Macromedia flash 8 [25 May 2017] serial key or number

Original author(s)	FutureWave Macromedia
Developer(s)	Adobe Systems
Initial release	January 1, 1996; 24 years ago (January 1, 1996)
Stable release(s)[±]
Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS 32.0.0.433[1] / September 8, 2020; 14 days ago (2020-09-08)[2] Internet Explorer 11 and Legacy Edge 32.0.0.387[1] / June 9, 2020; 3 months ago (2020-06-09)[2] Android 4.0.x 11.1.115.81 / September 10, 2013; 7 years ago (2013-09-10)[2] Android 2.x and 3.x 11.1.111.73 / September 10, 2013; 7 years ago (2013-09-10)[2] Solaris 11.2.202.223 / March 28, 2012; 8 years ago (2012-03-28)[2]
Preview release(s)[±]
Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS 32.0.0.380 Beta / May 14, 2020; 4 months ago (2020-05-14)[3]
Written in	C++
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS(current) Solaris, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Android, Pocket PC(discontinued)
Platform	Web browsers and ActiveX-based software
Available in	Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, and Turkish[4]
Type	Runtime system and browser extension
License	Freeware
Website	adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html

Adobe Flash Player (labeled Shockwave Flash in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome)^[5] is computer software for using content created on the Adobe Flash platform, including viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video. Flash Player can run from a web browser as a browser plug-in or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player was created by Macromedia and has been developed and distributed by Adobe Systems since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005. Flash Player is distributed as freeware.

Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Flash Builder or by third party tools such as FlashDevelop. Flash Player supports vector graphics, 3D graphics, embedded audio, video and raster graphics, and a scripting language called ActionScript. ActionScript is based on ECMAScript (similar to JavaScript) and supports object-oriented code. Flash Player is distributed free of charge and its plug-in versions are available for every major web browser and operating system. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, in Windows 8 and later, and Microsoft Edge come bundled with a sandboxed Adobe Flash plug-in.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Flash Player once had a large user base, and was a common format for web games, animations, and graphical user interface (GUI) elements embedded in web pages. Adobe stated in 2013 that more than 400 million out of over 1 billion connected desktops update to the new version of Flash Player within six weeks of release.^[11] However, Flash Player has become increasingly criticized for its performance, consumption of battery on mobile devices, the number of security vulnerabilities that had been discovered in the software, and its closed platform nature. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was highly critical of Flash Player, having published an open letter detailing Apple's reasoning for not supporting Flash on its iOS device family. Its usage has also waned because of modern web standards that allow some of Flash's use cases to be fulfilled without third-party plugins.^[12][13][14]

In July 2017, Adobe announced^[15] that it will end support for Flash Player on December 31, 2020, and continued to encourage the use of open HTML5 standards in place of Flash.^[16][17] The announcement was coordinated with Apple,^[18]Facebook,^[19]Google,^[20]Microsoft,^[21] and Mozilla.^[22] In September 2019, Microsoft announced that on December 31, 2020, Flash will be entirely removed from all browsers via Windows Update.^[23]

Features[edit]

Adobe Flash Player is a runtime that executes and displays content from a provided SWF file, although it has no in-built features to modify the SWF file at runtime. It can execute software written in the ActionScript programming language which enables the runtime manipulation of text, data, vector graphics, raster graphics, sound, and video. The player can also access certain connected hardware devices, including the web cameras and microphones, after permission for the same has been granted by the user.

Flash Player is used internally by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), to provide a cross-platform runtime environment for desktop applications and mobile applications. AIR supports installable applications on Windows, Linux, macOS, and some mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android. Flash applications must specifically be built for the AIR runtime to use additional features provided, such as file system integration, native client extensions, native window/screen integration, taskbar/dock integration, and hardware integration with connected Accelerometer and GPS devices.^[24]

Data formats[edit]

Flash Player includes native support for many data formats, some of which can only be accessed through the ActionScript scripting interface.

