbnail will be hidden in this mode for the master page. Thumbnails for other pages will not be affected by this action. Clicking on the highlighted arrow icon in the panel will perform the action.
2. When a page gets duplicated from the panel menu or the shortcut icon in the panel, the duplicated page will be placed right below the original page. Earlier in CS3 the duplicated page used to get added as the last page. Also the naming convention will quickly allow the user to find out the origin of duplicated page.
3. Pages panel now support the contextual menu within it. The menu can be accessed by right clicking on any page. It will not be functional from the blank area in the panel. This menu is same as the panel menu.
4. This gives a feedback to the user on the number of pages in the document. Just a glance at this place will give the information to the user.
5. This drop down menu is extremely helpful to users who operate on multiple pages and still would like to keep the panel small in width. Also the user gets information of the different pages present in the document. The master page is appended with an asterisk. This is similar to the drop down which was present in the Document Window.

Other major changes:

1. Pages panel now allow for multi-selection of pages by holding the Shift/Ctrl key.
2. Since multi-selection of pages is now possible, multiple pages can be deleted and duplicated.
3. When operations are performed with multiple selected pages, the history steps step generated is single. But the JavaScript behind it has multiple commands under a single step referring to all the pages.
4. The Pages panel now has Auto numbering in the panel visible. This auto number is not part of the actual page name. It gets updated when the pages are re-ordered.
5. Any new page added or duplicated gets added just below the currently selected page.
6. When pages are dragged for re-ordering, deleting or duplicating the icon changes to a grabber icon.
7. Fireworks CS3 allowed users to create page names with special characters in it. A restriction has been placed for it. (Special Character ex: / : \ < > | ? * “)

A major limitation of CS3 was that the user could not create same Layer name across different pages. In CS4, unique Layers naming constraint is not present anymore where users can have the same layer name across any page.

Adobe announces Fireworks CS4 beta on labs !

Fellow designers and Fireworks users.

Adobe just announced the availability of its web designing and prototyping tool Fireworks CS4 beta on labs.

Please follow the below link to visit the labs site from where you can download a copy of the public beta version.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/fireworkscs4/

In the subsequent posts I will walk you through some of the changes and enhancements made in this release. I welcome all feedback/suggestion/bug discussion for the beta version of Fireworks CS4.

Have a great time exploring the powerful features and also reading the subsequent posts for feature related details.