Adobe® Flash® Professional can use artwork created in other applications. You can import vector graphics and bitmaps in a variety of file formats. If you have QuickTime® 4 or later installed on your system, you can import additional vector or bitmap file formats. You can import Adobe® FreeHand® files (version MX and earlier) and Adobe® Fireworks® PNG files directly into Flash Professional, preserving attributes from those formats.

Graphic files that you import into Flash Professional must be at least 2 pixels x 2 pixels in size.

To load JPEG files into a Flash Professional SWF file during runtime, use the loadMovie action or method. For detailed information, see loadMovie (MovieClip.loadMovie method) in ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference or Working with movie clips in the ActionScript 3.0 Developer’s Guide.

Flash Professional imports vector graphics, bitmaps, and sequences of images as follows:

• When you import Adobe® Illustrator® and Adobe® Photoshop® files into Flash Professional, you can specify import options that let you preserve most of your artwork's visual data, and the ability to maintain the editability of certain visual attributes with the Flash Professional authoring environment.

• When you import vector images into Flash Professional from FreeHand, select options for preserving FreeHand layers, pages, and text blocks.

• When you import PNG images from Fireworks, import files as editable objects to modify in Flash Professional, or as flattened files to edit and update in Fireworks.

• Select options for preserving images, text, and guides.

  Note: If you import a PNG file from Fireworks by cutting and pasting, the file is converted to a bitmap.

• Vector images from SWF and Windows® Metafile Format (WMF) files that you import directly into a Flash Professional document (instead of into a library) are imported as a group in the current layer.

• Bitmaps (scanned photographs, BMP files) that you import directly into a Flash Professional document are imported as single objects in the current layer. Flash Professional preserves the transparency settings of imported bitmaps. Because importing a bitmap can increase the file size of a SWF file, consider compressing imported bitmaps.

  Note: Bitmap transparency might not be preserved when bitmaps are imported by dragging and dropping from an application or desktop to Flash Professional. To preserve transparency, use the File > Import To Stage or Import To Library command for importing.

• Any sequence of images (for example, a PICT or BMP sequence) that you import directly into a Flash Professional document is imported as successive keyframes of the current layer.

Graphics formats

Flash Professional can import different vector or bitmap file formats depending on whether QuickTime 4 or later is installed on your system. Using Flash Professional with QuickTime 4 installed is especially useful for collaborative projects in which authors work on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. QuickTime 4 extends support for certain file formats (including PICT, QuickTime Movie, and others) to both platforms.

You can import the following vector or bitmap file formats into Flash Professional 8 or later, regardless of whether QuickTime 4 is installed:

You can import the following bitmap file formats into Flash Professional only if QuickTime 4 or later is installed:

Sound formats

Flash can import the following audio formats:

Flash can import the following audio formats only if QuickTime 4 or later is installed:

Video formats

Flash can import the following video formats:

The FXG format allows Flash to exchange graphics with other Adobe applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Fireworks, and Photoshop with all of the complex graphic information preserved. Flash allows you to import FXG files (2.0 version only) as well as save selections of objects on the Stage or the entire Stage in FXG format. For more information about FXG files, see About FXG files.

• To import an FXG file, choose File > Import > Import to Stage or Import to Library and select the FXG file you want to open.

Flash Professional supports the AutoCAD® DXF format in AutoCAD 10.

DXF files do not support the standard system fonts. Flash Professional tries to map fonts appropriately, but the results can be unpredictable, particularly for text alignment.

Because the DXF format does not support solid fills, filled areas are exported as outlines only. For this reason, the DXF format is most appropriate for line drawings, such as floor plans and maps.

You can import two-dimensional DXF files into Flash Professional. Flash Professional does not support three-dimensional DXF files.

Although Flash Professional doesn’t support scaling in a DXF file, all imported DXF files produce 12-inch x 12-inch files that you can scale using Modify > Transform > Scale. Also, Flash Professional supports only ASCII DXF files. If your DXF files are binary, convert them to ASCII before importing them into Flash Professional.

With ActionScript, you can load external image files or assets from the Library at runtime.

For information about working with images and assets in ActionScript, see the following article:

• Loading images and Library assets in Flash with ActionScript 3 (Adobe.com)