• XML: Flash Player has included native support for XML parsing and generation since version 8. XML data is held in memory as an XML Document Object Model, and can be manipulated using ActionScript. ActionScript 3 also supports ECMAScript for XML (E4X), which allows XML data to be manipulated more easily.
• JSON: Flash Player 11 includes native support for importing and exporting data in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, which allows interoperability with web services and JavaScript programs.
• AMF: Flash Player allows application data to be stored on users computers, in the form of Local Shared Objects, the Flash equivalent to browser cookies.^[25] Flash Player can also natively read and write files in the Action Message Format, the default data format for Local Shared Objects. Since the AMF format specification is published, data can be transferred to and from Flash applications using AMF datasets instead of JSON or XML, reducing the need for parsing and validating such data.
• SWF: The specification for the SWF file format was published by Adobe, enabling the development of the SWX Format project, which used the SWF file format and AMF as a means for Flash applications to exchange data with server side applications.^[26][27] The SWX system stores data as standard SWF bytecode which is automatically interpreted by Flash Player.^[28] Another open-source project, SWXml allows Flash applications to load XML files as native ActionScript objects without any client-side XML parsing, by converting XML files to SWF/AMF on the server.^[29][30]

Multimedia formats[edit]

Flash Player is primarily a graphics and multimedia platform, and has supported raster graphics and vector graphics since its earliest version. It supports the following different multimedia formats which it can natively decode and play back.

• MP3: Support for decoding and playback of streamingMPEG-2 Audio Layer III (MP3) audio was introduced in Flash Player 4. MP3 files can be accessed and played back from a server via HTTP, or embedded inside an SWF file, which is also a streaming format.
• FLV: Support for decoding and playing back video and audio inside Flash Video (FLV and F4V) files, a format developed by Adobe Systems and Macromedia. Flash Video is only a container format and supports multiple different video codecs, such as Sorenson Spark, VP6, and more recently H.264.^[31] Flash Player uses hardware acceleration to display video where present, using technologies such as DirectX Video Acceleration and OpenGL to do so. Flash Video is used by YouTube,^[32]Hulu,^[33]Yahoo! Video, BBC Online,^[34] and other news providers. FLV files can be played back from a server using HTTPprogressive download, and can also be embedded inside an SWF file. Flash Video can also be streamed via RTMP using the Adobe Flash Media Server or other such server-side software.
• PNG: Support for decoding and rendering Portable Network Graphics (PNG) images, in both its 24-bit (opaque) and 32-bit (semi-transparent) variants. Flash Player 11 can also encode a PNG bitmap via ActionScript.
• JPEG: Support for decoding and rendering compressed JPEG images. Flash Player 10 added support for the JPEG-XR advanced image compression standard developed by Microsoft Corporation, which results in better compression and quality than JPEG. JPEG-XR enables lossy and lossless compression with or without alpha channel transparency. Flash Player 11 can also encode a JPEG or JPEG-XR bitmap via ActionScript.
• GIF: Support for decoding and rendering compressed Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images, in its single-frame variants only. Loading a multi-frame GIF will display only the first image frame.

Streaming protocols[edit]

• HTTP: Support for communicating with web servers using HTTP requests and POST data.^[35] However, only websites that explicitly allow Flash to connect to them can be accessed via HTTP or sockets, to prevent Flash being used as a tool for cross-site request forgery,^[36]cross-site scripting, DNS rebinding,^[37] and denial-of-service attacks. Websites must host a certain XML file termed a cross domain policy,^[37] allowing or denying Flash content from specific websites to connect to them. Certain websites, such as Digg, Flickr, and Photobucket already host a cross domain policy that permits Flash content to access their website via HTTP.^[38]
• RTMP: Support for live audio and video streaming using the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) developed by Macromedia. RTMP supports a non-encrypted version over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or an encrypted version over a secure Transport Layer Security (SSL) connection. RTMPT can also be encapsulated within HTTP requests to traverse firewalls that only allow HTTP traffic.
• TCP: Support for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Internet socket communication to communicate with any type of server, using stream sockets. Sockets can be used only via ActionScript, and can transfer plain text, XML, or binary data (ActionScript 3.0 and later).^[39][40] To prevent security issues, web servers that permit Flash content to communicate with them using sockets must host an XML-based cross domain policy file, served on Port 843.^[41] Sockets enable AS3 programs to interface with any kind of server software, such as MySQL.^[42]

