An open-source Adobe Fireworks look-alike, rebuilt from scratch in Rust.
Vector and bitmap screen design in the docked workspace Fireworks users remember.
Get started · Features · User guide · Project page
Created by Med Amine Belbachir, who started this project to bring the Fireworks workflow back as free, native software.
Adobe stopped developing Fireworks in 2013, and many designers still miss how it mixed vector shapes, bitmap editing, states and web export in one window. Emberframe brings that way of working back as a native Rust app you can read, build and change.
It is deliberately a look-alike: the same docked layout, tool groups, panels and light gray interface, under its own name and with every icon newly drawn. It contains no Adobe code or artwork.
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| 27 tools | Pointer, Subselection, Scale, Crop, Marquee, Lasso, Magic Wand, Brush, Pencil, Eraser, Blur, Rubber Stamp, Eyedropper, Paint Bucket, Line, Pen, Rectangle, Ellipse, Text, Freeform, Knife, Hotspot, Slice, Hide Slices, Show Slices, Hand, Zoom |
| 23 panels | Optimize, History, Align, Pages, States, Layers, Styles, Color Palette, Swatches, Path, Auto Shapes, Auto Shape Properties, Document Library, Common Library, Color Mixer, Info, URL, Find, Special Characters, Image Editing, Properties, Symbol Properties, Tools |
| Vector | Auto Shapes, Union, Intersect, Punch, Crop, Join, Split, Simplify, Expand Stroke, Inset and Outset |
| Bitmap | Paint, erase, clone, flood fill, pixel selections, Brighten, Darken, Grayscale, Invert, Blur and Sharpen |
| Screens and animation | Pages, layers, shared layers, states, onion skinning, symbols and a library |
| Export | PNG 8, PNG 24, PNG 32, JPEG, GIF and animated GIF, with Preview, 2-Up and 4-Up comparison, slices and HTML image maps |
| Documents | Native .ember files, opening and importing common image formats, Canvas Size, Image Size and Fit Canvas |
Compare export settings side by side in 4-Up
The familiar menus![]() |
The panel dock![]() |
Download emberframe.exe for Windows from the latest release and run it.
To build from source, you need Rust 1.91 or later, the Visual Studio C++ tools and the Windows SDK.
git clone https://github.com/gregstein/emberframe.git
cd emberframe
cargo run --releaseThen open examples/solstice-landing.ember with Ctrl+O to explore the design in the screenshots. The user guide explains the tools and panels.
cargo testEmberframe is at version 0.1, so some things are still missing:
- Free rotation, Skew and Distort. Rotate turns objects by 90 degrees and skips text and symbols.
- Bezier curves. Pen paths use straight segments.
- Masks, live effects in Styles, and moving selected pixels in place.
- Dragging Auto Shapes and library items onto the canvas. Click them to insert.
- Printing, layer blend modes, and JPEG Selective quality and Smoothing, which appear greyed out.
- Layers inside Fireworks PNG files. Only the flat image is read.
- macOS and Linux builds.
Issues and pull requests are welcome, especially for the items above.
Med Amine Belbachir created Emberframe.
- Website: medamineweb.com
- Project page: medamineweb.com/en/emberframe
- GitHub: @gregstein
If Emberframe is useful or brings back good memories, a star helps other Fireworks fans find it.
Emberframe is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Adobe Inc. Adobe and Fireworks are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries, and are used here only to describe what this project resembles.
Released under the MIT License.




