Archives / Tag: Fireworks

Adobe Fireworks is dead

I can’t say I’m surprised to see Adobe kill Fireworks, despite my continuous ranting and raving, despair and campaigning I still have fond memories of what was once a breakthrough application for web designers (back in the Macromedia days).

So what next? Is there a tool out there right now that can replace Fireworks? Not quite – but there ‘are’ some really promising indie apps which get real close. Go invest some of your hard earned cash in one, contribute by telling the developers what works and what doesn’t and bask in that warm feeling you get from using software produced by a company that cares about it’s customers.

We all know it… it’s been a common accepted fact for far too long. We’ve been talking about the lack of interest from app developers at a regular local meet-up and decided it was about time we did something positive about it.

Project Meteor is a campaign for the web design app we all need, if you agree that current tools don’t cut it – visit the site and add your voice to the campaign by tweeting for the cause.

I will warn you, this ain’t going to be pretty but a few people have been asking. Feel free to tear these apart… do what you will with them… no license… no need to credit me… knock yourself out if you are that way inclined.

FireworksExtensionsSource.zip

I simply have no interest in writing extensions for Fireworks anymore… hopefully someone else might be able to pick these up and do something positive with them.

With the recent announcement that Adobe will not be providing support for Creative Suite 3 (CS3) in Snow Leopard and my waning belief in Adobe’s ability to resurrect Fireworks my interest in alternatives has again be piqued. Back when I wrote my open letter to developers asking for someone to step forward and provide us web designers with a current and solid alternative to Fireworks I looked at Pixelmator, Acorn and Gimp (DrawIt is also worth checking out).

Unfortunately right now none of these packages offer the blend of bitmap and vector tools which Fireworks has always excelled at but a little extra time spent with Pixelmator in particular has me confident that someone, somewhere is not far from providing us with a usable alternative. With the addition of some basic vector tools and the ability to draw and export web slices we’d be pretty much there.

The most recent blog post on the Pixelmator website relating to the upcoming 1.5 release inspires further confidence, the ‘Spider’ codename can only be a reference to web features right? However Saulius from Pixelmator is quick to point out that 1.5 will not include vector tools…

…please don’t expect vector tools in Spider…

Here’s hoping the Pixelmator team keep up the excellent work, if they maintain the development pace they’ve set thus far (4 full point releases in two years) then we might see a release with Vector tools before Fireworks CS5 rears it’s head.

Dear software developer.

This is an open letter which I am writing as a one time advocate of Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is still, some 10 years after it’s conception, the only package out there which provides web designers with the tools they need to design for the web. At it’s core, a balanced blend of vector and bitmap tools, live effects and slicing with optimized export.

However over the years Adobe have lost their way with this product and it’s become bloated by marketing driven features.

Designers carry on using Fireworks only because there is no decent alternative. The latest release – Fireworks CS4 includes a poorly implemented version of the Adobe Type Engine which has brought with it a bug that quite literally effects all users. The bug is as of today (some 5 months after initial release) still not fixed yet it manifests itself in just about every layout a designer works on.

Personally I have lost faith in Adobe to deliver on the promise that Fireworks has as a product. They have been distracted by ‘rapid prototyping’ and integration with development tools like ‘Flex’ – nice to have features that have drawn focus away from the now neglected core function of the software.

We don’t want another new UI, XHTML and CSS export, a JavaScript pop-up menu generator or a new type engine. We just want a product that is 100% focused on allowing us to put down on the canvas what we are imagining in our heads and then slice up and export that for use in a hand coded layout. That’s it.

Right now there seems to be a huge void in the marketplace which developers are not filling. It’s my belief that if someone takes up the gauntlet and comes out with a product that fulfills the basic requirements of a web designer, they will steal a huge slice of business from Adobe.

If not then I’m resigned to hoping that Adobe wakes up and takes notice, puts the effort where it’s needed and waits until the software is really finished before unleashing it on it’s customers.