Performance[edit]

Hardware acceleration[edit]

Until version 10 of the Flash player, there was no support for GPU acceleration. Version 10 added a limited form of support for shaders on materials in the form of the Pixel Bender API, but still did not have GPU-accelerated 3D vertex processing.^[43] A significant change came in version 11, which added a new low-level API called Stage3D (initially codenamed Molehill), which provides full GPU acceleration, similar to WebGL.^[44][45] (The partial support for GPU acceleration in Pixel Bender was completely removed in Flash 11.8, resulting in the disruption of some projects like MIT's Scratch, which lacked the manpower to recode their applications quickly enough.^[46][47])

Current versions of Flash Player are optimized to use hardware acceleration for video playback and 3D graphics rendering on many devices, including desktop computers. Performance is similar to HTML5 video playback.^[48][49] Also, Flash Player has been used on multiple mobile devices as a primary user interface renderer.^[50]

Compilation[edit]

Although code written in ActionScript 3 executes up to 10 times faster than the prior ActionScript 2,^[51] the Adobe ActionScript 3 compiler is a non-optimizing compiler, and produces inefficient bytecode in the resulting SWF, when compared to toolkits such as CrossBridge.^{[52][53][54][55][56]}

CrossBridge, a toolkit that targets C++ code to run within the Flash Player, uses the LLVM compiler to produce bytecode that runs up to 10 times faster than code the ActionScript 3 compiler produces, only because the LLVM compiler uses more aggressive optimization.^[54][55][56]

Adobe has released ActionScript Compiler 2 (ASC2) in Flex 4.7 and onwards, which improves compilation times and optimizes the generated bytecode and supports method inlining, improving its performance at runtime.^[57]

As of 2012, the Haxe multiplatform language can build programs for Flash Player that perform faster than the same application built with the Adobe Flex SDK compiler.^{[58][unreliable source?]}

Development methods[edit]

Flash Player applications and games can be built in two significantly different methods:

• "Flex" applications: The Adobe Flex Framework is an integrated collection of stylable Graphical User Interface, data manipulation and networking components, and applications built upon it are termed "Flex" applications. Startup time is reduced since the Flex framework must be downloaded before the application begins, and weighs in at approximately 500KB. Editors include Adobe Flash Builder and FlashDevelop.
• "Pure ActionScript" applications: Applications built without the Flex framework allow greater flexibility and performance.^[59][60][61] Video games built for Flash Player are typically pure-Actionscript projects. Various open-source component frameworks are available for pure ActionScript projects, such as MadComponents, that provide UI Components at significantly smaller SWF file sizes.^[62][63]

In both methods, developers can access the full Flash Player set of functions, including text, vector graphics, bitmap graphics, video, audio, camera, microphone, and others. AIR also includes added features such as file system integration, native extensions, native desktop integration, and hardware integration with connected devices.

Development tools[edit]

Adobe provides five ways of developing applications for Flash Player:

Third-party development environments are also available:

Game development[edit]

Adobe offers the free Adobe Gaming SDK, consisting (as of August 2014^[update]) of several open-source AS3 libraries built on the Flash Player Stage3D APIs for GPU-accelerated graphics:^[66]

• Away3D: GPU-accelerated 3D graphics and animation engine
• Starling: GPU-accelerated 2D graphics that mimics the Flash display list API
• Feathers: GPU-accelerated skinnableGUI library built on top of Starling
• Dragon Bones: GPU-accelerated 2D skeletal animation library

A few commercial game engines target Flash Player (Stage3D) as run-time environment, such as Unity 3D^[67] and Unreal Engine 3.^[67][68] Before the introduction of Stage3D, a number of older 2D engines or isometric engines like Flixel saw their heyday.^[69]

Adobe also developed the CrossBridge toolkit which cross-compilesC/C++ code to run within the Flash Player, using LLVM and GCC as compiler backends, and high-performance memory-accessopcodes in the Flash Player (termed "Domain Memory") to work with in-memory data quickly.^[70] CrossBridge is targeted toward the game development industry,^[71] and includes tools for building, testing, and debugging C/C++ projects in Flash Player.

