Simply put Adobe Fireworks is an intuitive and easy to use program to create graphics for small additions on websites to constructing entire website’s look and feel.  It has become a web graphics staple to all professionals in the field and is quite frankly easy to use for people who may not be ask professional.  That is, it as easy to learn as it is to use. 

There are quite a number of tools to create bitmap and vector graphics which you can combine for entire website designs, and lets you edit virtually everything you could want with the help of photo-editing tools and animation tools.  Fireworks can also export JavaScript that can control swapping images for rollovers and pop-up menus, as well as creating animated GIFs and can use XML files to import text into images. 

Being that Fireworks has been around for about a decade now, the latest updates seem to be pretty great and just what users wanted/needed.  One may now integrate into Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Adobe Flex and Bridge.  There is improved bitmap scaling and layer management.  People are saying that it is still the best web graphics tool around, and has now made it easier for prototyping with its compatibility with other programs.

Fireworks Screenshot