[TAG] .SWF files (Flash)

[Mike Orr]

On 2/9/06, Kapil Hari Paranjape <kapil at imsc.res.in> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This may be OT as far as the discussion on "flash or not" is concerned,
> but here goes anyway.
>
> I saw this a couple of times.
>
> Here:
>
> On Wed, 08 Feb 2006, Benjamin A. Okopnik wrote:
> > Oh, and - Flash produces excellent image quality in a file size that's
> > about half the size of a very poor JPG image, as well as auto-sizing
> > itself to whatever the viewer's screen size is. Just a minor side note.
>
> And here:
>
> On Thu, 09 Feb 2006, Mike Orr wrote:
> > On 2/8/06, shane <shane_collinge at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > (2) SWF are insanely small file sizes with comparably, insanely
> > > high file quality that fit ANY screen res - something JPGs don't
> > > do.
>
> and I'm a bit puzzled. Why would people want to put cartoons in a JPEG
> format? As I understand it JPEG is for photographs, not for drawings.

Javier Malonda's Ecol cartoons are in PNG.  PNG is more efficient for
images with few colors (like cartoons); JPG is more efficient for
images with thousands of colors (like photographs).  But LG has long
accepted JPGs in either case without converting them because it's not
that big a deal.  The current browsers handle PNG fine.  Netscape 4.77
couldn't display PNG with transparency; it showed up as a solid box. 
I don't know why Shane chose JPG but it may have been for
compatibility.

> For drawings that were made in vector format and will
> be subjected to arbitrary scaling there is SVG and Java...and also
> Flash.

I don't know about vector formats; I've never seen them on the web. 
I've only seen Flash used for its animation ability, not to make a
scalable still.  So Flash is really a vector drawing program?

> As far as I know the latter is an open format,

Is the format actually published?  Do the free players work with all
Flash content?  Do we know that Macromedia won't add proprietary
extensions to discourage the use of other players and composers?

RealPlayer is annoyingly proprietary but I've long reconciled myself
to it.  At least the company is OS neutral.  I feel better listening
to radio programs in RealAudio format than Windows Media, and it's
easier to configure than getting the browser to send an MP3 file to
MPlayer or XMMS.  (Hi, MPlayer, why are you just sitting there
silently?)  Or worse, sites that have their own built-in player.) 
We've never had sound files in LG so it's never been an issue here. 
Fortunately, if we do want sound files someday, there's an open format
(OGG).

Ben, I didn't make thumbnails because I was lazy, OK?  Nobody ever
complained about the size of the downscaled image files or the
distortion of the images.  If they had, I would've done something more
elaborate.

--
Mike Orr <sluggoster at gmail.com>
(mso at oz.net address is semi-reliable)