Kind regards

Nathan Pitman

Update: It seems Adobe are working on an updater for Fireworks CS4 to rectify the text shifting bug.

When we first met it was love at first sight, your combination of vector and bitmap tools, your web layer and slices… I just couldn’t resist.

For years we’ve worked hand in hand, side by side… you even changed your name and to begin with everything seemed ok, but then I started to feel like you weren’t really there for me anymore.

You started spending a lot of time changing your look, diluting your true self with ‘marketing features’ and half hearted improvements, hiding your real character and charm behind ‘rapid prototyping’ and ‘improved css export’.

That’s not who I fell in love with and I just can’t live with it anymore, I need to get out there and find someone who really understands my needs. I’m sorry but it’s over.

Update: An open letter to software developers RE Adobe Fireworks

Very exciting news for Fireworks fans, Adobe have made an official statement in the Adobe forums which suggests we’ll see another version yet.

Fireworks continues to be an important product to the combined Macromedia/Adobe portfolio and is actively under product development for a yet-to-be announced product release. I’m incredibly excited to lead that front as the Product Manager.

If you’re interested in participating in the beta cycle then add your name to the list. :)

Trevor McCauley has written a fantastic little (actually it’s 10 pages) tutorial on creating advanced custom Fireworks Panels using Flash.

It’s well worth a read, includes tutorial and sample files and covers;

• Advanced panel development
• Interface design
• Exchange of information between a custom panel and Fireworks
• Taking advantage of Fireworks events

Nice work Trevor. :)

People (Alan) keep asking where all my Macromedia Fireworks Extensions vanished to. Well, they were victims of my re-design. However plans are afoot to bring them back. In the meantime I’ve linked them all in here for your enjoyment.

• Auto Save (AutoSave.mxp)
• Calculator (Calculator.mxp)
• Duplicate Offset & Rotate (DOR_1_1.mxp)
• Filler Text (FillerText.mxp)
• Insert Browser Cursor (InsertBrowserCursor.mxp)
• Main Toolbar (Main Toolbar.mxp Toolbar.mxp)
• New from Template (NewFromTemplate.mxp)

Right now I don’t have any plans to develop further Fireworks Extensions, most of my free time is consumed by a mad toddler right now. ;)

The Macromedia Fireworks development team are looking for candidates to beta test the next version of Macromedia Fireworks.

As a beta tester you will be expected to:

• Actively participate during the Fireworks beta program.
• Provide specific bug information when requested.
• Install the beta software and start testing beginning mid-April.
• Submit bug reports, suggestions and product testimonials at the beta program’s web site.
• Review the beta program’s web site regularly for updated versions and information.
• Participate in online beta program forums through August 2005.

If you think you can meet the above requirements and would like to apply, complete an online application for the beta programme.

Check out Trevors new Extrude Path Command for Fireworks.

Extrude a single selected vector path vertically at a specified height.

On Friday just gone, Alan Musselman (Macromedia Senior Product Support Engineer) hosted a live Breeze Presentation on Fireworks MX 2004 Best Practices. The presentation covered:

• Simple Rollovers and Disjointed Rollovers
• Side by side comparison of slice behaviors and button symbols
• When to/not to use popup menus
• Creating/duplicating a symbol and nesting symbols within a button
• Why/when to use batch processing

If, like me, you missed the live broadcast, you can watch back the archived presentation.

I’ve been playing about with some ideas for the re-design in Fireworks…

Trevor McCauley has released another(again!) new Fireworks AutoShape called ‘“Pinwheel”:http://www.senocular.com/downloads/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1103905435&archive=&start\_from=&ucat=8&kind=8’.

The Pinwheel Auto Shape creates a ‘Pinwheel’ consisting of 2 to 16 consecutive spirals placed revolved around a common center. It consists of 5 control points to control size (inner and outer radius), rotation, spiral count, spiral style (solid, checker, and wire which can be cycled through by clicking the Style and Count control point) and spiral curvature.

