Member Avatar for Lorel

I know how to emboss images in Photoshop but I can't get it to work on Fireworks 8 on the Mac, even though there are instructions in the help menu (I have fireworks 8 installed on my Mac Mini and also iBook G4 laptop and it doesn't work on either one).

I'm using an image of a rosebud with the background removed because I want to emboss it and use it as a background tile.

The select image - Property/inspector/ filter/Bevel Emboss / Raised Emboss only embosses the edge of the image and not the whole image.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

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Short answer: Fireworks' one-click Bevel/Emboss only treats the object silhouette, so a photographic rose with internal tonal detail will not get the same all-over relief that Photoshop's luminance-based Emboss produces. , that explains why you see only the outer rim. Building on and , the following Fireworks-only workflow fakes a full-image emboss by using luminance copies, blur, blend modes and masking.

  1. Duplicate the rose twice so you have three stacked copies: Base, Highlight, Shadow.
  2. Desaturate the Highlight and Shadow copies (convert to grayscale so color does not tint the effect).
  3. Apply a small Gaussian blur to both overlays (start 1–3 px). This softens the highlights/shadows.
  4. For the Highlight layer: increase brightness slightly, set blend mode to Screen or Lighten, then nudge it up/left by 1–2 px.
  5. For the Shadow layer: reduce brightness a little, set blend mode to Multiply or Darken, then nudge it down/right by 1–2 px.
  6. Use the original image alpha as a mask (so the effect is confined to the rose) and tweak each overlay opacity until the relief looks natural.
  7. Group/flatten the result and test the tile for seams before exporting.

Notes and troubleshooting: subtle amounts work best—too much offset or blur gives an artificial rim. For web tiles with soft shading, export as PNG-24 to preserve semi-transparency; if seams appear when tiling, reduce the offset/blur or crop precisely to the intended tile boundary. This keeps everything in Fireworks while producing an embossed look that reads across the whole photo.

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Member Avatar for HI2Japan

So you only want the outer edge of the rosebud embossed or all of the detail making up the rose embossed too? Embossing needs edges so if the inner portion of your rose is one solid image, you will only be able to emboss the outer edge.

If you are choosing the raised emboss setting and unchecking show object, you are doing it correctly.

Have you tried embossing text? That is the easiest way to tell if it is working.

Just a thought, but if you can get it to work in Photoshop, why not do it in there then import it into Fireworks?

Member Avatar for Lorel

Hi,

I want the whole image to emboss, not the edges. I'm trying to make a background tile with raised outline of the image. Is there another way to do this in Fireworks?

Member Avatar for HI2Japan

If you had the line art of the rose in which is was essentially just a path, it would work.

Your best bet would be to do it in Photoshop then from Fireworks do File --> Import and import the PSD file. It might increase file size a bit, so i would export from Photoshop in a PNG format then import that into Fireworks.

Are you designing the whole site in Fireworks or are you just trying to make the background?

Member Avatar for Lorel

Thanks but it's a photo of a rosebud that I'm trying to emboss and I'm wanting to do it entirely in Fireworks. I suppose the reason it won't work in Fireworks is because then they wouldn't need to sell Alien Skin and Eye Candy plugins.

Maybe I can change the photo into line art. Thanks for the idea. I'll try that.

If you had the line art of the rose in which is was essentially just a path, it would work.

Your best bet would be to do it in Photoshop then from Fireworks do File --> Import and import the PSD file. It might increase file size a bit, so i would export from Photoshop in a PNG format then import that into Fireworks.

Are you designing the whole site in Fireworks or are you just trying to make the background?

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

Just have two image files, if you need an embossed and an unembossed version.

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