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November 26, 2007
SWF in PDF
SWF in PDF: Ever wanted to embed a Flash video, animation, or application in a PDF document? The feature has been advertised in PDF for years, but realistically, go for Reader 8.1 or better, on Mac or Win only. Older Mac versions used QuickTime to render ancient SWF, which doesn't really work anymore. Reader 8.1 or better use the Adobe Flash Player wrapped in ActiveX format on Windows systems, and the Netscape Plugin format on Macintosh -- when people update their systems to H264 or whatever, then your PDF will take advantage of that update. Windows versions of Reader going back to 5.0 tapped into the ActiveX, but Mac versions of 8.1 and above use the system-level plugin, so when you add in the recent security evolution, it's best to go current. I don't know how well either supports inter-app communication... not sure of docs on how you can drive PDF from SWF or vice-versa. This SWF/PDF integration will be improving in future versions -- needs to go to Linii, to mobile, to full communication too -- but if you want to put video in documents today, then targeting Adobe Reader 8.1 or better on Mac or Win is the way to go.
Posted by JohnDowdell at November 26, 2007 12:04 PM
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Comments
Thanks for the heads up, JD. Any official links you can point to for this?
Posted by: David Bisset at November 26, 2007 06:13 PM
Howdy David, there isn't really a good record for this, which is why I wrote the above on the weak "becuz I said so" basis. ;-)
Some of the Reader Release Notes have had part of the story, but to my knowledge this has never been from the reader's point of view; never "what can I actually do with this new feature?" Part of the above info is based on internal email, without public source info. Earlier today I tried searching "site:adobe.com inurl:reader 'release notes'", but the closest match was a series of technotes about product changes, rather than about usage.
If you're seeking actual authoritative source info, then I'm still trying to persuade source info providers to go public themselves. If you're seeking to convince others, then this weblog entry is the best public resource I know of. What is it you need...?
tx, jd
Posted by: John Dowdell at November 26, 2007 08:47 PM
"Ever wanted to embed a Flash video, animation, or application in a PDF document?"
No. Never :)
The other way around would be a blast though!
Posted by: cosmin at November 27, 2007 12:53 AM
I've been looking at this recently - the big advantage that I can see is that it make it easy to e-mail Flash and have it immediately accessible.
Most systems are not equipped to directly view a .swf that arrives via e-mail . . . but can direcly open a .pdf. So for .swf files designed to be distributed via viral e-mail campaigns . . . the .swf can be embedded in a .pdf and that can be sent in its place.
Posted by: Alex McCabe at December 4, 2007 11:58 AM
By the way, in Dec07 Apple released a QuickTime update where SWF-in-QT is completely disabled, which may imply a change in behavior in any remaining old Reader installations:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307176
jd
Posted by: John Dowdell at December 14, 2007 08:48 AM
Update: Bill McCoy has info on using SWF within Adobe Digital Editions.
Posted by: John Dowdell at February 20, 2008 11:10 AM