As an additional feature, you can use the sub select tool to alter the path of the primary spiral (the one previewed when altering the shape that is formed between the control points) and have all other consecutive spirals mimic the change. Altering the shape with control points after doing this will undo the effects.

Five designers interviewed are asked to reveal some of their favorite Fireworks Tips & Tricks in the December Macromedia Edge Newsletter.

*Fireworks is an indispensable tool for ‘rapid prototyping’ and gives absolute flexibility while still allowing me to maintain a library of shared symbols and styles,* says Pitman.

*Symbols are massively underused and can save you hours and hours when you’re working on large projects.*

:)

Trevor McCauley has released another(!) new Fireworks AutoShape called ‘“File Info”:http://www.senocular.com/downloads/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1101933160&archive=&start\_from=&ucat=8&kind=8’.

This AutoShape creates a bar at the bottom of your document with common information regarding your file. The information is completely customizable and can be edited by clicking on the shape’s control point.

Properties include:

• File Name
• Date
• Time
• Layers
• Frames
• Width
• Height
• Resolution
• Resolution Units
• Platform
• Fireworks Version

Very smart.

Senocular (Trevor McCauley) has released a new Fireworks Extension ‘“Simple Linked Selection”:http://www.senocular.com/downloads/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1101750356&archive=&start\_from=&ucat=8&kind=8’ which allows you to ‘link’ objects on your canvas meaning that as you select one object, all those ‘linked to it’ will also be selected.

Trevor just doesn’t let up. As a part of his relentless one man conquest to populate the world with Fireworks AutoShapes he has taken it upon himself to write a tutorial for mugs like me so that we might be able to aspire to developing something with the quality and flair of his offerings.

*I think a big reason there aren’t more Auto Shapes out there is because people just don’t know how to make them. Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject.* – Trevor McCauley.

What a guy. :)

Steven Grosvenor has finished work on his new ‘Twist and Fade’ command for Fireworks MX 2004.

Improvements in v4.0.8 include:

• More than 30% faster than previous version
• More granular control of the effect with Phase Shift, Horizontal and Vertical Scale and Motion Blur controls
• Preset Manager to save your favourite effects, preloaded with several interesting effects
• New Sliders with dual feedback, via slider for coarse changes, or via input boxes for exact changes

It’s free and you can download it here.

Trevor McCauley writes:

When I was a kid I drew a lot. When I couldn’t think of anything to draw, I would close my eyes and randomly mark 12 dots on a blank piece of paper. Then I would connect the dots and examine the resulting shape to figure out what it could be – what I would attempt to draw next. This shape attempts to do the same. I called it Inspire as it acts like (and was influenced by) my inspiration technique as a child. All it does is creates a random shape on your screen.

If you feel you’re running out of ideas, maybe this shape can send some inspiration your way.

Jan Esmann is an artist who has written a collection of photo editing and restoration plug-ins for Fireworks. Plug-ins include:

• Black & White Studio
• Sharpness Editor
• Toned photos
• Dynamic range Compression
• Lens distortion correction
• Transparency Editor
• Contrast Editor
• Color correction
• Anti-aliasing
• Black definition
• Exposure correction
• Saturation Editor
• White-balance correction
• Radial density correction
• Noise Filter
• Edgeline drawing
• Posterizer
• Soft-filter
• Brightness Editor

The plug-ins are priced individually but you can also purchase the entire set for �100. No idea whether the plug-ins are any cop, but there seem to be a lot of positive testimonials on the his site.

Trevor McCauley posts ‘another’ useful Fireworks extension: ‘“Define Working Directory”:http://www.senocular.com/downloads/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1096066539&ucat=8&kind=8’.

This command panel provides a simple method of defining a default Save path for new documents using directories which you specify. Directory settings are automatically used when a new file is created.

