SWF (ImageReady)

The Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format is used for playing animated compositions. The animated compositions can provide Web site interactivity and navigation. Any browsers with the Macromedia Flash Player plug-in can read the SWF format. Because the SWF format can save animations as vector images to maintain a small file size, it is a good choice for animations with solid areas of color and sharp object definitions. A SWF file can also contain raster (bitmap) images and QuickTime movies. However, raster images and QuickTime movies increase the size of a SWF file significantly.

Some features of the SWF format to keep in mind:

• You can also choose a compression format for any embedded bitmap, such as JPEG, Indexed, and Truecolor. The default format for the embedded bitmaps in an SWF file is JPEG. Note, however, that bitmap objects usually increase the composition's file size.
• The SWF format supports solid-color backgrounds only. Gradients or textures applied to the background of a composition are exported as a backdrop object--a bitmap object that appears behind all the other objects in the composition.
• The SWF format is a streaming format, and plays as soon as a certain amount of the file has downloaded.