The GIF Tab

GIF files are great for low- to medium-quality images because of their small file size. This makes GIFs excellent for web usage when the intended audience has a slow connection.

There are several rules and labels used in conjunction with publishing GIF files:

• When publishing a GIF in Flash, unless otherwise labeled, the first frame will be published for static GIFs.

• To set the frame you want to publish as a GIF, give it a frame label of #Static.

• By default, if you are publishing an animated GIF, all frames will be published.

• To publish a range of frames in an animated GIF, give the first frame you want to publish the frame label of #First and the last frame you want to publish #Last.

• To export an image map, give the frame you want to publish the frame label of #Map.

Those are the different ways in which you can publish a GIF. Now let's take a look at its settings under the GIF tab (see Figure 7.9):

• Dimensions This option enables you to set the size of your GIF. The default value is Match Movie, which will keep the size of your stage, or you can uncheck that box and set your own dimensions in pixels.

• Playback These options signify which kind of GIF you are creating. The default Static will create a single frame image. If you choose to create an animated GIF, the following options become available:

  • Loop Continuously This choice makes it so that the animated GIF continues to animate.

  • Repeat __ Times This choice enables you to set the number of loops for the animated GIF to iterate through.

• Optimize Colors This option gets rid of any unused colors from the color table. This means it will include only the colors the image is actually using.

• Dither Solids This option applies dithering to both solids and gradients, which is how GIFs handle colors not found in their color palette.

• Interlace This option makes it so the GIF will load incrementally, similar to how JPEGs can be progressive. Do not use this when publishing an animated GIF.

• Remove gradients This option turns all gradient fills to a solid color (the first color in the gradient), which decreases the file size.

• Smooth This option applies antialiasing to both text and bitmap images in the published GIF.

• Transparent This option controls the transparency of your GIF image with the following choices:

  • Opaque This choice keeps the image's background.

  • Transparent This choice completely removes the background of your GIF image.

  • Alpha This choice enables you to set the transparency of the background from 0255, with 0 being completely transparent.

• Dither This option controls how colors that are not present in your palette will appear. This option usually increases both the quality of the GIF image and the file size. It has the following choices:

  • None This choice estimates the color in question to the closest color in the palette.

  • Ordered This choice balances file size and color quality while choosing colors.

  • Diffusion This choice gives you the best quality for your GIF image.

• Palette Type This option controls which palette of colors to use to create your GIF image, and it has the following choices:

  • Web 216 This default choice uses the 216 colors, which is accepted in most web browsers.

  • Adaptive This choice analyzes the colors of your image and creates a palette for the best possible quality.

  • Web Snap Adaptive This choice combines both Web 216 and Adaptive by choosing to use the Web 216 whenever possible.

  • Custom This choice enables you to map to a color palette of your choice. This option will usually take more patience but can have surprisingly better results in both quality and file size.

• Max Colors This option enables you to set a maximum number of colors to use in your palette for both Adaptive and Web Snap Adaptive Palette Types.

• Palette This option is used with the Custom Palette Type for mapping to the palette you want to use.

Figure 7.9. The GIF tab in publish settings.