Macromedia Flash Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Macromedia Flash or Flash is a graphics animation program, written and marketed by Macromedia, that uses vector graphics. The resulting files, sometimes called "flash files", may appear in a web page to view in a web browser, or standalone players Flash players may "play" them. Flash files occur most commonly in animated advertisements on web pages and rich-media web sites, although prank flash has become common.In recent versions, Macromedia has been expand Flash beyond the simple animations of web banner adss, into a complete application development tool.
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2 Competition 3 File types 4 Product history 5 External links |
Pros and Cons
Advantages
The Macromedia Flash file format has several advantages over "regular" HTML pages that make it a popular option for delivering advertising and for some other types of websites.
Disadvantages
Flash also has some disadvantages, and these have caused some of the initial surge in use outside ads to decline, as negative consequences of Flash use become apparent:
Flash MX 2004, the latest release, addresses several of the disadvantages. See this discussion of Flash and usability.
Competition
In October 1998 Macromedia disclosed the Flash Version 3 Specification to the world on its website. It did this in response to many new and often semi-open formats competing with SWF, such as XARA's Flare and Sharp's Extended Vector Animation formats. Several developers quickly created a C library for producing SWF. Feburary 1999 saw the launch of MorphInk 99, the first non-Macromedia or third party program to create SWF files. Macromedia also hired Middlesoft to create a freely-available developers' kit for the SWF file format versions 3 to 5. Many open and free libraries based on the information released to the public in 1998 and from later study of the SWF file Format, such as the Ming library, exist to produce SWF files on many platforms. Macromedia has made the Flash Files specifications for versions 6 and later available only as a PDF under a NDA agreement.
Many shareware developers produced Flash creation tools and sold them for under $50 USD between 2000 and 2002. In 2003 competition and the emergence of free Flash creation tools, most notably OpenOffice.org, had driven many third-party flash-creation tool-makers out of the market, allowing the remaining developers to raise their prices, although many of the products still cost less than $100 USD and support Actionscript. F4L has started to develop such a tool including an interface similar to Macromedia's.
Adobe wrote a package called Adobe LiveMotion, designed to create interactive animation content and export it to a variety of formats, including SWF. LiveMotion went through two major releases before Adobe cancelled it in 2003.In November 2003 Microsoft announced that it had started working on a competing product, Sparkle, whose release would coincide with that of their next-generation Windows operating system codenamed Windows Longhorn. The purchase of Creature House Inc's assets in September 2003 has led to speculation that their Expression graphics engine would form the basis for the Sparkle product.
See also: limited animation, Shockwave
This is an Article on Macromedia Flash. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Macromedia Flash File types
Later versions of Flash can also create files in a variety of static or animated formats.Product history
External links
Flash players
Creating Flash files
Format documentation
Decompilers
Communities
Art
Security
Games
Flash and e-learning