Notable online video games developed in Flash include Angry Birds, FarmVille, and AdventureQuest (started in 2002, and still active as of 2011).^[72]

Availability[edit]

Desktop platforms[edit]

The latest version of Flash Player is available for Windows XP SP2+ and later, Mac OS X 10.6 and later and Linux.

Adobe Flash Player is available in four flavors:

1. The "Internet Explorer – ActiveX" version is an ActiveX control for use in Internet Explorer, its shells, and other Windows applications that support ActiveX technology. This plugin cannot be installed on Windows 8 and later, because these OSes come with their own integrated Flash Player ActiveX.
2. The "Firefox – NPAPI" version is available for Firefox as well as other applications that support NPAPI technology.
3. The "Opera and Chromium – PPAPI" version is available for Chromium and browsers based on Chromium (such as Opera) as well as other applications that support PPAPI technology. This plugin cannot be installed on Google Chrome as it comes with its own built-in Flash component.
4. The "projector" version is a standalone player that can open SWF files directly.^[73]

On February 22, 2012, Adobe announced that it would no longer release new versions of NPAPI Flash plugins for Linux, although Flash Player 11.2 would continue to receive security updates.^[74][75][76] In August 2016 Adobe announced that, beginning with version 24, it will resume offering of Flash Player for Linux for other browsers.^[77]

The Extended Support Release (ESR) of Flash Player on macOS and Windows was a version of Flash Player kept up to date with security updates, but none of the new features or bug fixes available in later versions. It has been on version 11.7 as of July 9, 2013,^[78] version 13 as of May 13, 2014,^[79] and version 18 as of August 11, 2015.^[80] Adobe has decided to discontinue the ESR branch and instead focus solely on the standard release as of August 2016.^[81]

Mobile platforms[edit]

In 2011, Flash Player had emerged as the de facto standard for online video publishing on the desktop, with adaptive bitrate video streaming, DRM, and fullscreen support.^[32][33] On mobile devices however, after Apple refused to allow the Flash Player within the inbuilt iOS web browser, Adobe changed strategy, enabling Flash content to be delivered as native mobile applications using the Adobe Integrated Runtime.

Up until 2012, Flash Player 11 was available for the Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above),^[85][86] although in June 2012, Google announced that Android 4.1 (codenamed Jelly Bean) would not support Flash by default. Starting in August 2012, Adobe no longer updates Flash for Android.^[87] In spite of this, Adobe Flash is still available to install on Android devices via Adobe's update archives (up to Android 4.3).

Flash Player is certified to be supported on a select range of mobile and tablet devices, from Acer, BlackBerry 10, Dell, HTC, Lenovo, Logitech, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, SoftBank, Sony (and Sony Ericsson), and Toshiba.^[88][89][90] As of 2012, Adobe has stopped browser-based Flash Player development for mobile browsers in favor of HTML5,^[91][92] however Adobe continues to support Flash content on mobile devices with the Adobe Integrated Runtime, which allows developers to publish content that runs as native applications on certain supported mobile phone platforms.

Version 9 was the most recent version available for the Linux/ARM-based Nokia 770/N800/N810 Internet tablets running Maemo OS2008, classic Mac OS and Windows 95/NT.^[93] Version 10 can be run under Windows 98/Me using KernelEx. HP offered Version 6 of the player for HP-UX.^[94] Other versions of the player have been available at some point for OS/2, Symbian OS, Palm OS, BeOS, and IRIX.^[95] The Kodak Easyshare One includes Flash Player.^[96]

Adobe said it will optimize Flash for use on ARM architecture (ARMv7 and ARMv6 architectures used in the Cortex-A series of processors and in the ARM11 family) and release it in the second half of 2009. The company also stated it wants to enable Flash on NVIDIA Tegra, Texas Instruments OMAP 3, and Samsung ARMs.^[97][98] Beginning 2009, it was announced that Adobe would be bringing Flash to TV sets via Intel Media Processor CE 3100 before mid-2009.^[99]ARM Holdings later said it welcomes the move of Flash, because "it will transform mobile applications and it removes the claim that the desktop controls the Internet."^[100] However, as of May 2009, the expected ARM/Linux netbook devices had poor support for Web video and fragmented software base.^[101]

Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended the Flash Player with touch-screen support.^[102] Sony has integrated Flash Player 6 into the PlayStation Portable's web browser via firmware version 2.70 and Flash Player 9 into the PlayStation 3's web browser in firmware version 2.50.^[103]Nintendo has integrated Flash Lite 3.1, equivalent to Flash 8, in the Internet Channel on the Wii.

The following table documents historical support for Flash Player and AIR on mobile operating systems:

Other hardware[edit]

Some CPU emulators have been created for Flash Player, including Chip8,^[115]Commodore 64,^[116]ZX Spectrum,^[117] and the Nintendo Entertainment System.^[118] They enable video games created for such platforms to run within Flash Player.

Open source[edit]

Adobe has taken steps to reduce or eliminate Flash licensing costs. For instance, the SWF file format documentation is provided free of charge^[119] after they relaxed the requirement of accepting a non-disclosure agreement to view it in 2008.^[120] Adobe also created the Open Screen Project which removes licensing fees and opens data protocols for Flash.

Adobe has also open-sourced many components relating to Flash.

Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code of the Flash Player available for free software development and even though free and open source alternatives such as Shumway and Gnash have been built, they are no longer under active development.^[129] The only fully functional third-party Flash Player is the commercially available Scaleform GFx Player, which is game development middleware designed for integration into non-Flash video games.^{[citation needed]}

Criticism[edit]

Usability[edit]

In some browsers, prior Flash versions have had to be uninstalled before an updated version could be installed.^[130][131] However, as of version 11.2 for Windows, there are now automatic updater options.^[132] Linux is partially supported, as Adobe is cooperating with Google to implement it via Chrome web browser on all Linux platforms.^[133]

Mixing Flash applications with HTML leads to inconsistent behavior with respect to input handling (keyboard and mouse not working as they would in an HTML-only document). This is often done in web sites^[134] and can lead to poor user experience with the site.

The February 20, 2014 update to 12.0.0.70 introduced a reported bug, producing green video with sound only. This defect is related to hardware acceleration and may be overcome by disabling hardware acceleration via the Adobe settings in Firefox (accessed by right clicking within the video) or in Internet Explorer (within the Tools settings).^[135] This defect may be related to widely used graphics hardware, AMD Radeon HD video cards, and similar visual defects have occurred in earlier Flash updates, with the same workaround.

Privacy[edit]

Flash Player supports persistent local storage of data (also referred to as Local Shared Objects), which can be used similarly to HTTP cookies or Web Storage in web applications. Local storage in Flash Player allows websites to store non-executable data on a user's computer, such as authentication information, game high scores or saved games, server-based session identifiers, site preferences, saved work, or temporary files. Flash Player will only allow content originating from exactly the same website domain to access data saved in local storage.^[136]

Because local storage can be used to save information on a computer that is later retrieved by the same site, a site can use it to gather user statistics, similar to how HTTP cookies and Web Storage can be used. With such technologies, the possibility of building a profile based on user statistics is considered by some a potential privacy concern. Users can disable or restrict use of local storage in Flash Player through a "Settings Manager" page.^[137][138] These settings can be accessed from the Adobe website or by right-clicking on Flash-based content and selecting "Global Settings".

Local storage can be disabled entirely or on a site-by-site basis. Disabling local storage will block any content from saving local user information using Flash Player, but this may disable or reduce the functionality of some websites, such as saved preferences or high scores and saved progress in games.

Flash Player 10.1 and upward honor the privacy mode settings in the latest versions of the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari web browsers, such that no local storage data is saved when the browser's privacy mode is in use.^[139]

Security[edit]

Adobe security bulletins and advisories announce security updates, but Adobe Flash Player release notes do not disclose the security issues addressed when a release closes security holes, making it difficult to evaluate the urgency of a particular update. A version test page allows the user to check if the latest version is installed, and uninstallers may be used to ensure that old-version plugins have been uninstalled from all installed browsers.

