Tools I Use Look, Ma,... no paper! ARGON ZARK! is drawn directly on the computer with the following toys... er, I mean tools! Links from this page open in a new window.

Web authoring software	I write my HTML in BBEdit 6. BBEdit isn't as "friendly" as some of the other editors, but its powerful text editing, scripting, global search and replace, Grepp search, template, and includes features make it an outstanding tool for anyone who is doing serious web site work on a Mac. You can download a save-disabled demo and get a nice feel for how capable it is. Even if you don't want to invest in the full program, get their free version of BBEdit Lite. Mac only, for Windows, try Allaire's Homesite. Amazon's listing for Homesite: Windows Adobe GoLIve 5.0 is an excellent professional-level WYSIWYG HTML editors/site management tool. I use BBEdit to write my code, and GoLive for site management, table editing, and imagemaps. The site management features are nothing short of amazing. Amazon's listing: Mac, Windows I've also worked a little with Macromedia's Dreamweaver, which is comparable to GoLive and also excellent. Amazon's listing: Mac, Windows
Style Sheets	Both Dreamweaver and GoLive write DHTML, which includes Style Sheets and some JavaScript. I picked GoLive because I think the site management tools are a bit stronger, and because of its Adobe-style interface. Many people prefer Dreamweaver. You can't go wrong with either if you want a professional Web authoring tool. Style Master is a great little Style Sheet editor for Macintosh from Western Civilization
Web graphics software	I output my GIFs with the PhotoGIF plug-in for Photoshop from Boxtop Software. Although Photoshop now supports GIF89a as well as GIF87a, and the new "Save for Web" feature is very convenient, PhotoGIF still gives me more control and allows me to really squeeze high quality GIFs into their smallest file size. I use it for all of my professional web design work and the GIFs on the AZ site. I also like their ProJPEG plug-in, which I use to make the JPEGs of the Argon Zark! comic pages. ProJPEG 4 includes the ability to selectively alter the compression level of different areas of the image based on a selection, so you can leave important areas smooth and compress the heck out of backgrounds. Both PhotoGIF and ProJPEG work as filters from within Photoshop or other image editors. You can download them over the net in save-disabled versions and make them fully functional on paying the fee. They're excellent products at $45 and $35 respectively. You can also buy them bundled for $70. These are available for Mac and Windows. I also use Macromedia Fireworks, which I think is stronger than Adobe's Imageready. Fireworks is vector-based and is sort of a mini-Freehand specialized for the Web. It also includes a nice Export feature that, like Imageready and Photoshop, allows you to preview your graphic in 4 different versions simultaneously to determine the best choice for file size and image quality. It also is a strong GIF animation editor. (So is Adobe's Imageready, which ships with Photoshop.) Amazon's listing for Fireworks: Mac, Windows If you are interested in both Dreamweaver and Fireworks, you can usually save some money by ordering them together. Amazon's listing: Mac, Windows