SWF - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

SWF is an Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

file format

File format

A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...

used for multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

, vector graphics

Vector graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...

and ActionScript

ActionScript

ActionScript is an object-oriented language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. . It is a dialect of ECMAScript , and is used primarily for the development of websites and software targeting the Adobe Flash Player platform, used on Web pages in the form of...

. Originating with FutureWave Software

FutureWave Software

FutureWave Software was a software developer and publisher based in San Diego, California. The company was founded by Charlie Jackson and Jonathan Gay in early 1993. VP of Marketing was Michelle Welsh who also came from Silicon Beach Software, then Aldus....

, then transferred to Macromedia

Macromedia

Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...

, and then coming under the control of Adobe

Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...

, SWF files can contain animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

s or applet

Applet

In computing, an applet is any small application that performs one specific task that runs within the scope of a larger program, often as a plug-in. An applet typically also refers to Java applets, i.e., programs written in the Java programming language that are included in a web page...

s of varying degrees of interactivity and function.

, SWF is the dominant format for displaying "animated" vector graphics on the Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. It may also be used for programs, commonly browser game

Browser game

A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...

s, using ActionScript

ActionScript

.

SWF files can be generated from within several Adobe products: Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

, Flash Builder (an IDE

Integrated development environment

An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...

) and After Effects

Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...

, as well as through MXMLC, a command line application compiler which is part of the freely available Flex SDK. Other than Adobe products, SWFs can be built with open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

Motion-Twin ActionScript 2 Compiler (MTASC)

MTASC

MTASC is an ActionScript 2.0 compiler written in the Objective Caml programming language by the company Motion-Twin. It is free software and can be used alone or with other tools like swfmill to produce SWF files, which contain interactive multimedia content playable with the Flash Player...

, the open source

Open source

Ming library

Ming is a C library for creating Adobe Flash files. It is often packaged as a PHP module that allows for the dynamic generation of Flash animations...

, the free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

suite SWFTools

SWFTools

SWFTools is an Open Source software tool suite for creating and manipulating SWF files. Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, it may be compiled from C source, to run under Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OSX...

, the proprietary SWiSH Max2

SWiSH Max

SWiSH Max is a flash creation tool that is commonly used to create interactive and cross-platform movies, animations, and presentations. It is developed and distributed by Swishzone.com Pty Ltd, based in Sydney, Australia...

. There are also various third party programs that can produce files in this format, such as Multimedia Fusion 2, Captivate or SWiSH Max

SWiSH Max

.

Originally, the term SWF was used as an abbreviation for ShockWave Flash. This usage was changed to the backronym

Backronym

A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....

Small Web Format to eliminate confusion with a different technology, Shockwave, from which SWF was derived.

History

FutureWave Software

was a small company later acquired by Macromedia, originally defined the file format with one primary objective: to create small files for displaying entertaining animations.
The idea was to have a format which could be reused by a player running on any system and which would work with slower network connections.

Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005.

On May 1, 2008, Adobe dropped its licensing restrictions on the SWF format specifications, as part of the Open Screen Project. However, Rob Savoye

Rob Savoye

Rob Savoye is the primary developer of Gnash. He is a developer for the GNU Project, having worked on Debian, Red Hat and dozens of other free/open source software projects. He was among the first employees of Cygnus Support, which was sold to Red Hat in 2001....

, a member of the Gnash

Gnash

Gnash is a media player for playing SWF files. Gnash is available both as a standalone player for desktop computers and embedded device, as well as a plugin for several browsers. It is part of the GNU Project and is a Free and open-source alternative to Adobe Flash Player...

development team, has pointed to some parts of the Flash format which remain closed. On July 1, 2008, Adobe released code which allowed the Google and Yahoo search-engines to crawl and index SWF files.

Description

Originally limited to presenting vector-based objects and images in a simple sequential manner, the format in its later versions allows audio (since Flash 3), video (since Flash 6) and many different possible forms of interaction with the end user. Once created, SWF files can be played by the Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player

The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...

, working either as a browser plugin or as a standalone player. SWF files can also be encapsulated with the player, creating a self-running SWF movie called a "projector".

Adobe makes available plugins, such as Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player

and Adobe Integrated Runtime

Adobe Integrated Runtime

Adobe Integrated Runtime, also known as Adobe AIR, is a cross-platform runtime environment developed by Adobe Systems for building Rich Internet Applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, and Ajax, that can be run as desktop applications or on mobile devices...

, to play SWF files in web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

s on many desktop operating systems, including Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

on the x86 architecture

X86 architecture

The term x86 refers to a family of instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086 CPU. The 8086 was launched in 1978 as a fully 16-bit extension of Intel's 8-bit based 8080 microprocessor and also introduced segmentation to overcome the 16-bit addressing barrier of such designs...

. intensive development had taken place on Gnash

Gnash

, a free-software

Free software

implementation of a SWF player. Another FOSS

Foss

Foss may refer toPeople*Foss , people with the last name Foss*Foss Shanahan , New Zealand diplomat*Foss Westcott , English bishop...

implementation is Swfdec

Swfdec

Swfdec is a free/open source replacement of Adobe Flash Player. It is currently compatible with GNU/Linux and FreeBSD and is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License ....

.

Based on an independent study conducted by Millward Brown, over 99% of Web users now have an SWF plugin installed, with around 90% having the latest version of the Flash Player.

Sony PlayStation Portable

PlayStation Portable

The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

consoles can play limited SWF files in Sony's web browser, beginning with firmware version 2.71. Both the Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

and the Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

PS3

PlayStation 3

The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

consoles can run SWF files through their Internet browsers.

Many of today's smartphones support SWF (although sometimes not fully compatible) in their web browsers. Apple's iPhone is one of the smartphones that do not support SWF. Apple claims that SWF is a closed, proprietary format.

Licensing

Adobe makes available a partial specification of SWF. The document is claimed to be missing "huge amounts" of information needed to completely implement SWF, omitting specifications for RTMP

Real Time Messaging Protocol

Real Time Messaging Protocol was initially a proprietary protocol developed by Macromedia for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and a server...

and Sorenson Spark

Sorenson codec

Sorenson codec may refer to either of three proprietary video codecs: Sorenson Video, Sorenson Video 3 or Sorenson Spark. Sorenson Video is also known as Sorenson Video Codec, Sorenson Video Quantizer or SVQ...

. However, the RTMP

Real Time Messaging Protocol

Real Time Messaging Protocol was initially a proprietary protocol developed by Macromedia for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and a server...

specification was released publicly in June 2009, and the Sorenson Spark codec is not Adobe's property. Until May 1, 2008, implementing software that plays SWF was disallowed by the specification's license. On that date, as part of its Open Screen Project, Adobe dropped all such restrictions on the SWF and FLV formats.
However, the SWF specification was released under a very restrictive license:
Implementing software which creates SWF files has always been permitted, on the condition that the resulting files render

Rendering (computer graphics)

Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...

"error free in the latest publicly available version of Adobe Flash Player."

GNU

GNU

GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...

has started developing a free software

Free software

SWF player called Gnash

Gnash

under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

(GPL). Another player is the GNU LGPL Swfdec

Swfdec

Swfdec is a free/open source replacement of Adobe Flash Player. It is currently compatible with GNU/Linux and FreeBSD and is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License ....

. However, GNU does not provide financial support for either project.

Scaleform

Scaleform

Scaleform Corporation is a developer providing middleware for use in the video game industry. Their most recent software, Scaleform GFx, is a vector graphics rendering engine used to display Adobe Flash-based user interfaces, HUDs, and animated textures for games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X,...

GFx is a commercial alternative SWF player that features full hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration

In computing, Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware to perform some function faster than is possible in software running on the general-purpose CPU...

using the GPU

Graphics processing unit

A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...

and has high conformance up to Flash 8 and AS2. Scaleform GFx is licensed as a game middleware solution and used by many PC and console 3D games for user interfaces, HUDs

HUD (video gaming)

In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...

, mini games

Minigame

A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...

, and video playback.

Related file formats and extensions

! Extension
! Explanation

|-
! .swf
| .swf files are completed, compiled and published files that cannot be edited with Adobe Flash. However, many '.swf decompilers' do exist. Attempting to import .swf files using Flash allows it to retrieve some assets from the .swf, but not all.

|-
! .FXG
FXG
Flash XML Graphics is a specification for an XML-based graphics file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics being developed by Adobe Systems...

| FXG is a unified xml file format being developed by Adobe for Flex

Adobe Flex

Adobe Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform...

, Flash, Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...

and other applications.

|-
! .fla
| .fla files contain source material for the Flash application. Flash authoring software can edit FLA files and compile them into .swf files. The Flash source file format is currently a binary file format based on the Microsoft Compound File Format

Compound File Binary Format

Compound File Binary Format , also called Compound File or Compound Document, is a file format for storing numerous files and streams within a single file on a disk...

