Adobe Fireworks vs Illustrator advise needed

Question

Hi!
Having used Fireworks for the past 6 years i feel that i have reached a limit, With illustrator doing the same thing does it do more? My focus is around web content, creating menus, interactive rollovers etc...
Any advice/thoughts?
Many Thanks!
Steve

Answer 1

Illustrator will not do more than Fireworks in the area of web graphics. Illustrator is primarily print-centric. It (and programs like it) pre-date the widespread proliferation of the web by many years. Web-centric accomodations have been added here and there over the years, but those are like scattered "me, too" features, not the primary thrust.
For example, Illustrator can export various web-centric raster formats, but it can't do much at all in the way of *editing* raster images. It has a few conveniences for getting vector artworks into Flash (often with less-than-optimum results).
Illustrator does have more (and/or different) vector *drawing features* than Fireworks. And its PostScript heritage makes it appropriate for the technical considerations of print (ex: CMYK and spot-color color separations).
So generally, Illustrator (along with its direct competitors) is a general-purpose vector drawing program. Its environment is generally print-centric and static (the fore-mentioned minor hooks toward Flash notwithstanding).
That's important if you are doing commerical work for clients *beyond* just web graphics, because it is usually far better to create for print first and then re-purpose for web than the other way around.
So back to your original question: You might get use out of Illustrator to draw more elaborate (or just different) things than you are accustomed to in Fireworks, and then bring them into Fireworks. But be forewarned, the "old vanguard" vector drawing programs (Illustrator, FreeHand, CorelDraw, Deneba Canvas) are very different from Fireworks in their interface and organization, and among those, Illustrator is (to my mind) the most confused and scattered.
So you'll be in for a significant learning curve. Don't get me wrong; it's certainly not rocket science, nor is it anything to fear. I'm just saying to anticipate some initial frustration and confusion if you expect to just pick it up and use it based on your Fireworks experience. (An AI-only user would also be initially disoriented in Fireworks.)
Bear this in mind also: The fact that Adobe now owns both Illustrator and Fireworks should not in any way lead you to expect the two programs to be similar or even "integrated" to any large degree (yet). Adobe acquired Fireworks when it bought Macromedia. Macromedia apps all follow a radically different (and in my opinion, better) organizational scheme than pre-merger Adobe apps.
You would feel more "at home" in FreeHand than in AI, because both FH and FW follow the Properties Palette "contextual inspector" organizational scheme of Macromedia apps. Plus, Macromedia built features to help "integrate" FW and FH; much as Adobe is now trying to do with AI and FL.
But that avenue is quite dubious now, because Adobe has decided to discontinue FreeHand. Illustrator and Fireworks will feel more an "odd couple" than would FreeHand and Fireworks. It's anyone's guess as to how much effort Adobe will put into making AI and FW work together (or for that matter, the longterm continuance of Fireworks); the focus seems to be toward Flash.
JET