Samuel Wan has posted some nice words regarding Fireworks as a UI sketching tool.

A nice and simple new AutoShape from Steven Grosvenor which allows you to create a glassy orb, with control over shadow opacity, base color, overlay color and globe shadow color.

Senocular (Trevor McCauley) has been busy again and this weekend posted another Fireworks MX 2004 AutoShape to his site.

The 3D Box AutoShape allows you to create an editable 3D box where all verticies are editable and can be moved anywhere you want within the 3D space.

An option is given to change perspective. If the focal length (controlling perspective) is set to the max of 1000, all perspective is ignored and you get an isometric representation.

I hear from Steven Grosvenor that Twist and Fade MX 2004 is nearly ready for release.

It’s been a long time in development but should make an appearance in early October 2004.

Senocular makes an interesting post about a Fireworks MX 2004 command which allows you to ‘steal’ AutoShapes which are embedded into PNGs. Not only is this a neat observation, but a neat solution too.

Senocular has a new Fireworks AutoShape available on his site which allows you to easily create ‘Heart’ shapes. It consists of 4 points for controlling features entitled “Breadth”, “Cleft”, “Vertex”, and “Vertex Arc”.

Senocular has written another clever little AutoShape for Fireworks, but this time it behaves more like a utility. The Ruler AutoShape allows you to measure lengths and angles across your document. Very neat.

Senoculars new Stroke Path command lets you take a selected element in Fireworks (bitmap, vector drawing, group, etc.) and duplicate it along a selected path. The settings dialog gives you option of adjusting path direction, rotation orientation, spacing, and accuracy.

I’ve made the source files for my Fireworks ‘Main Toolbar’ command panel available to download.

The ZIP archive includes:

• Command Panel Artwork
• Command Panel source (FLA)
• Command Panel (SWF)
• Macromedia Extension Package source (MXI)
• Macromedia Extension Package (MXP)

Help yourself and let me know if you make any improvements.

Last month I was invited to become a member of the Team Macromedia programme for Fireworks.

Team Macromedia is a community based programme made up of Macromedia customers such as myself, who share their product expertise with the world-wide Macromedia community.

Our mission as Team Macromedia members is to provide high caliber peer-to-peer communication educating and improving the product skills of Macromedia customers worldwide.

I hope to contribute to Team Macromedia by continuing to foster interest amongst the community in the Extensibility of Macromedia Fireworks, and also in the continued development and ‘sharing’ of non-commercial Fireworks Extensions.

Check out my bio on the Team Macromedia pages and keep an eye out for me on the Fireworks forums.

Viktor Goltvyanitsa has released a new version of his Fireworks Color Palette Command Panel. Version 1.2 includes the following new features:

• New interface design
• Color transformation to/from; RGB, CMYK, HSV and HLS.
• Nearest websafe color search.
• Blender steps increase from 3 to 36.

You can opt to buy the ‘Full’ version for $14.95 or download the ‘Lite’ version for free.

The Lite version doesn’t include the facility to perform color transformation from RGB to CMYK and also only provides between 3 and 12 blender steps as opposed to between 3 and 36.

One of my friends at work pointed me in the direction of a painting application he found last week called ‘“Art Rage”:http://www.ambientdesign.com/’. The paint effects are fantastic. What’s even better is that the application is free.

You have to download this and have a play to see the results for yourself. If only Fireworks had painting tools like this!

Steven Grosvenor has been busy. A couple of days ago he posted a new Fireworks MX / MX 2004 Command on his site called ‘“Image Edger PRO”:http://www.phireworx.com/content/members/login.asp’.

Image Edger PRO is a batch conversion utility with a difference; it gives you the ability to apply en masse elegant edging effects to whole folders of images, rather than an image at a time, with complete control over the following factors: Source Image Folder, Destination Image Folder, File Prefix (for exported files), Percentage Resizer (percentage to resize the source images), Canvas Color, Stroke Color ,Stroke Width and Corner Roundness.

