1.  Describe the various animation formats used in
digital media such as GIF and SWF

2. In This Chapter, you’ll learn on:
 Identify the various animation file types such as
o GIF
o SWF
 Describe the characteristics and use of GIF and SWF
animation.
 Compare the advantages and disadvantages of a
GIF and SWF animation format.

3. GIF file format
 The GIF file format can contain 8-bits (8 color levels)
and up to 256 colors.
 This file format is best for high-contrast images with
sharp edges, including type.
 Usually, GIF files can be created by using the
application, Adobe Photoshop

4.  The GIF file format is used to retain transparency
and create animations.
 The GIF format is not designed for printing. GIFs are
designed for on-screen display. But, if the only
image you have a available is in the GIF format,
there are ways to make it look better in print.
However, the best images are those created in a
print-suitable format other than the GIF graphics
format.

5. GIF Optimized for Web
 GIF, JPG and PNG are the most common graphics
formats on Web pages today.
 GIF is popular because it compresses well (makes
smaller files), offers transparency (giving the illusion
that the graphic is not a rectangle), and can be
used for animation.

6.  In addition to compression, GIFs on the Web pages
have a resolution of only 96 or 72 ppi (pixels per
inch) since that is the resolution of most monitors.
 On screen, they look fine. The low resolution and the
process of compression results in smaller file sizes but
also means that images lose quality. On screen, the
loss of quality is less noticeable than when the
image is printed.

7. Other Problems with GIF
Software
 Although standard for most of today's Web
browsers, other software you use may not support
the GIF format.
 To use a GIF image in those programs requires that
you either convert it into another file format with a
graphics program or use a product that allows
certain Windows programs to recognize and use
graphics formats they don't normally accept.

8. Backgrounds
 A problem you may encounter when printing GIF
files is the appearance of colored areas or
backgrounds that didn't show up on the Web page.
 GIF files allow the creator to specify a certain color
as transparent. By making the background of an
image transparent, it looks as if it is not really a
rectangular box.

9.  However, once imported into your word processor
or Desktop Publishing program the software sees
the background as red, or blue, or whatever color
was originally set to be transparent. If the
transparent color was white you may not notice
any difference, if not, you can end up with some
unwanted color in your clip art.
 To get rid of the unwanted background color, you'll
need to open the file in Photoshop and fill the
background (or other area) with a different color
(such as white).

10.  However, due to anti-aliasing (a process that
'smooths' the edges of images) you will probably still
have a slight 'halo' of color around the very edges
of the image.
 To get rid of the halo you could zoom in on the
image and recolor the individual pixels - but that is
a lot of detailed work, especially considering the
other print limitations of GIF files.

11. Print Better GIF
 If you really want to use a GIF image from a Web page
on a printed document, you can try one of these tips:
Make it smaller
 Resize the GIF smaller (height/width) and it may look
better. What you are doing is squeezing the same
number of pixels into a smaller area.
Blur it
 Blur the image slightly in Photoshop. Or add a touch of
'noise' - a common filter/effect in Photoshop. Yes, it alters
the appearance of the image somewhat but it may also
make it look better when printed.
Increase Image Resolution

12. PNG file format
 The PNG file format was originally created to
replace the GIF format and is actually an
improvement upon the old GIF standard.
 The PNG file format saves transparent pixels using a
process called alpha transparency.
 Alpha transparency is divided up into 256 levels of
opacity, from totally transparent to totally opaque.
In a PNG image, each pixel is assigned an alpha
transparency setting.

13.  There are two PNG formats, PNG-8 and PNG-24. PNG-8
can contain up to a maximum of 256 colors (8-bits,
hence the -8 after PNG). PNG-24 can contain millions of
colors and is similar to the JPEG file format. Because both
PNG formats use lossless compression, no data is lost
when images are saved and resaved.
 The PNG format is great but there are a few drawbacks.
o You can’t save animations as PNG files.
o PNG-24 files don’t compress as much as JPEG files, so file size is
bigger.
o The PNG format is only supported by the later file browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and later, and Safari on the
Mac.

14. Adobe Flash
 Adobe Flash is an authoring tool that allows you to
create anything from a simple animation to a
complex interactive web application, such as an
online store.
 You can make your Flash applications media rich
by adding pictures, sound, and video.

15.  Flash includes many features that make it powerful
but easy to use, such as drag-and-drop user
interface components, built-in behaviors that add
ActionScript to your document, and special effects
that you can add to objects.
 When you create and save Adobe Flash and
Adobe Flash documents within the Flash authoring
environment, the documents are in FLA file format.
To display a document in Adobe Flash Player, you
must publish or export the document as a SWF file.

16. SWF file format
 SWF is a file extension which adds automatically to
the file name when you’re saving a particular file
that you’d created in the application, Adobe Flash.
 When you author in Flash you work in a Flash
document, a file that, when saved, has the file
extension .fla.
 When you are ready to deploy your Flash content,
you publish it, creating a file with the extension .swf.
Flash Player, described in the next section, runs the
SWF file.

17. Flash Player
 Adobe Flash Player, which runs the applications that you
create, installs by default along with Flash.
 Flash Player ensures that all SWF content is viewable and
available consistently and across the broadest range of
platforms, browsers, and devices.
 The Adobe Flash Player is distributed with products from
every major partner, including Microsoft, Apple, Chrome,
Firefox, AOL, and Opera, to bring rich content and
applications billions of people worldwide.

18. Flash Player is distributed freely to anyone who wants
to use it. You can get the latest version of Flash Player
at the http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
 One of the great advantages to use Flash as
opposed to multiple animated GIF and JPEG files is
that one SWF Flash file contains and encapsulates
all the graphics, animations and scripts on an entire
Web page.

19. Comparison of GIF VS SWF
* This is not as big a problem as it use to be, with around 99% of Internet-
enabled desktops having Adobe Flash player installed. But do take note that
some portable mobile devices such as Apple's products do not support flash.