RE: Flash?

[Jeroen Dekker <Jeroen -at- Square1 -dot- nl>]

Flash is Macromedia's vector based web design and animation technology.
There are three parts to it:

- the Flash file format (SWF) in which content is stored and displayed
online
- the Flash authoring tool web developers use to create their content
- the Flash player plug-in people need to have installed to view Flash
content

Macromedia estimates that over 95% of web enabled computers today have the
Flash player plug-in installed (newer versions of the major browsers include
it standard).

Unfortunately, Flash is used by too many web designers who think it's cool
to make every word on your website appear letter-by-letter, and to make
circles and GIF images dance around your screen. And they do so assuming
that everybody has a high speed broadband internet connection...

The SWF file format is actually an excellent lightweight vector format to
publish vector graphics via the web, such as technical illustrations. CAD
drawings, EDA schematics and Visio diagrams can simply be embedded into HTML
(and XML i think)pages for documentation, help, e-catalogs etc. As SWF
vector graphics, people can zoom in on every detail, and the graphic will
display at optimal quality using the size and screen resolution of the
display device. These are great advantages over using 'big dumb' bitmap
image formats such as GIF and JPEG. Moreover, Flash enables stuff like
animation, interactivity, scripting, i think also layering.

Macromedia has different web development tools based on Flash technology
(www.macromedia.com). If you want to pursue using Flash for online technical
illustration - our ps2vector software can help you import your graphics into
the Flash authoring tool as WMF.

Cheers,

Jeroen Dekker
--
The Graphics Connection - PostScript and EPS conversion software
Produce MIF, CGM, WMF, SVG, TIFF, GIF, ASCII and more
http://www.square1.nl/index.htm
jeroen -at- square1 -dot- nl


> From: iluvvscotties -at- earthlink -dot- net
> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 17:52:20 -0500
> 
> Would some kind soul please tell me what Flash is, and what it is used
for?


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