Help on importing bitmaps in Flash MX

[kaajal]

Hi all,

Can someone PLEASE help me on what are the best practices in importing bitmaps to Flash MX. So as to retain best possible quality and controlling the file size at the same time?

I am working on an animation where i am importing some screenshots and then animating the cursor on them. But when i export the movie, the screenshots quality goes for a complete toss. even the file size is very heavy. what is the best format for importing bitmaps.. jpg, or png? 8-bit or 24-bit?

any and all help will be highly appreciated.

regards
kaajal

[Nuvis]

Definately go with jpg. What I usually do is take the bmp into photoshop and compress it there. If you go to file - save for web, it will compress it nicely and retain its detail. Make sure when you put this picture back into flash that under your flash settings you have it set not to compress the jpg. It's already compressed so there is no need.

Nuvis

[jibble]

i don't know why exactly, and ive never "noticed" a difference, but everyone always says flash likes .png the best...like i said i don't know why, but thats what "they" say

[evilcoathanger]

Sorry Nuvis, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the .JPG for flash. PNG's show up quite better in flash than JPG files.

If you make a gradient image a jpg, and take the same original file and save it as a png (24bit), you see that the gradient would show up a whole lot better in the png format.

Just something i've learned from experience..

to answer your question jibble,

• .png's are lossless images
• .jpg's are lossy images

With lossless compression, every single bit of data that was originally in the file remains after the file is uncompressed.

With lossy compression reduces a file by permanently eliminating certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed, only a part of the original information is still there.