Colors, Fills, Strokes, Live Effects

Before we start to learn how to apply colors, fills etc., we need to take a look at another relatively dry topic:

Color models

There are different ways to express certain colors mathematically. Color models allow for a precise specification of the color shade desired. The models differ on how they describe the color.

RGB stands for red, green, blue. Each of the three colors may have a value between 0 (zero) and 255. The RGB value 0-0-0 corresponds to black, 255-255-255 is white.

Hexadecimal basically uses the same components as RGB. The only difference is that instead of decimal values (0-255), hexadecimal values (00-FF) are used. 00-00-00 (in Fireworks #000000) is black, FF-FF-FF (#FFFFFF) is white.

HSB is the acronym for hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue has a value from 0 to 360 degrees, saturation and brightness values from 0% to 100%.

CMY expresses the colors cyan, magenta, and yellow, where each component has a value from 0 - 255. 0-0-0 is white, 255-255-255 corresponds to black.

Grayscale ranges between 0% and 100% black.

In general, the hexadecimal model is the default in Fireworks, as it is in Dreamweaver.