In February 2010, Adobe officially apologized^[140] for not fixing a known vulnerability for over a year. In June 2010 Adobe announced a "critical vulnerability" in recent versions, saying there are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat.^[141][142] Later, in October 2010, Adobe announced^[143] another critical vulnerability, this time also affecting Android-based mobile devices. Android users have been recommended to disable Flash or make it only on demand.^[144] Subsequent security vulnerabilities also exposed Android users, such as the two critical vulnerabilities published in February 2013^[145] or the four critical vulnerabilities published in March 2013,^[146] all of which could lead to arbitrary code execution.

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report^[147] states that a remote code execution in Adobe Reader and Flash Player^[148] was the second most attacked vulnerability in 2009. The same report also recommended using browser extensions to disable Flash Player usage on untrusted websites. McAfee predicted that Adobe software, especially Reader and Flash, would be primary target for attacks in 2010.^[149] Adobe applications had become, at least at some point, the most popular client-software targets for attackers during the last quarter of 2009.^[150] The Kaspersky Security Network published statistics for the third quarter of 2012 showing that 47.5% of its users were affected by one or more critical vulnerabilities.^[151] The report also highlighted that "Flash Player vulnerabilities enable cybercriminals to bypass security systems integrated into the application."^[151]

Steve Jobs criticized the security of Flash Player, noting that "Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009".^[152] Adobe responded by pointing out that "the Symantec Global Internet Threat Report for 2009, found that Flash Player had the second lowest number of vulnerabilities of all Internet technologies listed (which included both web plug-ins and browsers)."^[153][154]

On April 7, 2016, Adobe released a Flash Player patch for a zero-day memory corruption vulnerability CVE-2016-1019 that could be used to deliver malware via the Magnitude exploit kit. The vulnerability could be exploited for remote code execution.^[155][156]

Vendor lock-in[edit]

Flash Player 11.2 does not play certain kinds of content unless it has been digitally signed by Adobe, following a license obtained by the publisher directly from Adobe.^[157]

This move by Adobe, together with the abandonment of Flex to Apache was criticized as a way to lock out independent tool developers, in favor of Adobe's commercial tools.^{[158][159][160]}

This has been resolved as of January 2013, after Adobe no longer requires a license or royalty from the developer. All premium features are now classified as general availability, and can be freely used by Flash applications.^[161]

Apple controversy[edit]

In April 2010, Steve Jobs, at the time CEO of Apple Inc. published an open letter explaining why Apple would not support Flash on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.^[152] In the letter he blamed problems with the "openness", stability, security, performance, and touchscreen integration of the Flash Player as reasons for refusing to support it. He also claimed that when one of Apple's Macintosh computers crashes, "more often than not" the cause can be attributed to Flash, and described Flash as "buggy".^[162] Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen responded by saying, "If Flash [is] the number one reason that Macs crash, which I'm not aware of, it has as much to do with the Apple operating system."^[163]

Steve Jobs also claimed that a large percentage of the video on the Internet is supported on iOS, since many popular video sharing websites such as YouTube have published video content in an HTML5 compatible format, enabling videos to playback in mobile web browsers even without Flash Player.^[164]

China-specific version[edit]

Starting with version 30, Adobe stopped distributing Flash Player directly to Chinese users. Instead, they selected 2144.cn as a partner and released a special version of Flash Player on a specific website,^[165] which contains a non-closable process that collects privacy information and pops up advertisement window contents.^{[166][167][168]} The partnership started in about 2017, but in version 30, Adobe disabled the usage of vanilla (global) version of Flash Player in China,^[169] forcing users to use that specific version, which may pose a risk to its users due to China's Internet censorship.^[170] This affects Google Chrome users using Windows 10, Internet Explorer users using Windows 7, and Firefox users using all versions of Windows, as Microsoft still directly distributes Flash Player for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge through Windows Update in Windows 8 and upward.

