Adobe Flash (formerly
Macromedia Flash) is a
multimedia platform originally acquired by
Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by
Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in
1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding
animation and
interactivity to web pages. Flash is commonly used to create animation,
advertisements, and various web page
Flash components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop
rich Internet applications.
Flash can manipulate
vector and
raster graphics, and supports bidirectional
streaming of audio and video. It contains a
scripting language called
ActionScript. Several software products, systems, and
devices are able to create or display Flash content, including
Adobe Flash Player, which is available free for most common
web browsers, some
mobile phones and for other
electronic devices (using
Flash Lite). The Adobe Flash Professional multimedia authoring program is used to create content for the
Adobe Engagement Platform, such as web applications, games and movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices.
Files in the
SWF format, traditionally called "
Shock
Wave
Flash" movies, "Flash movies" or "Flash games", usually have a .swf
file extension and may be an object of a web page, strictly "played" in a
standalone Flash Player, or incorporated into a Projector, a self-executing Flash movie (with the .exe extension in
Microsoft Windows or .hqx for
Macintosh).
Flash Video files have a .flv file extension and are either used from within .
swf files or played through a flv-aware player, such as
VLC, or
QuickTime and
Windows Media Player with external
codecs added.
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