$299 (Windows)
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Adobe Fireworks CS6 is a capable bitmap and vector graphics editor with plenty of interesting features.
The program has always been a great design tool, and this edition takes another step forward with some very smart CSS support. Suppose you've designed some custom shape which you'd like to the background to a little web text, for instance: rectangle, nicely rounded corners, your choice of colours, and so on. In the past you might have exported an image, but now you can simply select the CSS Properties panel and you'll see the CSS code necessary to create that shape: just copy and paste it into Dreamweaver (or any other suitable tool) and you'll be ready to go.
And this isn't only for simple designs. They can become quite complex, with gradients, drop shadows and other effects: very interesting.
Otherwise the CS6 New Features list seems a little short, although it does at least contain some welcome additions. So, as with all the CS6 tools, a focus on performance sees faster redraws on OS X, while enhanced memory management supports files up to 4x larger on 64-bit Windows systems. And an improved colour UI sees you able to more easily select and change colours, or switch between solid, gradient and pattern colour effects.
The new support for creating or editing jQuery Mobile themes will be particularly welcome for anyone creating mobile websites and apps.
And Adobe also say Fireworks CS6 now allows you to "access the API to generate extensions". We've not looked at this in detail yet, but anything which allows users to create more powerful extensions sounds like a good idea to us.
Please note, the file you're downloading here is Adobe's Download Manager. You'll need to install this, then instruct it to download and install Fireworks CS6 (including creating an Adobe ID if you don't have one already, though this can be done from within the program).
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