Designing Web Graphics

Ok, so I've been building web pages for awhile now, but there was always a graphic arts dept that made the graphics. Now I've decided to start learning to make my own. I have almost no experience with graphics beyond some redimentary work with Paint Shop Pro in Windows. I have the following programs for Mac: Fireworks, Freehand, Photoshop, and Illustrator. I've so far only really begun to delve into Fireworks and have gone through the tutorial, but that's all. What is the best to use for web graphics and can you recommend any good books or web resources to help me learn to use it?

i reccomend photoshop and illustrator for web graphics... ive never read any books on them, i just learn as i go. ask specific questions on forums and read tutorial pages through a google search. the key in Photoshop is to "Save for web" .. it makes them .gif's . definitely the way to go for us poor dial-up users out there. i suggest starting off with a simple image and editing it and going from there.... ill be glad to help with any other questions

You have a good selection of programs to work with. Detailed web graphics, like really good logos (e.g. the mac-forums one ), or stuff more towards art the best things to use are a combination of illustrator and photoshop. For animations, gifs that sort of thing, I would use Imageready (bundled with PS) and fireworks. Note, fireworks can and is used for both types.

One of the best things I ever did was learn to use Photoshop - But sorry, like MacAddikt, I didn't take any classes and very few tutorials, so it took me quite a while to get the hang of it If you muck around a bit I'm sure you'll be able to make dazzling displays of enthralling visual candy!

Thanks guys. For the advice. I thnk to this point I've been using Fireworks to play around with only because I seem to like the Macromedia interface better than Adobe's for some reason (I'm using Dreamweaver for my site and I'm also soon going to try and learn Flash). But I'll take your collective word that Photoshop and Illustrator is the way to go . I'll begin mucking around with them to see what I can do and of course be sure to post here with any questions

i like using dreamweaver because i can code and see my results in the split window mode, and if i need a small adjustment here or there i can click and drag or resize. although i do think bbEdit has a better interface overall. so i go between the 2

photoshop help
i did a google search and found these sites to help out.. i suggest downloading and using actions to see how stuff gets done... actions are easy to install and run

(outdated link removed)
-pretty self explanatory uses of photoshop and a lot of free actions

(outdated link removed)
-this is a photoshop actions that will make 'aqua' looking buttons

(outdated link removed)
-this site will walk you through step by step on learning some basics

..... as i said, the best way to learn is by just making stuff, so just piddle around enough and you'll start to get the hang of it

i haven't used fireworks much, but if its like most macromedia software, im sure its self explanatory. you might also look into going to macromedia seminars (some are free, some aren't). im on their mailing lists and they come around about 2-3 x's a year. my friends a teacher so i get in free . i went to an adobe one on after effects, and it taught me a lot of neat tricks. i mostly go for the free food tho, and they have a software giveaway at the end, and since there aren't many people your chances in winning are high

Hmm, I like GøLive, its hella expensive tho
makes building pages so much faster and easier, and you can upload them directly from the program.

And its got nice ways to encorp graphics into your sites, I have a quicktime video on my school site, and everyone thinks its hella cool.

Yeah, GoLive! I don't have. But I really like DreamweaverMX so far. And the more I tinker around with Fireworks, the more I like that too. But I do have Illustrator and Photoshop also, and I know those were recommended in this thread. So I think I'll try those out maybe this weekend. In the meantime I'll just keep playing with Fireworks.

Its better then what I started with textedit

I don't use golive or dreamweaver. For me I find them slow and buggy, and they output messy and hard to understand code. I use BBEdit for putting the pages together and thats it.

ah good old BBEdit perfect for almost any task

I don't use pure coding anymore, takes to long to type code and debug.
I only use pure coding for the really cool stuff we all like to do. Other wise GøLive works fine for me, all visual, no thinking involved behind the debugging.

I don't know. I can type fast enough and know enogh about coding now that I can produce sites that look better, load faster and are more cross-compatible, faster than with dreamweaver. maybe its because I haven't had a heap of experience in DW. But with hand-coding I can visualise it just as well as with a WYSIWYG editor and I know exactly how the browser will interpret the code. Its cleaner, and just as easy for me to add a quicktime movoe by hand as it is with DM or Golive.

I can type at 140wpm typing words.. but typing symbols my speed slows like mad.

Use photoshop. One of the best software packages around. It really keeps on impressing me...

Dreamweaver is good also, but keep an eye on the code and doublecheck every move you make in the code-window (sometimes it generates stuff you don't want).

Illustrator is okay. But Flash also has got some VERY effective vector drawing tools. Them seem simple at first, but they go a very long way

Anyway, for starters, I'd definetely learn photoshop. It rocks.

cheers
S.