Gimp vs Inkscape vs Fireworks for website development?

Question

InkScape users, can you recommend Inkscape for website-template development. I have to learn a tool for website templating, to create layout and export slices, one of my friend is suggesting fireworks i have seen him working ie why i am aware about slicing/css, and web-says lnkscape shall be fine, nothing detailed review.
Has someone, you know have used it to template creation/development. Can this tool have decent good looking layout, and then i can export the slices.

Answer 1

InkScape is not designed for web development; it is primarily a utility for print design. For a web design graphics utility that is also open source, is cross-platform and is much more comparable to Fireworks/Photoshop, I recommend The Gimp.

The basics are covered here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/The_Basics/

and there are tons more tutorials available here:

http://gimp-tutorials.net/

Best of luck.

Answer 2

If you are using windows, try Paint.NET - it's open source and free, like GIMP, but is easier to use, starts up faster, and is more like photoshop (the most famous image manipulation program).

Answer 3

Both the GIMP and Inkscape handle slice export relatively well. Inkscape definitely handles vector graphics better, while the gimp is definitely raster based.

In either case, you'll have to install plugins to really get the best performance out of the tools for doing web development.

Answer 4

I love fireworks for web design/prototyping for the following reasons

-perfect mix of vector based editing with pixel preview -symbols that let you reuse elements and edit in just one place -9 slice scaling: make symbols that can be seamlessly be scaled horizontally and vertically -pages! have a master page with all common elements and then have multiple child pages per document. export easily from one place

I know this doesn't directly answer your question about inkscape, but hopefully it can give you yet another perspective.

Answer 5

I've never used Fireworks, I do as much as possible of my web design outside of a graphics editor, my tool of choice for website mockups is a whiteboard, I do the layout of my websites in raw (X)HTML/CSS, and in general I only end up using the Gimp/Inkscape for quick sketches or when I specifically need to create/modify an image.

That said, I have used the GIMP and Inkscape a fair amount, so maybe my perspective will be helpful.

Right now, for anything that doesn't specifically demand vector graphics work, my general preference would be the GIMP. It's a far more mature and polished program. (And there are a lot of tutorials and plugins floating around if you end up needing them.)

Here though, Inkscape does have the advantage of being a vector graphics editor. If you're going to be moving things around a lot and resizing things to get them how you want them Inkscape is going to be a lot easier to work with here. That said, if you're making images for a website you're going to end up using raster graphics in the end, and the GIMP's going to give you more fine-tuned control.

I would tend to believe that in this case, a vector graphics editor like Inkscape is going to be better for quick mockups and prototyping, and the GIMP's going to be better for creating the final products. I don't think either is really very well-suited to web design (yet), but if I were doing my web development primarily in graphics editors, this is probably how I'd do it. If I had to choose a single tool it would be the GIMP.

(Final note: despite what many people say about the GIMP's user interface, I'd take its over Photoshop's any day. It still has a few quirks, but it's mostly opinion at this point.)

Answer 6

I have to say I am really impressed by Inkscape. I made my first website design in Inkscape, coming from Fireworks. Learning the interface took me some time, but I was able to do what I had to do. It gets really easy after some using, I actually do my work faster now. I can only recommend it, if you can spend like 2 days reading and learning http://en.flossmanuals.net/Inkscape/ . When you know Inkscape really well, you can learn Gimp for raster-editing. For any web 2.0-style website inkscape will do. You can also do basic bitmap-editting with masking,etc. Gimp is for the next level.

Answer 7

I have a difficult time using GIMP to design a website. This is because I wanted to design a web 2.0 site, which has a lot of vector features. Things like gradients, shadows, and text are stacked up on top of one another. Inkscape allows these objects to be movable and thus will be easier.

Hope this helps.