Welcome!

[r_jake]

If you could imagine up the worlds best web image editor, what would it be like?

Here's my wish list:

Not stuffed with features irrelevant to web design
Bitmap and vector drawing tools
Multiple pages with master page
Proper control over PNG optimisation

So far so Fireworks, but...

Lightweight and not a RAM monster!
Libraries of common elements (buttons, boxes etc) that can be loaded in but aren't there by default and I have to manually get rid of most of them
Tools for automating the creation of sprites and sliding doors
Font menu that indicates different levels of 'web safeness' for typefaces based on regularly updated operating system stats from the internet (maybe colour coding?)
Ability to assign HTML elements to slices and output valid HTML with properly nested tags and maybe even the CSS (Oh Yeah!)
Beautiful and intuitive interface
Reasonably priced!!!

What do you think? What have I left off?

[Parallax]

Strange question. My answer is this: one that has no UI and requires no manipulation. It just reads my mind and edits the image.

[r_jake]

Strange answer! I remember an old game on the ZX Spectrum that had an option for 'mind control unit' as well as joystick and keyboard...

Seriously though, I'm frustrated at the fact that PS and Fireworks are the only options for web graphics and both are bloated and over expensive. There are a range of well designed and cheap text editors and IDEs out there (being a Mac user I'm thinking Textmate and Coda), but no image editor equivalent.

Surely there's a big gap in the market. If there are any independent app developers out there I've certainly got a few ideas of what I'd like to see.

[falkencreative]

There are other options out there... Pixelmator (http://www.pixelmator.com/), Paint.net (http://www.paint.net/), GIMP (though, last time I checked, the user interface was a bit of a mess) but, to be honest, I don't think any of them approach what Photoshop or Fireworks can do.

[Andy]

Personally, I find both Photoshop and Fireworks to be excellent and not particularly slow as both have hardware acceleration support now. Is it possible that you are using an older version, r_jake?

..Then again, my current computer is only 6 months old so I have plenty of resources available

@falkencreative: I don't think any of those have vector drawing tools.

[r_jake]

@Andy. Yes my laptop is a bit long in the tooth now (two years..) and it probably could do with some more RAM...

@Falken Creative. Pixelmator is getting there, but no vector tools as yet and the web export features are not at professional standard as yet. A similar situation with the GIMP I think.

I guess I'm surprised that there is not a competent mid-range (sub $300) solution like there is for IDEs and text editors.

[Parallax]

Well, writing an image manipulator is much more complex that writing a code editor. It's true they are expensive apps, especially given Adobe's aggressive update schedule, but one cheap freelance job will earn you photoshop. Two cheap jobs will get you the full suite.

Every trade has its tools, and they are usually expensive.