661 C : P  E Publishing Your Animations 2. Choose File➝Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog box appears. 3. Turn on the checkbox next to “GIF Image (.gif).” The GIF tab appears next to the Formats tab. 4. Click the GIF tab. The GIF publishing options shown in Figure 20-12 appear. Figure 20-12: GIFs are generally the most compact of the three static im- age file formats, but they’re also the most restrictive: They can display only 256 colors. (If the image you’re exporting contains a bunch of custom colors, your GIF may look slightly off.) Two different types of GIFs exist: static and animated. In this section, you see how to publish frame content to a static GIF. 5. Choose one or more of the following publishing options: • Dimensions (Width/Height). Tells Flash how large you want the GIF file to be, in pixels. These options are available only if you haven’t turned on “Match movie” (see below). • Match movie. Tells Flash to create a GIF image the same size as the stage. • Static/Animated. Tells Flash whether to create a static GIF file or an ani- mated GIF file. Make sure you turn on Static. (Page 666 shows you how to create an animated GIF file.) 662 F CS: T M M Publishing Your Animations • Optimize colors. Lowers file size as much as possible without sacrificing image quality. Always make sure you turn this option on. • Interlace. Tells Flash to create a GIF that downloads in several passes, so that a fuzzy version appears first, then a clearer version, then a still clearer ver- sion, and so on. Turning on this option doesn’t reduce download time, but it does give your audience quick successive “tastes” of the image while they’re waiting—useful for very large images. • Smooth. Tells Flash to smooth (antialias) your image. Turning on this op- tion may improve the look of any text your image contains; it can also save a few bytes. • Dither solids. Tells Flash to attempt to match any solid custom colors you’ve used as closely as it can by combining two colors. If you don’t turn on this option, Flash chooses the nearest-in-shade solid color in its palette. • Remove gradients. Tells Flash to convert the gradients in your image to solid colors. (Gradient effects don’t translate well to the GIF format anyway, so if your image contains gradient effects, you probably want to turn on this option.) • Transparent. Lets you specify the transparency of your image background (the blank area of the stage). Your options include Opaque (a regular, solid background), Transparent (no background), or Alpha and Threshold (lets you choose how transparent you want the background to appear). • Dither. Tells Flash to dither (mix two colors) to try to match all the non-solid areas of your image as closely as possible. Your options include None (no dithering), Ordered (minimal dithering, minimal file size increase), and Dif- fusion (maximum dithering, maximum file size increase). • Palette Type. Lets you tell Flash which 256 colors to use to create the GIF image. (GIFs are limited to 256 colors, but you get to pick which 256.) Your options include Web 216 (web-safe colors), Adaptive (non-web-safe colors), Web Snap Adaptive (a mix of web-safe and non-web-safe colors), and Custom (lets you specify a color palette you’ve saved as an .act file, using a program like Fireworks). Depending on the image you’re publishing, one of these op- tions may yield better-looking results—although in most cases, you want to leave this option set to Web 216. • Max colors. Available only if you’ve selected a Palette Type of Adaptive or Web Snap Adaptive (see above), this option lets you specify a maximum number of colors lower than 256 to save on file size. • Palette. Available only if you’ve selected a Palette Type of Custom (see above), this option lets you type the filename of your own custom color palette. The palette has to have been created using another program, like Fireworks, and saved with the .act file extension. If you prefer, you can click the file icon to browse your computer for the palette filename. 663 C : P  E Publishing Your Animations 6. Click Publish. The Publish Settings window disappears, and Flash generates a GIF file based on the name you set in the Formats tab. If you didn’t type a name, Flash names the GIF file based on to your .fla filename. For example, if the name of your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates a file named myAnimation.gif. Publishing a JPEG JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files typically don’t end up being as small as GIF files, but they can contain many more colors. Sometimes referred to as the “photo format,” JPEG is the best choice if your image, like a scanned-in photograph, contains lots of colors, subtle shading, or gradient effects. To publish a frame of your animation as a JPEG file: 1. In the timeline, click to select the frame you want to publish. Flash highlights the selected frame. On the stage, you see the image you’re about to publish. 2. Choose File➝Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog box appears. 3. Turn on the checkbox next to “JPEG Image (.jpg).” The JPEG tab appears next to the Formats tab. 4. Click the JPEG tab. The JPEG publishing options shown in Figure 20-13 appear. Figure 20-13: Publishing a frame of your ani- mation as a JPEG file is a pretty cut-and-dried process. As you can see here, the only options Flash gives you are to specify your image’s JPEG version’s size and quality. 664 F CS: T M M Publishing Your Animations 5. Choose one or more of the following publishing options: • Dimensions (Width/Height). Tells Flash how large you want the JPEG file to be, in pixels. These options are available only if you haven’t turned on “Match movie,” described next. • Match movie. Tells Flash to create a JPEG image the same size as the stage. • Quality. Tells Flash how much detail you want it to include. The larger the num- ber you type (or specify by dragging the slider), the better your JPEG image will look, and the larger your JPEG file size will be. (Depending on your particular image, the image quality may appear similar enough at different quality lev- els that you can get away with a lower number, thereby whittling away at your animation’s finished file size. See page 638 for more on optimization.) • Progressive. Similar to the GIF’s Interlace option (page 662), turning on this option tells Flash to create a JPEG that downloads in several passes, so that a fuzzy version appears first, then a clearer version, then a still clearer version, and so on. Turning on this option doesn’t reduce download time, but it does give your audience quick successive “tastes” of the image while they’re wait- ing, which some audiences appreciate. 6. Click Publish. The Publish Settings window disappears, and Flash generates a JPEG file based on the name you set in the Formats tab. If you didn’t type a name, Flash names the JPEG file based on your .fla filename. For example, if the name of your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates a file named myAnimation.jpg. Publishing a PNG Developed to replace and improve on the GIF file format (back when it looked like web developers would have to pay royalties for every GIF they produced), the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file format offers the best of both worlds: the tiny file size of a static GIF with the support for 24-bit color of a JPEG. PNG files can include transparent (alpha) effects, too. To publish a frame of your animation as a PNG file: 1. In the timeline, click to select the frame you want to publish. Flash highlights the selected frame. On the stage, you see the image you’re about to publish. 2. Choose File➝Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog box appears. 3. Turn on the checkbox next to “PNG Image (.png).” The PNG tab appears next to the Formats tab. 4. Click the PNG tab. The PNG publishing options shown in Figure 20-14 appear. 665 C : P  E Publishing Your Animations Figure 20-14: Some older web browsers—for example, Internet Explorer versions 6 and earlier—don’t completely support PNG files. If you want to publish a static image but you’re not sure which browser your audience has installed, you may want to opt for GIF or JPEG instead. 5. Choose one or more of the following publishing options: • Dimensions (Width/Height). Tells Flash how large you want the PNG file to be, in pixels. These options are available only if you haven’t turned on “Match movie,” described next. • Match movie. Tells Flash to create a PNG image the same size as the stage. • Bit depth. Tells Flash how many colors you want the PNG to be able to render. Your options include 8-bit (256 colors, the same as GIF), 24-bit (16.7 million colors), and 24-bit with Alpha (16.7 million colors plus the ability to render your image background as transparent). The more colors, the larger the file size. • Optimize colors. Reduces file size without sacrificing the quality of your image. You always want to turn this option on. • Interlace. Tells Flash to create a PNG that downloads in several passes, so that a fuzzy version appears first, then a clearer version, then a still clearer version, and so on. Turning on this option doesn’t reduce download time, but it does give your audience quick successive “tastes” of the image while they’re waiting—useful for very large images. • Smooth. Tells Flash to smooth (antialias) your image. Turning on this option may improve the look of any text your image contains; it can also save a few bytes of file size. 666 F CS: T M M Publishing Your Animations • Dither solids. Tells Flash to attempt to match any solid custom colors you’ve used as closely as it can by combining two colors (only necessary if you choose a Bit depth of 8-bit, as described above). If you don’t turn on this op- tion, Flash chooses the nearest-in-shade solid color in its palette. • Remove gradients. Tells Flash to convert the gradients in your image to solid colors to save on file size. • Dither. Tells Flash to dither (mix two colors) to try to match all the nonsolid areas of your image as closely as possible (necessary only if you’ve chosen a bit depth of 8-bit). Your options include None (no dithering), Ordered (minimal dithering, minimal file size increase), and Diffusion (maximum dithering, maximum file size increase). • Palette Type. Available only if you chose a bit depth of 8-bit (see above), this option lets you tell Flash which 256 colors to use to create the PNG image. Your options include Web 216 (web-safe colors), Adaptive (non-web-safe colors), Web Snap Adaptive (a mix of web-safe and non-web-safe colors), and Custom (lets you specify a color palette you’ve saved as an .act file, using a program like Fireworks). Depending on the image you’re publishing, one of these options may yield better-looking results—although in most cases, you want to leave this option set to Web 216. • Max colors. Available only if you’ve selected a Palette Type of Adaptive or Web Snap Adaptive (see above), this option lets you specify a maximum number of colors lower than 256 to save file size. • Palette. Available only if you’ve selected a Palette Type of Custom (see above), this option lets you type the filename of your own custom color palette. The palette has to have been created using another program, like Fireworks, and saved with the .act file extension. If you prefer, you can click the file icon to browse your computer for the palette filename. • Filter options. This option lets you tell Flash to apply an additional compres- sion algorithm when it’s creating your PNG file. Normally, you don’t use this option unless you’re trying to pare down your PNG file by a few bytes. Your options include None, Sub, Up, Average, Path, and Adaptive. 6. Click Publish. The Publish Settings window disappears, and Flash generates a PNG file based on the name you set in the Formats tab. If you didn’t type a name, Flash names the PNG filename based on your .fla filename. For example, if the name of your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates a file named myAnimation.png. Publishing as an Animated GIF In addition to static images, the GIF file format lets you create animated images. Animated GIFs are mini-animations that play right in the web browser, with no need for a Flash browser. The quality isn’t always stellar, and your audience can’t 667 C : P  E Publishing Your Animations interact with them (which is why Flash was invented). But depending on how long your animation is, and what quality of playback you’re shooting for, they can be an impressive alternative. To publish your animation as an animated GIF file: 1. Choose File➝Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog box appears. 2. Turn on the checkbox next to GIF Image (.gif). The GIF tab appears next to the Formats tab. 3. Click the GIF tab. The GIF publishing options shown in Figure 20-15 appear. 4. Set the publishing options you see in Figure 20-15 just as you would for a static GIF file (page 666) except for the following: • Static/Animated. This option tells Flash whether to create a static or animated GIF file. Make sure you turn on Animated. Figure 20-15: Animated GIFs are amazing creatures: small, decent quality (especially if you’re only talking about a few frames), and as easy to include in an HTML file as a static GIF file (the basic line of HTML code you need is <img src=“yourGIF.gif”/>). The only extra settings you have to specify for an animated GIF, as opposed to a static GIF, are whether you want the animated GIF to loop continuously, loop a few times, or not loop at all. 668 F CS: T M M Publishing Your Animations • Loop continuously. Turn on this option to tell Flash to replay the animated GIF over and over again. • Repeat. Tells Flash to create an animated GIF that automatically plays the number of times you type into the “times” box. 5. Click Publish. The Publish Settings window disappears, and Flash generates a GIF file based on the name you set in the Formats tab. If you didn’t type a name, Flash names the GIF file based on your .fla filename. For example, if the name of your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates a file named myAnimation.gif. Publishing As a Standalone Projector A projector is the equivalent of an .swf file and a copy of Flash Player all rolled up into a single executable file. When you create a projector, your audience doesn’t need to have either a web browser or Flash Player installed on their computers: All they need to do to play your animation is to run the projector file. You’ll want to choose this option if you want to deliver your animation on a CD or DVD (as opposed to over the web). Tutorials, product demonstrations, and program mock-ups (as well as the programs themselves) are all examples of the kinds of ani- mations you might want to publish as projectors. Note: If you plan to distribute a Flash projector to folks outside your company, take a look at the Adobe Player Distribution License, a legalese description of what you can and can’t do with your projector files. Adobe may change the location of this document, but the time of this writing, you can find a copy online at www.adobe.com/products/players/fpsh_distribution1.html. To publish your animation as a standalone projector: 1. Choose File➝Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog box appears. 2. Turn on the checkbox next to one or both of the following, depending on the operating system you expect your audience to be running: • Windows Projector (.exe) to create a projector that runs on Windows. • Macintosh Projector to create a projector that runs on the Mac. 3. Click Publish. If you chose “Windows Projector (.exe)”, Flash generates an .exe file. If you chose Macintosh Projector, Flash generates an .app file. Flash names the files based on the names displayed in the Formats tab. For example, if the name of your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates files named myAnimation.exe or myAnimation.app. 669 C : P  E Exporting Flash to Other Formats Exporting Flash to Other Formats Exporting your entire animation—or one or more of the individual frames that make up your animation—is very similar to publishing. In both cases, you get to specify which file format you’d like Flash to write, and in both cases, you get to tweak file settings based on the file format you choose. Flash designates the most common file formats (.html, .swf, .gif, .jpg, .png, and projector files) as publishing destina- tions and all other file formats as export destinations. Most of the time, you’ll export (rather than publish) an image, sound, or your entire animation when you want to work with it in another graphics or animation program. To export to a single frame image, select File➝Export➝Export Image. To export to an animation (multiframe) file format or an audio format, select File➝Export➝Export Movie. In Flash Professional CS5, there are very few differences in the available formats for Macs and PCs. The most significant is that Windows computers can write to the Windows BMP, AVI, and WAV formats. Table 20-1 shows the available formats. Table 20-1. File formats to which you can export your Flash animation Format Extension Note SWF Movie .swf Single Frame Image Adobe FXG .fxg Single Frame Image Bitmap .bmp Single Frame Image JPEG Image .jpg Single Frame Image GIF Image .gif Single Frame Image PNG Image .png Single Frame Image SWF Movie .swf Animation Windows AVI (Windows only) .avi Animation QuickTime .mov Animation Animated GIF .gif Animation WAV Audio (Windows only) .wav Audio JPEG Sequence .jpg Animation GIF Sequence .gif Animation PNG Sequence .png Animation Exporting the Contents of a Single Frame Exporting the contents of a single frame of your animation lets you create a one-frame animation or (more commonly) an image file you can edit with another image-editing program. 670 F CS: T M M Exporting Flash to Other Formats Note: Exporting an image from one animation and then importing the image into another animation is one way to share images between Flash documents. You can also share by saving the image as a graphic symbol in one animation, and then using the Library panel’s drop-down list to add the symbol to another animation, as described in Chapter 7. 1. On the stage, click to select the frame you want to export. Flash highlights the selected frame. 2. Choose File➝Export➝Export Image. The Export Image dialog box you see in Figure 20-16 appears. Figure 20-16: The Export Image dialog box lets you export a frame to standard image formats: SWF movie, Adobe FXG, JPEG, GIF, or PNG file. 3. From the pop-up menu, choose the file format to which you want to export. In Windows, this menu is called “Save as type”; on the Mac, it’s called Format. 4. In the Filename (Save As) box, type a name for your exported file. Leave the file extension Flash suggests. 5. Click Save. Flash displays an Export window containing format-specific settings, as shown in Figure 20-17. [...]... quicker starting • For Macs, Flash is in the Adobe Flash CS5 folder in your Applications folder That path and file name is usually Macintosh HD\Applications\Adobe Flash CS5\ Adobe Flash CS5 You can make an alias or drag the file to your Dock for quicker starting Uninstalling and Deactivating Flash Professional CS5 There may come a time when you want to uninstall Flash CS5 Professional For example,... Adobe Flash Pro CS5 button to start Flash, or click Done to close the installer There are also links to tutorial videos and the Adobe CS Live services Once the program is installed, you can start it up as you would any program on your system • For Windows computers, Flash is in the Adobe folder in your Program Files folder That path and filename are usually C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5 \Flash. exe... differences: • AIR uses the Adobe AIR runtime Flash uses the Flash Player (also a runtime environment) • Most AIR applications run in a desktop window Flash usually uses a browser window • AIR programs can be developed using a combination of tools: Flash, Flex, HTML, XML, and JavaScript Flash animations are most often developed using Flash Professional, Flash Builder, or Flex • An AIR application must... you uninstall Flash Professional CS5 For details, see the note on page 694 5 Click Done The Uninstall window closes For Macs Other than the first step, the uninstall process for Macs is similar to Windows 1 Go to Applications➝Utilities➝Adobe Installers, and then double-click Uninstall Adobe Flash CS5 ­ Appendix A: Installation and Help 693 Getting Help from Flash The Adobe Flash Pro CS5 uninstaller... reads “Uninstall a program” or “Add and Remove Programs.” 692 Flash CS5: The Missing Manual 2 Click “Uninstall a program” (Windows 7 and Vista) or “Add and Remove P ­ rograms” (Windows XP) Uninstalling and Deactivating Flash Professional CS5 The Control Panel shows list of the programs installed on your computer 3 Click Adobe Flash Professional CS5, and then click Uninstall The Uninstall button is near... 21-3 Flash creates a new document with a stage and timeline that looks just like your usual Flash workspace Behind the scenes, there are differences, because Flash creates a document that uses the AIR runtime instead of Flash Player Figure 21-3:  Starting an AIR project in Flash Professional is similar to starting any project, but instead of choosing ActionScript 3.0, choose Adobe AIR 2 This way Flash. .. broadband Internet connection Installing and Activating Flash Professional CS5 As with most programs, before you can use Flash, you need to install it on your computer and activate it Flash Professional can arrive on your desktop via several routes Your copy may come on a DVD, or it may arrive via a download from Adobe’s online store You may have purchased Flash Professional separately or as part of one of... install Flash Professional CS5 on only one computer As a special dispensation, the “Primary User” may install another copy on a portable or home computer 1 After reading the Software License thoroughly and checking the fine points with counsel, click Accept 690 Flash CS5: The Missing Manual The license disappears, and you’re prompted to enter the serial number for your software Installing and Activating Flash. .. Fireworks have AIR capabilities, too 674 Flash CS5: The Missing Manual Meet Adobe AIR Differences Between AIR and Flash Both AIR and Flash are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, so you can focus on developing one great program and you don’t have to sweat the details of different operating systems In spite of that, there are many ways AIR applications and Flash animations differ Here’s a list... documents Flash CS5: The Missing Manual Publish Your AIR Application Publish Your AIR Application Once you’ve got your AIR project squared away, you’ll want to test it, debug it, and ultimately distribute it to your audience, just like a Flash animation In Flash- speak, that means you need to publish your project The process for publishing an AIR project is slightly different from publishing a Flash animation . your Flash document is myAnimation.fla, Flash generates files named myAnimation.exe or myAnimation.app. 669 C : P  E Exporting Flash to Other Formats Exporting Flash. Flash usually uses a browser window. • AIR programs can be developed using a combination of tools: Flash, Flex, HTML, XML, and JavaScript. Flash animations are most often developed using Flash. Publish. If you chose “Windows Projector (.exe)”, Flash generates an .exe file. If you chose Macintosh Projector, Flash generates an .app file. Flash names the files based on the names displayed