I’ve given it a go and it’s pretty nifty for large batch operations. It even gives you a psuedo ‘preview’ within the command interface.

Image Edger PRO is available to purchase from the Phireworx site for $9.95.

I’ve finished the Fireworks ‘Main Toolbar’ Command Panel and it’s now available to download for free.

The panel is a SWF command panel version of the Main Toolbar in Fireworks. It’s more compact and better looking than the default Main Toolbar (I ‘stole’ the icons from ‘Dreamweaver MX 2004’). I Dock it above the Optimize panel for easy access.

I’ve been tinkering during spare moments with a simple little command panel to replace the ever so ugly ‘main toolbar’ in Fireworks MX / MX 2004.

It’s almost finished, I just need to complete work on the ‘import’ function, then I reckon it’s ready to go.

Steven Grosvenor has released a new Fireworks MX / MX 2004 Command panel called ‘“Batch Resizer Percent”:http://www.phireworx.com’ (?).

According to his site this is a ‘nifty tool for rapid batch resizing of folders of images.’

I’ve not had a chance to play with the extension myself yet, but it seems pretty straight forward and simple, although I’m a little confused as to how it differs to the built in batch processing tools that Fireworks includes. I guess it’s just a different route to achieving the same end result.

I understand that Steven has a number of other commands on the way in the very near future. Good stuff.

Hiroshi Miyazawa of Macromedia has developed another new AutoShape for Fireworks MX 2004 called Ribbon.

The Ribbon Auto Shape is very similar to the Wave Auto Shape. It is basically an adjustable sine wave. However, the Ribbon Auto Shape uses the waves that are generated to build “inside” and “outside” shapes that give the illusion that you have a curly ribbon on screen.

At present this extension is only available to download from the CommunityMX site although I�m sure in time it will appear on the exchange.

Hiroshi Miyazawa of Macromedia has developed a new AutoShape for Fireworks MX 2004 called Wave.

The Wave Auto Shape is basically an adjustable sine wave. You can change the number of cycles, and adjust the size of the shape, thereby changing the period and amplitude of the wave.

At present this extension is only available to download from the CommunityMX site although I’m sure in time it will appear on the exchange.

Kim Cavanaugh has written a couple of articles on extending Fireworks which are hosted at Community MX. The fist covers Filters (Plug-ins) and the second looks at Extensions. Well worth a read. :)

My Duplicate, Offset & Rotate Fireworks Extension is now free to download. Sales of this as a commercial package have pretty much dried up, so why not let everyone enjoy it… users who purchased the extension will be eligible for a reduced price upgrade to my next commercial offering, so don’t feel to narked if you splashed out �1.00. :)

In line with this change I have also reduced the price of the Fireworks MX Source Pack from �4.95 to �2.95.

Links to Fireworks Extension Authors have moved to the ‘“source // extensions”:http://www.nathanpitman.com/source/extensions.php’ section, but are also replicated on the in progress ‘“fireworks developer network”:http://www.nathanpitman.com/fdn/’ page. Just so you know where to go looking.

I wish Fireworks had the ability to edit symbols in place as you can in Flash. Allowing users to double click on symbols within the canvas to navigate deeper and deeper into nested instances…

There’s already space for the required changes to the interface, my mockup above shows how the breadcrumb for the symbol editing could easily slot in next to the export preview buttons. :)

I hear on the grapevine from Steven Grosvenor at Phireworx that he has some new Fireworks MX Command panels on the way…

• Batch Set’s 1 + 2 : 5 commands in each for pretty major batch processing with more granular control than the existing batch control UI (plus they look prettier).

• 2 sets of Bitmap manipulative effects.

• Juno II: Speaks for itself, contains more extensive controls and 3 extra effects.

• ISO: Complete isometric generation command (includes multiple auto shapes).

• SFX Set 1: A really special set of effects for FW MX 2004+ only.

