You will always have a background if you save as jpg. You have to save as GIF to get transparency, but this limits you to 256 colors. I don’t know if Flash will read a PNG-24, which has full color and transparency.
I don’t know if Flash will read a PNG-24, which has full color and transparency.
It will. PNG’s are actually nicer than jpegs or gifs because you can manipulate them and there is no pixelation (ie. when you transform the size from say 100% to 20%, the image does’t pixelate while animating. When you import images and change the size from anything but 100%, the image will pixelate. A png will become a little fuzzy but no pixelation.)
Not sure if there are still compatibilty issues with certian browsers (if this is for web).
ZIP
🙂
zippy – the file format has little or nothing to do with image resizing.
PNG is the way to go for Flash. Macormedia’s image editing app, Fireworks, (designed to integrate with Flash, Director, Dreamweaver, etc.), uses PNG as its default format. PNG’s transparency capability, RGB-centricity, and resolution flexibility make it an ideal raster format for use in Flash…
zippy – the file format has little or nothing to do with image resizing.
I was using that as an example. In my experience with Flash, I have noticed that jpegs and gifs will become choppy (pixelated) if they are transformed from their original imported state (even if u rotate the image(gif/jpeg) slightly, it will become choppy.) If I take a jpeg or gif and enlarge it to 600% and then animate (motion tween) it to 100% (a zoom effect), the image looks pixelated until its at the 100% size. If I do the same thing to a png it doesn’t really pixelate, it mearly looks grainy until it reaches 100%.
I think my overall point (more of an observation) about the png format was that it gives better quality when distorting the image (ie. scaling, rotating, skewing, etc.)than jpegs or gifs.
That being said, I still use jpegs or gifs over png’s simply because a few years ago I heard the png format wasn’t yet widely supported in regards to different browsers. If someone could shed some light on this or dispell the "myth", let me know. If I am wrong about the compatibility issue, then I can start using the png format with no worries. Thanks in advance.
ZIP
zippy,
Flash-imported PNG’s do not rely on browser compatability. The applicable Flash Player is all that’s needed.
Hey John,
Thanks for the info. I was kinda thinking that was the case. Is there any circumstance when a png wouldn’t be a good idea (meaning, have there ever been compatibilty issues?) or have I been closing myself off to what the png has to offer? I do alot of video presentations with flash so I am wondering if a png format would be better than using jpegs and gifs in terms of quality.
I think somewhere along the line, I got my wires crossed because I know it is not a good idea to use a png for web graphics and I think this sort of thinking transfered over to my flash work.
ZIP
Yes, straight placing of PNG’s in HTML layouts could still be risky in terms of browser compatability, but like I said, for Flash work, web-delivered or otherwise, I’ve used them extensively with no issues at all. PNG is also my raster format of choice for use in Director and MS Office apps.
John, thats awesome. This info will end up saving me some self inflicted hassles down the road. Thanks a bunch!
ZIP