Notes from Teach Yourself Macromedia Fireworks MX in 24 Hours

Chapter 6 - Improving Photos

Color and Contrast Correction - Select the bitmap object with the pointer tool, click the Plus icon next to Effect on Property Inspector>Adjust Color>Levels. You will see a histogram showing the number of pixels present with various colors. Can view colors separately. Adjust the output levels so that the minimum and maximum of the output levels correspond to the minimum and maxium of the colors actually present in the picture. Adjust Color>Color Fill. Can set blending mode and opacity to modify appearance

Tools - Dodge (lightens the area), Burn (darkens the area), Blur Tools (blurs the image), Sharpen Tool (sharpens the contrast (opposite of blur), Smudge (Colors will be mixed under the tool and moved or wiped in the direction of the tool's movement)

Rubber Stamp Tool - You first click to select the area of pixels you would like to use as the source, then you select the destination for these pixels. Source aligned option: checked maintains the relationship between the source and destination cursors, and if unchecked, keeps the source cursor at the original location regardless of where the destination is clicked

Example: Use these tools to retouch blemishes

Masking Objects with Grayscale images - would be useful to come up with a good example (p. 144-145 seems too artificial)

Eye Dropper Tool - Select the tool, then choose stroke or fill color setting, and then click an area of the canvas. One can choose in the Property Inspector a 1x1 pixel setting, or use a 3x3 or 5x5 pixel average.

Select Area in an Image to Apply Selective JPEG Compression - Do a selection using some tool. Select>Save Bitmap Selection. Modify>Selective JPEG>Settings>Enable Selective Quality. Modify>Selective JPEG>Save Selection as JPEG Mask. Optimize Panel - set quality low (say 30), set selective quality higher (say 60) and the smoothing level to 2. Preview Panel and zoom in to observe effect of selective compression

Chapter 7 - Working with Vector Paths

Only after flattening or export does vector become bitmap data; prior to that it can be scaled down and scaled up with no loss of information

Each path is an object in Fireworks - can use Pointer to select objects and can use free transform tools just like with bitmaps

Line Tool (N) - Hold down Shift to constrain to 45% line

Pen Tool (P) - Watch the cursor as you use the pen tool. Most of the time it will add a corner point and thus create a line between this point and another point. When the cursor changes to a plus sign, it simply adds a point without creating another line (e.g. when adding a point to an existing line). Click drag to change the line segment into a curve

Vector Path Tool (P) - Click drag to draw a free form line, can create a shape if you end where you started

Rectangle Tool (U) - Shift constrains to a square

Rounded Rectangle (U) - similar to rectangle but with rounded corners

Ellipse Tool (U) - Hold down shift to constrain to a circle

Polygon Tool (U) - Before you start drawing you can select the number of sides in the property inspector and whether the shape is to be a polygon or a star

Subselection Tool (A or 1) - can move individual points or their vector handles

Grouping paths - Select multiple objects by holding down the Shift key and using Pointer tool or from the Layers panel. Modify>Group or Ctrl G. When objects are grouped, any changes apply to all items in the group. To ungroup, Modify>Ungroup or Control-Shift G. To edit one part of the group without ungrouping it, use the subselection tool.

Chapter 8 - Creating Text and Typographic Effects

Text Tool (T) - Click and drag to create boundaries of text object. The boundaries control how much text will fit in a given area, but the size of the text is controlled separately, whereas the boundaries for other objects determine the size of what you see. Once the text area is created, you can simply start typing or paste into object. Once the object is created, text added, and then deselected, you can double click with Pointer tool so that you can edit content.

Way to import text - (1) Copy and paste (2) File>Import to import a .txt or .rtf file (3) If you import from other graphics programs, choose Preserve Editability as the text setting in the import dialog box

Proofreading text - Can use Find and Replace, or check spelling by Shift+F7. Only checks text in text objects; won't work if flattened, converted to paths, etc.

Adjusting size of text block - bottom corner handles only affect width, top corner handles affect both height and width

Kerning - space between characters - A\V setting in property inspector. Positive number increases space between characters, negative number for decreased space. Can put cursor between characters to set kerning for just that space, or select entire passage and set it. Shift+Control+Left arrow decreases kerning by 10%. Shift+Control+Right Arrow increases kerning by 10%

Leading - distance between lines of text. You can set in Property Inspector whether this is measured as percent of character's point size or in pixels.

Horizontal (left to right), horizontal (right to left), vertical (left to right), vertical (right to left), alignment (left, center, right, justify for horizontal; top, center, bottom, justify for vertical), stretched alignment

First line of paragraph indent (in pixels), indents (first line after line break), spacing preceding paragraph (in pixels), character width (in percent), space following paragraph (in pixels)

Attaching text to a path - Select text object with Pointer too, and then Shift-Click to select the path. Text>Attach Text to Path or Control+Shift+Y. To change the path, Text>Detach from Path, change the path, and then reattach to the new path. Text>Orientation to set how characters are oriented along the path. Rotate, Vertical, Skew Vertical, Skew Horizontal

If text is not quite the right length for the path, can use kerning to adjust the spacing between the characters.

Revised: October 10, 2003. Comments to William Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu