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Web design Flash
Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a proprietary, robust graphics
animation/application development program used to create and deliver dynamic content,
media (such as sound and video), and interactive applications over the web via the
browser.
Flash is not a standard produced by a vendor-neutral standards organization
like most of the core protocols and formats on the Internet. Flash is much more
restrictive than the open HTML format, though, requiring a proprietary plugin to
be seen, and it does not integrate with most web browser UI features like the "Back"
button.
According to a study, 98% of US Web users have the Flash Player installed,[3]
with 45%-56% (depending on region) having the latest version.
Numbers vary depending
on the detection scheme and research demographics.
Many graphic artists use Flash
because it gives them exact control over every part of the design, and anything
can be animated and generally "jazzed up". Some application designers enjoy Flash
because it lets them create applications that do not have to be refreshed or go
to a new web page every time an action occurs.
Flash can use embedded fonts instead
of the standard fonts installed on most computers. There are many sites which forgo
HTML entirely for Flash. Other sites may use Flash content combined with HTML as
conservatively as gifs or jpegs would be used, but with smaller vector file sizes
and the option of faster loading animations.
Flash may also be used to protect content
from unauthorized duplication or searching. Alternatively, small, dynamic Flash
objects may be used to replace standard HTML elements (such as headers or menu links)
with advanced typography not possible via regular HTML/CSS (see Scalable Inman Flash
Replacement).
Flash detractors claim that Flash websites tend to be poorly designed,
and often use confusing and non-standard user-interfaces.
Up until recently, search
engines have been unable to index Flash objects, which has prevented sites from
having their contents easily found.
This is because many search engine crawlers
rely on text to index websites. It is possible to specify alternate content to be
displayed for browsers that do not support Flash.
Using alternate content also helps
search engines to understand the page, and can result in much better visibility
for the page.
However, the vast majority of Flash websites are not disability accessible
(for screen readers, for example) or Section 508 compliant. An additional issue
is that sites which commonly use alternate content for search engines to their human
visitors are usually judged to be spamming search engines and are automatically
banned.
The most recent incarnation of Flash's scripting language (called "ActionScript",
which is an ECMA language similar to JavaScript) incorporates long-awaited usability
features, such as respecting the browser's font size and allowing blind users to
use screen readers.
Actionscript 2.0 is an Object-Oriented language, allowing the
use of CSS, XML, and the design of class-based web applications.
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