If AppleInsider.com’s report is correct, the forthcoming version of Fireworks will replace ImageReady in the upcoming Creative Suite 3 from Adobe.
As part of its testing for Fireworks CS3, internally dubbed “Agni” after the Vedic god of fire, Adobe is putting to work some of the first fruits of its buyout of Macromedia in 2005. The visual editing firm has thoroughly revamped Fireworks to join its features closely with those of Photoshop CS3, people familiar with the project say, beginning with the addition of a simple tool for creating photo slideshows.
Key to many of the other expected changes is the addition of hierarchical layer support, those same people say. Where the previous version of Fireworks assumed only basic layering and would destroy any hierarchy created in a Photoshop image, the new edition will add sub-layers for filters and other special effects that will follow their parent layer around as it moves.
I can’t say I’ve messed with Fireworks much, but I’m glad to see ImageReady on its way out.