Adobe ImageReady Graphics Tools for Webmasters Forrest Stroud
Web graphics creation and optimization tools are all the rage lately and the competition should only get fiercer as the big boys continue to enter the fray. Tools like Ulead's GIF Animator and GIF Construction Set brought about the emergence of Web graphics tools, but while these apps focused primarily on creating animated GIFs, the new class of products widens the scope to creation, manipulation, and optimization capabilities for all types of Web graphics.
The latest Web graphics tools from the likes of Adobe (ImageReady), Macromedia (Fireworks), and to a lesser extent Microsoft (Liquid Motion) fill a need currently lacking in commercial graphics applications like Adobe Photoshop. And while most of the new tools are a bit on the expensive side, if you spend any significant amount of time developing or working with graphics for the Web, the high price of one of these tools is more than offset by the savings in time, frustration, and overall satisfaction.
Adobe ImageReady is the perfect complement to Photoshop and Illustrator. The app gives users a complete set of tools for publishing graphics on the Web. Image compression in real-time, built-in editing tools, quick and easy animation features, and batch-processing capabilities help you develop, optimize (via the LiveView window -- see Figure 1), and animate images.
The interface is a breeze to get up and running with, especially for users of Photoshop or Illustrator. Many (but not all) of Photoshop's design tools have made their way into ImageReady, including key tools like marquee, lasso, eraser, pencil, paintbrush, and eyedropper; resizing commands; image adjustment commands; and Photoshop filters; and the new tools are simply intuitive Web extensions of existing features in Photoshop.