. In Flash Pro CS5, the fla file format is a zip container of an XML-based project structure.

|-
! .xfl
| .xfl files are XML-based project files that are equivalent to the binary .fla format. Flash authoring software uses XFL as an exchange format in Flash CS4. It imports XFL files that are exported from InDesign and AfterEffects. In Flash Pro CS5, the xfl file is a key file which opens the "uncompressed FLA" file, which is a hierarchy of folders containing XML and binary files.

|-
! .as
| .as files contain ActionScript source code

Source code

In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...

in simple source files. FLA files can also contain Actionscript code directly, but separate external .as files often emerge for structural reasons, or to expose the code to versioning applications.

|-
! .mxml
MXML
MXML is an XML-based user interface markup language first introduced by Macromedia in March 2004. Application developers use MXML in combination with ActionScript to develop rich Internet applications, with products such as Adobe Flex....

| .mxml files are used in conjunction with ActionScript files (and .css files), and offer a markup-language-style syntax (like HTML) for designing the GUI in Flex. Each MXML file creates a new class that extends the class of the root tag, and adds the nested tags as children (if they are descendants of UIComponent) or members of the class.

|-
! .swd
| .swd files are temporary debugging files used during Flash development. Once finished developing a Flash project these files are not needed and can be removed.

|-
! .asc
| .asc files contain Server-Side ActionScript, which is used to develop efficient and flexible client-server Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX applications.

|-
! .abc
| .abc files contain actionscript bytecode used by the Actionscript Virtual Machine AVM (Flash 8 and prior), and AVM2 (Flash 9 or later).

|-
! .flv
FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–11. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files...

| .flv files are Flash video files, as created by Adobe Flash, ffmpeg

FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...

, Sorenson Squeeze

Sorenson Squeeze

Sorenson Squeeze is a compression suite for video. It encodes to multiple formats including QuickTime, Windows Media, Flash Video, Silverlight, WebM & WMV. It uses multiple codecs, including the Sorenson codecs SV3 Pro and Spark, H.264, H.263, VP6, VC1, MPEG2, and many others. Squeeze operates on...

, or On2 Flix

On2 Flix

On2 Flix is a family of Flash video encoding applications for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. On2 Technologies acquired Flix from Wildform, Inc. in May, 2005, shortly after Macromedia announced that it would use On2's VP6 video codec in the Flash 8 platform....

. The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way as they are within SWF files.

|-
! .f4v
| .f4v files are similar to MP4 files and can be played back by Flash Player 9 Update 3 and above. F4V file format is second container format for Flash video and it differs from FLV file format. It is based on the ISO base media file format

ISO base media file format

ISO base media file format defines a general structure for time-based multimedia files such as video and audio. It is used as the basis for other media file formats...

.

|-
! .f4p
| .f4p files are F4V files with digital rights management

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

.

|-
! .f4a
| .f4a files are F4V files that contain only audio streams.

|-
! .f4b
| .f4b files are F4V audio book

Audio book

An audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...

files.

|-
! .swc
Adobe SWC file
An Adobe SWC file is a package of precompiled Flash symbols and ActionScript code that allows a Flash or Flex developer to distribute classes and assets, or to avoid recompiling symbols and code that will not change. SWC files can be generated by the Flash authoring tool, and by Flex...

| .swc files are used for distributing components; they contain a compiled clip, the component's ActionScript class file, and other files that describe the component.

|-
! .jsfl
| .jsfl files are used to add functionality in the Flash Authoring environment; they contain JavaScript code and access the Flash JavaScript API.

|-
! .swt
| .swt files are 'templatized' forms of .swf files, used by Macromedia Generator

|-
! .flp
| .flp files are XML files used to reference all the document files contained in a Flash Project. Flash Projects allow the user to group multiple, related files together to assist in Flash project organization, compilation and build.

|-
! .spl
| .spl files are FutureSplash Animator

FutureSplash Animator

FutureSplash Animator was a vector-based animation editor written by Jonathan Gay for this company FutureWave Software. The company and the product were later bought by Macromedia then Adobe Systems, and became Adobe Flash ....

documents.

|-
! .aso
| .aso files are cache files used during Flash development, containing compiled ActionScript byte code. An ASO file is recreated when a change in its corresponding class files is detected. Occasionally the Flash IDE does not recognize that a recompile is necessary, and these cache files must be deleted manually. They are located in %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash8\en\Configuration\Classes\aso on Win32 / Flash8.

|-
! .sol
| .sol files are created by Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player

to hold Local Shared Object

Local Shared Object

Local Shared Objects , commonly called flash cookies are pieces of data that websites which use Adobe Flash may store on a user's computer...

s (data stored on the system running the Flash player).
|}>

External links

Adobe Systems Flash SWF reference
SWF File Format Specification (Version 10)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Description

Licensing

Related file formats and extensions

See also

External links