The SWF file is widely used in website designing for displaying animated vector graphics, far exceeding the W3C open standard SVG, which has met with problems over competing implementations. The SWF file format is designed to be an efficient binary delivery format to deliver vector graphics, text, video, and sound over the Internet, not a format for exchanging graphics between graphics editors.
A SWF file is made up of a header, followed by a number of tags. The two types of tags are definition tags and control tags. Definition tags define the objects known as characters, which are stored in the dictionary. Control tags manipulate characters, and control the flow of the file.
The most convenient way for creating a SWF file is using flash creation tool which will enable you to import images, graphics, and sound from all popular formats. AnvSoft Photo Flash Maker is such a flash making tool for creating stunning flash banner with SWF file output.
AnvSoft Photo Flash Maker can be taken as a freeware since it doesn’t set any restriction to all features though there will be a company logo for the last slide, if you mind this or don’t use this software for commercial purpose, it is undoubtedly the best freeware for making flash slideshow for your Website, Blogger, MySpace, WordPress, YouTube, iPod, iPhone, PSP and more.
No Flash knowledge or programming skills are required to use this Photo Flash Maker since the program has many built-in features, such as transition effects, theme templates which include basic and advanced theme, etc. Everybody can create a swf file with elegant photo flash slideshow in less than 5 minutes. You can create a SWF file with the following three simple steps:
Step 1: Add digital photos to Photo Flash Slideshow
Step 2: Select your favorite theme from the built-in theme templates
Step 3: Publish SWF file and upload to Go2Album for sharing
Generally, the above steps will enable you to make amazing flash slideshow; however, Photo Flash Slideshow also gives the user more options to fully customize the flash slideshow:
- Edit photos: you can edit the flash with description, text&artclips; you can also embed different URL link to different flashes, when you click on the flash, it will direct you to the website you’ve set.
- Apply Transition: under the transition effect tab, more than sixty transition effects are available for selecting; can set different transition&photo duration time for different flash.
- Change SWF size: under both the basic and advanced themes, you are able to change the SWF size.
- Adjust theme effect: under the advanced theme, you can click Customize Prosperities button to change the parameters regarding of the output swf file, such as title, background color, background music, description, thumbnail, etc.
- Output options: there are three output options available to choose; you can choose to create a flash file only, make a gift/presentation CD/DVD, create flash files and upload to Go2Album(if upload to Go2Album, you will get the code to embed the SWF file into HTML or insert to your blog, space, etc.)
For more information, you can refer to the website of AnvSoft Photo Flash Maker.
The output SWF file can be open with Adobe Flash Player software. You can also you some SWF file converters, like Flash to Video Converter, to open it, or convert it for using on the hardware, such as iPod, iPhone, PSP, etc.
