Flash is dead, and HTML5 is the new Flash. — Unknown
How many of you agree with the above statement?
Adobe Flash is on the internet longer than HTML5 but its current status doesn’t look flashy at all. Not only big companies such as Apple, and YouTube decided to drop the support of Flash, but new developers are also shifting their focus on HTML5 for building web applications.
Different media outlets still vouch for Flash in developing their web application, but the real issue behind Flash finale is the security concerns surrounding its closed ecosystem.
Both Flash and HTML text can be read by screen readers. However, special care must be taken to ensure Flash movies are read correctly. For example, if a Flash movie is set to repeat indefinitely, this can cause a screen reader to repeat the content endlessly. Selecting the 'Make object accessible' check box in Adobe Flash Professional will. Adobe Flash Professional can handle HTML-formatted text and images within a Flash TextField, TextArea component, scrollbar component or scrollPane component. Aside from text and images, you can also use the Flash ActionScript 3, or AS3, programming language to display ISO-standard XML symbols, such as math symbols, in your Flash animation. Inserting Flash Into HTML. To insert flash into your HTML files you must use the HTML tag object, which is used to place multimedia items like music, movies, and now Flash files onto web pages. We will assume that the name of your flash file is 'example.swf' for this lesson, but you should rename it to the actual name of your flash file. The downvotes are pretty over the top on this cheesy question, although, I will say that the answers that use jQuery (considering the question isn't tagged with jQuery) are technically inaccurate - the code will not work if OP were to copy/paste it.
So, where did Flash faltered and who will rule the future? Let’s try to compare both the technologies and make sense of the current market has to offer.
A Brief Introduction: HTML5 Vs Flash
Flash came into existence because of the need of audio and video playback on the internet. Adobe Flash started the journey strong, and it quickly became the defacto for the web for playing media files. The need for audio/video plugins slowly faded with the rise of the Flash giant.
The real jump in the popularity of Flash came when YouTube started using it to render their videos. YouTube was big at that time, contributing immensely to its growth. Other big companies such as Apple followed suit and used Flash for their products.
HTML5 saw its growth over an extended period of time. It started with HTML 4.01 when W3C decided to work on the newer version of HTML, i.e., HTML5/ The new revision aimed to add new functionalities and an approach to work towards a better open framework. The first working draft of HTML5 released in 2012 with final release came in 2014. The release was powerful as it supported new elements that added better functionality and an open approach to web development.
The <canva> element, for example, brought the new changes to HTML5 and the ability to play audio and video directly using HTML5 is welcomed worldwide.
The death of Flash and the rise of HTML5
Flash is awesome. It can play the audio and video seamlessly on any device. All one need to do is install the flash player for their respective device.
But, the fall started with Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs openly declaring Flash as a failure for the future. He boldly defended the position of not using Flash in their products and also touted for HTML5 and its bright future.
With mobile devices not in reach for Flash, it is now time for it to target Desktop. The desktop market looked promising, but Flash also got hit by YouTube when it dropped the support of Flash. Now, YouTube uses the mighty HTML5 media rendering capabilities and its open environment to power the platform.
HTML5 works in a better way than Flash in all the aspects. Not only that, Flash vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits were so bad that it has to go. Exploits such as taking control of the computer were possible with Flash.
This lead many big platforms to start adopting HTML5 for playback functionality.
New updates are released for HTML5 support to ensure that Livecoding.tv users don’t have to use Flash. Now, you can watch Livecoding.tv video in HTML5 by following the simple guide.
The Factual Differences: HTML5 vs Flash
Now, let’s move on the real differences between the two technologies.
To start off, it is better to understand that they are inherently different technologies with common grounds when it comes to functionality. Both can be used for developing apps, games or any interactive media.
On the surface, HTML5 is aimed to build the web with native support for media streaming services. Whereas Adobe flash was the only technology that enabled the developers to stream media over the internet.
So, what are the other aspects in which HTML5 and Flash differs? Let’s check out, now!
OpenSource vs. Proprietary
HTML5 is open source, and anyone can improve it by contributing. The end result is a secure technology that enables business, home users, and anyone on the internet to use it without any fear. Adobe Flash, on the other hand, is a proprietary solution, controlled by Adobe. The status lead to poor security control and slow development. The web, on the other hand, has now grown to accept only open standards such as HTML5. Sadly, Adobe Flash is a proprietary solution.
