Flash uses two primary types of graphics—vector graphics and raster (bitmap) graphics. Although Flash is primarily a vector-based tool, sometimes one image type is better than the other.
Raster graphics include the Windows Bitmap format (BMP) as well as JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, PICT and others. Raster graphics use pixels to determine the location type of each piece of color information. While bitmap images are great for high quality images, such as photographs, they can be very large (in file size), which can be problematic when used on Web pages. If not compressed, a large bitmap can take forever to download on the Web. A solution to the large bitmap file size is compression. But bitmap images tend to lose quality when scaled to a higher size.
Vector images use mathematical values to reproduce the appropriate display and can, therefore, be scaled without distortion. As a result, the file size of vector images such as EPS, Adobe Illustrator (AI), Macromedia Freehand (FH8 or FH9) and others are significantly smaller than bitmaps. Unfortunately, vector images can be demanding of a computer’s processor and generally do not reproduce high-quality details without a significantly larger file size.
Click here to learn more about Flash Basic 8.
Does anyone know why it is best to use JPG or GIF for webhelp versus PNG?
Thanks!
Karen
Posted by: Karen | July 16, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Hi Karen,
JPG is best for images with a singnficant amount of color; GIFs are best for black and white or simple line drawinings. PNGs are better than GIF, but not as good as JPB (PNGs have better color than GIF).
I'd suggest PNG or JPG.
Posted by: Kevin Siegel | July 17, 2011 at 09:59 PM
Kevin, thank you!
Posted by: Karen | August 01, 2011 at 02:18 PM