This is a pretty straightforward question. I’m working on my own photography website and an important part of the project is simplicity and BIG IMAGES. Before I start designing and scripting away in Flash, I want to make sure I’m doing this the best way possible. I would like for the images to appear at a certain percentage size on the screen, regardless of what screen resolution is being used.
Now, I know that you can change the Stage.scaleMode to “showAll” and I have seen some websites do it this way, but is this the best solution? It can make fonts look pretty yucky if you’re at some weird %age of the full size.
For example, in this website http://www.briankersey.com, the browser is forced to go to fullscreen (through HTML I assume?) but when you make the window smaller, only the central image changes size, the fonts remain the same size, and only the pictures scale. This is one solution, and it looks pretty nice.
I know I’ve seen other Flash sites that don’t have scaleMode set to “showAll”, but fit the animation to full screen. If you make the window smaller, the image does not scale, and scroll bars appear where the animation is extended beyond your browser window. However, whether you open it on a 1280 x 768 screen or an 800 x 600 screen, the movie appears full-screen and intact. The Flash fits itself to the screen resolution and sets itself there.
What’s the best way to deal with varying screen resolutions? Also, when creating the Flash, what Stage size should I work with, when I expect everyone from a casual user to a photo editor with a huge 30 inch Apple monitor to look at my site? 1024 x 768 is what I’m aiming for right now, but even my laptop has much more resolution than that, at 1440 x 900. Is there a way to do this all in code, where I store the stage size in variables, and use mathematical relationships to define the placements of movie clips, symbols, and the such or am I completely thinking about this the wrong way?