Power consumption
In the last decade or so, we have seen immense growth of mobile devices with bigger screens. On the contrary, the batteries didn’t show similar kind of promise. And, hence, a requirement of well crafted technologies that draw less power rose.
HTML5 stood to the challenge.
HTML5 power consumption benefitted users immensely as it draws less power compared to Flash.
The same goes for other portable devices such as laptops or tablets.
Compatibility
Both HTML5 and Adobe Flash have compatibility issues. Adobe Flash comes in multiple versions which can lead to problems while playing newer or older content. HTML5, on the other hand, is plagued with a different problem — a non-compatible HTML5 browser. To render HTML5 content, one needs to use a supported browser.
The image below shows the current support of HTML5 on modern browsers. With time, more and more features will be supported by browsers, making HTML5 more portable and compatible with devices.
As you can see from the image above, HTML5 support differ for different browsers. Google Chrome is the best browser right now to enjoy HTML5 capabilities with a great score of 521 out of 555 points.(Using Chrome 51 and Windows 10)
Who wins?
There is no doubt that the future looks bright for HTML5. Flash’s closed environment and controlled execution of ideas is its downfall. For developers, it is now the right time to move to HTML5 as it provides an open standard to be followed.
Even though HTML5 looks promising, tons of development still takes place using Flash. And, it is hard for anyone to give up on those amazing Flash games available on the internet.
If you are still with Flash and see a bright future for Flash, then comment the reason behind it! We want to know people’s opinion on the topic of HTML5 vs. Flash.
In this really easy lesson, I will explain to you how to create ice text in Flash 8 Pro. This effect is possible to obtain thanks to the blending filters. You will learn the following techniques:
- How to draw a borderless rectangle,
- How to select all the right options for a text field so that it will look good and be ready to have blending effects applied to it,
- How to tweak the options of the Glow filter in Flash so that you can have the real ice-text effect in your SWF movies.
Flashing Text In Html
See the example of this effect below.
1 Open a new Flash document.
2 Select the Rectangle tool (R). Go to the lower part of the Tools panel, and select the following options (look at the numbers in the screenshot below):
- Click on the small pencil icon.
- Click the little rectangle with the red diagonal line. This will block the outline color — thanks to this, you can draw a rectangle with fill color only.
- Click on the color square near the paint bucket icon. Choose a dark blue color: in the palette that has opened, type #203E7A in the hex color code box.
- Make sure that Object drawing is turned off.
3Click and drag to draw a rectangle on the stage.
4 Choose the Selection tool (V). Click on the rectangle to select it.
5 Go to the left side of the Property inspector, below the scene. Change the dimensions of the rectangle manually: make it about 360 pixel wide and 60 pixels high.
6 Select the Text tool (T). Go over to the Property inspector again. Choose the parameters like this:
- Select Static Text as type of text field.
- Pick a font you like. Preferably, it should be a sans serif font, with clearly defined shapes. Avoid using fancy fonts for this kind of effect.
- Choose a big font size: I selected 26.
- Choose any color you like. This won't make any difference, since the blending filters will define the complete visual aspect of the text.
- Turn on the bold and italic options.
- In the rendering options menu, select Anti-alias for readability.
- The Selectable option should stay turned off. The ice text you are making is a piece of design, so why make it selectable? 🙂
7Click over the rectangle and type anything you like.
8 Press Esc on your keyboard to leave the text typing mode. A blue outline will appear around your newly created text field.
9 With the text field still selected, go to the Property inspector and click the Filters tab.
10 Click on the little blue plus icon to open the menu with the available blending filters.
11 Select the Glow filter. Do the following:
Html Text In Flash Reader
- The Blur X and Y options should be set to 4.
- Set the Strength to 330%.
- In the Quality menu, select Medium.
- Choose white as color.
- Both the Knockout and Inner glow options must be checked.
Html Text Flashing
There! You have a nice ice text made entirely in Flash. Now that was easy, wasn't it?
If you put this text on a white background, it won't be visible! Any other color works, but I found that dark blue tones work best. It isn't surprising, since they are associated with winter and cold.