Sounds great, can’t wait to see these in action. Keep your eyes peeled, obviously I’ll report on these here the moment they are available.

Via Digital Media Minute I came across a nice range of free and shareware Fireworks (and Photoshop) plug-ins wirtten by Richard Rosenman.

So, I’ve been looking into writing some more Fireworks MX Extensions recently and something has cropped up. The one thing the Fireworks API really lacks is a method for grouping history steps.

This only really rears its ugly head as you begin to develop more involved Commands or Command panels which generate larger numbers of fireworks api calls before completing.

For example, my ‘Duplicate, Offset & Rotate’ command panel can easily generate more than 30 actions. You may think ‘why is this an issue?’. Well, for the end user this creates a real useability issue when they want to perform a simple ‘undo’. They will discover that the individual actions called by the command panel have rendered the document history next to useless, and the undo has a unexpected behaviour, simply undo-ing the last action that the command panel executed, not the entire ‘set’ of actions.

While I was writing some of my commands that generate more actions (or steps as the history panel refers to them) I did tinker with increasing the number of history steps before the operation. This however isn’t ideal and still doesn’t resolve the unexpected behaviour that the user experiences.

So here’s my proposal for the Fireworks API:

fwapi.startHistoryGroup("name"); // some actionscript here fwapi.endHistoryGroup("name");

As you can see the function call has a single argument (name) which allows the developer to give his or her history group a unique reference that reflects that of the command or command panel. For the user the end result would be the difference between figure 1 and figure 2.

Hey, if I’m lucky a member of the Fireworks software development team might be reading my blog. :)

Great new article on the Fireworks Developer Center about Extending Fireworks written by Kleanthis Economou. Go check it out.

Macromedia have posted a nice tutorial on the Fireworks Developer Center on creating AutoShapes for Fireworks MX 2004. The tutorial covers:

1. Auto Shape Basics
2. Creating an Auto Shape
3. Adding Curves to an Auto Shape
4. Packaging Your Shape as a Fireworks Extension

A must read for Fireworks Extension authors I’m sure.

I came across a post on the hicksdesign journal discussing the merits of Macromedia Fireworks over Adobe Illustrator. It’s an interesting read for anyone who uses either package on a daily basis.

I’ve added Auto Save to the extensions list, it’s been around for a while but I just never got to putting it online. Based on an extension written by FlashGuru this command panel allows you to set Fireworks to automatically save the active document every ‘x’ minute(s) or every ‘x’ hour(s).

I’ve developed a Calculator command panel for Fireworks. You can use the �x,y,w & h� buttons to grab information from the selected object/s on the canvas.

Kleanthis Economou has posted an updated Fireworks Commands Wrapper for Flash on the Macromedia Exchange. This allows you to author Fireworks Commands or Command Panels in Flash by addressing the Fireworks API using Acionscript.

Senocular identifies that some Fireworks MX extensions may cause Fireworks MX 2004 to unexpectedly error out and quit on startup. I’d be interested to know if anyone has experienced such problems with any of my Fireworks extensions..?

Macromedia has made documentation available online for the Fireworks Remote Procedure Calls or RPCs.

“The RPC mechanism exposes the Fireworks JavaScript DOM via XML and sockets. It allows other applications to access functionality previously restricted to JavaScript programs running inside of Fireworks such as ‘commands’ or ‘command panels’.

Nearly anything that can be done by a JavaScript program running inside of Fireworks can be done by an application via the Fireworks RPC. For example, an application running on the same machine as Fireworks can open Fireworks documents, slice them, optimize them, and then export them; or the application can create a new Fireworks document, draw into it, and then preview it in a browser.”

Pretty neat stuff I’m sure you will agree. Hopefully we’ll see some developers taking advantage of this in the not so distant future.