Release history[edit]

Adobe Flash Player version history

* Macromedia Flash Player 2 (June 17, 1997)

• • Mostly vectors and motion, some bitmaps, limited audio
  • Support of stereo sound, enhanced bitmap integration, buttons, the Library, and the ability to tween color changes
• Macromedia Flash Player 3 (May 31, 1998)
  • Added alpha transparency, licensed MP3 compression
  • Brought improvements to animation, playback, and publishing, as well as the introduction of simple script commands for interactivity
• Macromedia Flash Player 4 (June 15, 1999)
  • Saw the introduction of streaming MP3s and the Motion Tween. Initially, the Flash Player plug-in was not bundled with popular web browsers and users had to visit Macromedia website to download it; As of 2000, however, the Flash Player was already being distributed with all AOL, Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. Two years later it shipped with all releases of Windows XP. The install-base of the Flash Player reached 92 percent of all Internet users.
• Macromedia Flash Player 5 (August 24, 2000)
  • A major advance in ability, with the evolution of Flash's scripting abilities as released as ActionScript
  • Saw the ability to customize the authoring environment's interface
  • Macromedia Generator was the first initiative from Macromedia to separate design from content in Flash files. Generator 2.0 was released in April 2001, and featured real-time server-side generation of Flash content in its Enterprise Edition. Generator was discontinued in 2002, in favor of new technologies such as Flash Remoting, which allows for seamless transmission of data between the server and the client, and ColdFusion Server.
  • In October 2000, usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote a polemic article regarding usability of Flash content entitled "Flash: 99% Bad". (Macromedia later hired Nielsen to help them improve Flash usability.)

The old Macromedia Flash Player logo

• Macromedia Flash Player 6 (version 6.0.21.0, codenamed Exorcist) (March 15, 2002)
  • Support for the consuming Flash Remoting (AMF) and Web Service (SOAP)
  • Supports ondemand/live audio and video streaming (RTMP)
  • Support for screenreaders via Microsoft Active Accessibility
  • Added Sorenson Spark video codec for Flash Video^[171]
  • Support for video, application components, shared libraries, and accessibility
  • Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX, also released in 2002, allowed video to be streamed to Flash Player 6 (otherwise the video could be embedded into the Flash movie).
• Macromedia Flash Player 7 (version 7.0.14.0, codenamed Mojo) (September 10, 2003)
  • Supports progressive audio and video streaming (HTTP)

Developer(s)
Target platform(s)	Web browsers, iOS (via third-party software), Android, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux
Editor software
Player software
Format(s)
Programming language(s)	ActionScript
Application(s)
Status	Active; EOL at the end of 2020
License	Proprietary

Adobe Flash is a deprecated^[1]multimediasoftware platform used for production of animations, Rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Flash displays text, vector graphics and raster graphics to provide animations, video games and applications. It allows streaming of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera input. Related development platform Adobe AIR continues to be supported.

Artists may produce Flash graphics and animations using Adobe Animate (formerly known as Adobe Flash Professional). Software developers may produce applications and video games using Adobe Flash Builder, FlashDevelop, Flash Catalyst, or any text editor when used with the Apache Flex SDK.

End-users can view Flash content via Flash Player (for web browsers), Adobe AIR (for desktop or mobile apps), or third-party players such as Scaleform (for video games). Adobe Flash Player (supported on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux) enables end-users to view Flash content using web browsers. Adobe Flash Lite enabled viewing Flash content on older smartphones, but has been discontinued and superseded by Adobe AIR.

The ActionScript programming language allows the development of interactive animations, video games, web applications, desktop applications, and mobile applications. Programmers can implement Flash software using an IDE such as Adobe Animate, Adobe Flash Builder, Adobe Director, FlashDevelop, and Powerflasher FDT. Adobe AIR enables full-featured desktop and mobile applications to be developed with Flash and published for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.

