Oct 30
Fireworks vs Photoshop Compression
Surprisingly enough, based on the findings from my recent survey there are quite a bit of Fireworks users. Personally, I never used Fireworks. Photoshop is alway my first choice for designing—from image editing to designing mock-ups. But, did you know that Fireworks is way better than Photoshop in term of image compression? I’m not a software engineer, I can’t explain why Fireworks can compress better. But I can prove it to you by showing a series of experiments I did.
Loading …PNG Compression
For testing purpose, I used an un-compressed image with transparency. I used Photoshop to export the image to PNG-24 with transparency and the resulting file size is about 352 kb. Then I used the same image and exported it to PNG-32 with Fireworks. The file size is about 332 kb. Visually, they both look the same (at least to me). In term of file size, the image exported with Fireworks is about 20 kb less.
GIF Compression
Next I exported the image to GIF 256 colors, adaptive, with no dither. The results are: Fireworks = 88kb, Photoshop = 92kb. That is 4 kb less. Also, they don’t look the same. I prefer the image exported with Fireworks because it has more image details.
JPG Compression
Now, I’m going to try the JPG compression with a different image. I exported the image with Photoshop to 60% quality JPG and the file size is 80 kb. Then I exported the same image with Fireworks to 80% quality JPG and the result is 72 kb. Both exported images look pretty much the same, but Fireworks beats Photoshop by 8 kb in this case.
Please note: Fireworks and Photoshop have different compression technology. 80% compression rate in Fireworks is relevant to Photoshop 60% compression rate.
What Is The Big Deal?
You’re probably thinking: what is the big deal? It is only a few kilobytes… Well, don’t under estimate the little difference in kilobytes, it can make a big difference on your bandwidth and load time. Lets use the background image on WebDesignerWall as an example. If I export the background with Fireworks, I can reduce its file size by 20 kb. I get about 16,000 visits per day on average. 20 kb x 16, 000 = 320, 000 kb. Yes, that is 320 megabytes per day! I’m only talking about the background image here. Could you imagine how much bandwidth I can save if I compress all the graphics on the site with Fireworks? Most importantly, I can make my site load faster and that is a big deal!
Conclusion
If you have Photoshop and Fireworks installed on your computer, try it yourself. You will be surpised with the results. From now on, I’m going to use Fireworks to export my web graphics, particularly the template graphics.
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Comments
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There are 258 comments (+Add)
Pages: 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 … 1 » Show All
258 diseño web http://www.trazavirtual.com
February 7th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Everything depends on the type of work that we are going to carry out. If it is a project Web because I advise to use fireworks by its multiple tools and the close relation with dreamweaver. But, if it is a project for impression would be due to use photoshop
257 Roppa http://www.whiteforest.co.uk
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:01 am
I mainly use Photoshop but I have always been disappointed and frustrated with the PNG export. Really good information here; I will definitely have to start using Fireworks.
256 tim
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:28 am
what do 20kb help if people still uns pics with 5mb and just scale it down in the browser? i see it all the time…
255 Gopinath http://www.thoughtsunlimited.com
January 29th, 2010 at 7:20 am
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254 Laurence
January 25th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
I’ve actually never used PS for web design, always used FW simply because I can do things FASTER with it. This is because it works with vector and bitmap at the same time, which is very useful.
253 rekoyunasril http://rekoyunasril.wordpress.com
January 20th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
very useful info for my beginners
252 Faheem
January 18th, 2010 at 11:44 am
I am user of Fireworks. if you are web designer then its better then photoshop and easier. If you are graphic designer then go with photoshop. personally i preffer designing prototype in FW and some effective graphics in photoshop.
251 Aqua http://irpg.in.th
January 17th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I’m Fw user from Fw3 to now Fw Cs4 and trust in Fw
250 IM Mo http://www,kiezblogs.de
January 15th, 2010 at 4:55 am
FW is a great tool and i wish more designers would test it …
the mixture of vector and image handling is superb and most of the people that like clean design would really enjoy to arrange the things more faster than in PS ..
Give it a try …
249 Luana http://limoesdepapel.blogspot.com
January 13th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Thanks again, I work with kb a lot on my website, I have to make files less than 40k everyday and the PNG stuff piss me off..
You help me a lot i’ll try to compress them on fireworks