Via Thierry Lorey at ‘Fireworks Zone‘ I came across a ton of new Fireworks Command panels and AutoShapes. Thanks go out to ‘Senocular‘ for these, it’s great to see more developers getting involved in extending Fireworks. :)

Phireworx have just released ‘SmartTabs’ which is an AutoShape for Fireworks MX 2004.

This allows you to; Easily Add / Remove Tabs, Control the tab stacking order, Easily resize the tab page and use the subselection tool to change tabs and labels.

For a limited time this extension is available for $7.95, with prices increasing to $9.95 at the end of March.

Mr Edoardo Zubler has reworked his fantastic ‘Advanced New Document’ command for Fireworks MX. You can download the standard version from his site and purchase the PRO version. Both sport a particuarly gorgeous interface. Nice work Edo…

Steven Grosvenor has started a blog on the Phireworx site for more regular ramblings regarding Fireworks, Extension development and such like. There’s also an RSS feed for those of you that wish to syndicate the content.

Brian Edgin of Phireworx has released a nifty little new extension for Fireworks MX.

‘Super Nudge’ allows you to ‘nudge’ selections by any amount including sub pixel amounts and individual points.

ShapeShifter Set 2 for Fireworks MX allows you to quickly and easily add callouts and speech bubbles to your active document. It’s free to download from the Phireworx site.

Use Duplicate, Offset & Rotate to:

• Quickly and easily create grids
• Generate unique spiral patterns
• Animate shapes across frames
• Step and repeat any object

That’s not all, you can mix and match the effects which you apply, choose to disable or enable the duplication, offset and rotation layers with just one single click. Fireworks will even remember your settings between sessions.

Similar in functionality to Fireworks MX “New Document” dialog box, “Advanced New Document“ command enables you to create new Fireworks documents starting from predefined presets.

In addition to this, “Advanced New Document“ command lets you create, store and manage new custom made presets.

Phireworx have announced that Brian Edgin has joined them as a Senior Developer. Brian has spent the last two and half years doing interface and new feature design on the Fireworks development team at Macromedia. Although Brian may be leaving Macromedia to pursue other opportunities, his heart is still close to Fireworks. “It is amazing how extensible Fireworks is!” Brian says, “Most of us have only begun to scratch the surface.”

Writing extensions for Fireworks MX is fun. Last night I spent some time putting the final touches to a command panel that I’ve been working on for a long time.

During this time it occured to me that there really are very few Fireworks extension developers out there, you know I think I could probably count them on a single hand…, a search through my favourites should put this one to rest.

• AFTERSHAPEdotCOM
• Bitgenius
• John Dunning’s Extensions
• Phireworx
• Project Fireworks

There you go then. Let me know if you can be added to the list.

Kleanthis has released a set of 4 new Fireworks MX extensions. I downloaded these some time ago, but totally forgot to report on them, they are:

• Crop Assistant
• Fill Handles Assistant
• Knife Assistant
• Rectangle Assistant

As you’d expect from Kleanthis, these extensions are brilliantly put together, work well and look great. Worth the download.

Phireworx release ‘Super Guides’ for Fireworks MX.

Super Guides is an axonometric projection template creator to allow you to create templates of any size, any angle and opacity for your isometric illustration needs.

Super Guides gives you control over; Projection Angle, Document Template Size and Grid Opacity. Go check it out…

According to Kleanthis Economou (Project Fireworks), FireFrame provides a convenient way to enhance the appearance of your photos and add artistic flare to them in a non-destructive way.

The package includes 100 ready made photo frame effects, and even allows the user to add their own frames.

This is the first commercial extension that Kleanthis has released, following the recent trend to charge for extensions.

Macromedia have added style guidelines for publishing Fireworks extensions to the exchange.

This document advises developers on how design a interface that will sit comfortably within that of the Fireworks application, in order that they might attain Macromedia certification for their extension.

My Macromedia Fireworks extensions have been featured on the cover mounted CD-ROM of ‘Practical Web Projects‘ Issue 7.