[Raman]

...notice I didn't say ImageReady + Photoshop vs Fireworks..

Opinions?

I'm a web developer and I hand code all my ASP and then use Visual Studio.net to do most of my ASP.NET stuff in C#. I've been using Fireworks 4.0 for everything (including printing out digicam pictures at home) but want to try Photoshop for retouching my photos but then am intrigued about ImageReady. Adobe seems to have the upper hand in terms of interface/pallets - I hate the Macromedia MX line's palletes.

[Macola]

If you don't like the palette interface, then definitely go with ImageReady. I used it a couple of years ago, but prefer Fireworks--the palettes don't bother me, the JPEG compression seems to be better, and it integrates well with Dreamweaver.

[MojoRising022]

I think it is largely a matter of preference, but I have always used Fireworks and find Image Ready counter intuitive, clunky, slow (though FireWirks is slow also), and lacking in features. Fireworks MX 2004 promises drastic performance increases, so speed will not be an issue (I hope).

I use Macromedia products for all of my web production, so FireWorks integrates much better. If you use Adobe GoLive, the maybe ImageReady will work better.

I still use Photoshop for certain tasks though.