If your document only contains a single bitmap image, many times you’ll want to adjust the size of an entire completed image either up or down to make it fit prop- erly in a Web page. Fireworks allows you to make your adjustments either through specifying absolute pixel values or relative percentages with the Image Size com- mand and automatically sizes the canvas appropriately, enabling you to work with single images as you would in Photoshop.
You can maintain the original proportions of your graphic or stretch it in one direc- tion or another. The Image Size command enables you to resample your image, as well as resize it. Resamplingrefers to the process of adding or subtracting pixels when the image is resized. Resizing always works better with object-oriented (or vector-based) graphics than with bitmap graphics, especially when you’re scaling to a larger size. However, Fireworks offers you a choice of interpolation methods to help create a scaled image that looks great.
Figure 4-9: Adding some more canvas to the right and bottom of this Fireworks document is easy with the Crop tool.
Fireworks enables you to independently alter the onscreen pixel dimensions and the print size by changing the print resolution of the image. With this capability, you can print a higher or lower resolution of the image at the original image size. It does, however, proportionately alter the pixel dimensions of the image for onscreen presentation. In Figure 4-10, for example, the original image on the top is 1440×657 pixels — although it’s been zoomed to a 25 percent view in Fireworks — with a print size of roughly 20×9 inches at 72 pixels per inch. The image on the bottom has been resized by setting the resolution to 18 pixels per inch (one-quarter of the original resolution) and is now only 360×164 pixels. The two images will print at the same size, though, with the resized one lacking one-quarter of the detail.
Once again, if you’re using Fireworks exclusively to create online images — as most of us are — stay entirely away from the Print Size settings and resize your images using the Pixel Dimensions settings in the Image Size dialog box.
Note
Figure 4-10: The bottom image, shown at 100 percent, was resampled at one- quarter the size of the original image, shown at 25 percent.
To alter the image size, follow these steps:
1.Choose Modify➪Canvas➪Image Size, or click on a blank portion of the can- vas and click the Image Size button on the Property inspector. The Image Size dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 4-11.
2.To alter the dimensions of the image proportionately, enter a new value in width (the horizontal double-headed arrow) or height (the vertical double- headed arrow) text boxes.
If the default option, Constrain Proportions, is selected, changing one value causes the other to change as well.
It’s better to select the entire value in the text boxes first and then enter in your new number. If you try to backspace through each digit, you’ll encounter an alert when you delete the final number. Fireworks warns you that you’re entering an invalid number because it interprets this as trying to reduce the dimensions below one.
Caution Tip
Figure 4-11: To proportionately enlarge or reduce your entire graphic, use the Image Size command.
3.To alter the dimensions by percentage rather than by pixel measurement, select the arrow button next to the width or height drop-down lists and choose Percent.
4.To use the print size as a guide for adjusting the image size, enter a value in the Print Size width and height text boxes.
5.To alter the print size by percentage or centimeters rather than the default inches, select the arrow button next to the Print Size width and height drop- down lists and choose the desired alternative.
6.To change the number of pixels per inch, enter a new value in the Resolution text box.
7.To disable the proportional sizing, deselect the Constrain Proportions option.
8.To change the print size but not the onscreen image, deselect the Resample Image option and choose new values for the Print Size width and height text boxes. When Resample Image is deselected, the Pixel Dimensions section becomes unavailable.
9.Choose an interpolation method from the interpolation method option list.
Bicubic is the default and works well for most images.
A complete description of the various interpolation methods Fireworks offers is available in Chapter 6.
10.Click OK when you’re done.
Cross- Reference