Below, for example, we’re trying to apply a fill texture to an object that doesn’t have a fill. Secondly, make sure that the object you’re applying a texture to has a stroke or fill otherwise, you’ll get an error message. Note: Make sure that your texture’s opacity is greater than zero, or you will not notice the added texture. Clicking a thumbnail applies that texture to whatever object (or objects) is currently selected. By default, it displays your textures as thumbnails. The most immediate and important part of the panel is the display area. The Texture panel’s interface is divided into three main areas: display area, bottom toolbar, top toolbar. The Texture panel icon in the panels sidebar If you use the default workspace layout in Fireworks, I recommend dragging the panel into the panels sidebar on the right. Using The PanelĪfter installing the extension, you can open the panel via the menu Window → Texture Panel. Now in Fireworks CS6+, the panel adapts to this and will list subfolder textures. This differs from the behavior of Fireworks CS5.1 and older, where texture files in subfolders aren’t read and, when placed there, remain unlisted (i.e. Note: While we’re discussing application versions and compatibility, it’s worth noting that in Fireworks CS6, you can place textures located in the “Textures” folder into subfolders, and Fireworks will automatically load them in its textures list. I’ve tested this extension only with Fireworks CS5 and CS6, but there should be no issues with other versions. (A pretty creative name, don’t you think?)Īfter some brief instructions, we’ll highlight the features and options of the panel.Īfter downloading the installation MXP file, double-click it, and the Adobe Extension Manager should take over from there. My work resulted in what I call the Texture panel. I had to figure out a lot of stuff for myself, but I was right about one thing: the experience was fun! Mostly. Ultimately, though, I had to use native Flex and ActionScript 3 - neither of which I knew - to make the panel into what I wanted. It basically enables you to write the panel in JavaScript. I built my first prototype with the help of John Dunning’s JSML Library, which makes it a snap for anyone looking to develop a panel. Make you coffee (OK, maybe not, but that would be a nice feature).Allow you to add your own textures and refresh the current list,.Provide an intuitive interface to manipulate textures,.Optionally display the textures as thumbnails,.I wanted to create something that would do the following:
So, I said “Why not? It’ll be fun!” (which I think every developer should say now and then), and started developing my own extension. I found a few, but many of them were unmaintained or not up to my standard of quality. OK well, not right to work - I had never made a Fireworks extension before, and this kind of thing always has a learning curve, right?įirst, I did some research to see whether an extension of such sort had been made before.
When you mouse over a name, a preview window of that texture pops up, but there is no easy way to get to or to quickly identify your most commonly used textures, and if you often use a lot of textures (like I do), your workflow can get cramped a bit.Īpplying a texture in Fireworks (using the Properties panel).īeing a Fireworks user myself, after noticing this issue, I got right to work on finding an improvement. As it is, you’re presented with a text listing of all of your textures. Unfortunately, the way Fireworks lists textures isn’t as intuitive (or fast) as it could be.
In this article, we’ll look at an extension that does just that: the Texture Panel.Ĭurrently in Fireworks, you can apply textures (which are pulled from your “Textures” folder) to whatever vector shape you’re working on. While Fireworks is an amazing tool in other areas, the usability of the textures feature could definitely be improved. When you’re working in Fireworks - be it for a website design, mobile design or graphic asset for a project - one need you will undoubtedly have is support for textures.