Although Flash was previously a dominant platform for online multimedia content, it is slowly being abandoned as Adobe favors a transition to HTML5, Unity, or other platforms. Flash Player has been deprecated and has an official end-of-life on December 31, 2020.^[1] However, Adobe will continue to develop Adobe Animate, which will focus on supporting web standards such as HTML5 instead of the obsolete Flash format.^[2]

Applications[edit]

Websites[edit]

In the early 2000s, Flash was widely installed on desktop computers, and was commonly used to display interactive web pages and online games, and to play video and audio content.^[3] In 2005, YouTube was founded by former PayPal employees, and it used Flash Player as a means to display compressed video content on the web.^[3]

Between 2000 and 2010, numerous businesses used Flash-based websites to launch new products, or to create interactive company portals.^[4] Notable users include Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, General Electric, World Wildlife Fund, HBO, Cartoon Network, Disney, and Motorola.^[4][5] After Adobe introduced hardware-accelerated 3D for Flash (Stage3D), Flash websites saw a growth of 3D content for product demonstrations and virtual tours.^[6][7]

In 2007, YouTube offered videos in HTML5 format to support the iPhone and iPad, which did not support Flash Player.^[3] After a controversy with Apple, Adobe stopped developing Flash Player for Mobile, focusing its efforts on Adobe AIR applications and HTML5 animation.^[3] In 2015, Google introduced Google Swiffy to convert Flash animation to HTML5, a tool Google would use to automatically convert Flash web ads for mobile devices.^[8] In 2016, Google discontinued Swiffy and its support.^[9] In 2015, YouTube switched to HTML5 technology on all devices; however, it would preserve the Flash-based video player for older web browsers.^[10][11][12]

RIAs[edit]

After Flash 5 introduced ActionScript in 2000, developers combined the visual and programming capabilities of Flash to produce interactive experiences and applications for the Web.^[13] Such Web-based applications eventually came to be known as "Rich Internet Applications" (RIAs).^[13]

In 2004, Macromedia Flex was released, and specifically targeted the application development market.^[13] Flex introduced new user interface components, advanced data visualization components, data remoting, and a modern IDE (Flash Builder).^[13][14] Flex competed with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and Microsoft Silverlight during its tenure.^[13] Flex was upgraded to support integration with remote data sources, using AMF, BlazeDS, Adobe LiveCycle, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, and others.^[15] As of 2015, Flex applications can be published for desktop platforms using Adobe AIR.^[13]

Between 2006 and 2016, the Speedtest.net web service conducted over 9.0 billion speed tests using an RIA built with Adobe Flash.^[16][17] In 2016, the service shifted to HTML5 due to the decreasing availability of Adobe Flash Player on PCs.^[18]

As of 2016, Web applications and RIAs can be developed with Flash using the ActionScript 3.0 programming language and related tools such as Adobe Flash Builder. Third-party IDEs such as FlashDevelop and Powerflasher FDT also enable developers to create Flash games and applications and are generally similar to Microsoft Visual Studio. Flex applications are typically built using Flex frameworks such as PureMVC.^[15]

Video games[edit]

Screenshots and footage of Flash games QWOP, Solipskier, and Hundreds

Flash video games are popular on the Internet, with portals like Newgrounds, Miniclip, and Armor Games dedicated to hosting of Flash-based games. Popular games developed with Flash include Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, FarmVille, AdventureQuest, Machinarium, Hundreds, N, QWOP, and Solipskier.

Adobe introduced various technologies to help build video games, including Adobe AIR (to release games for desktop or mobile platforms), Adobe Scout (to improve performance), CrossBridge (to convert C++-based games to run in Flash), and Stage3D (to support GPU-accelerated video games). 3D frameworks like Away3D and Flare3D simplified creation of 3D content for Flash.

Adobe AIR allows the creation of Flash-based mobile games, which may be published to the Google Play and Apple app stores.

Flash is also used to build interfaces and HUDs for 3D video games using Scaleform GFx, a technology that renders Flash content within non-Flash video games. Scaleform is supported by more than 10 major video game engines including Unreal Engine and UDK, CryEngine, and PhyreEngine, and has been used to provide 3D interfaces for more than 150 major video game titles since its launch in 2003.

Film and animation[edit]

Adobe Animate is one of the common animation programs for low-cost 2D television and commercial animation, in competition with Anime Studio and Toon Boom Animation.

Notable users of Flash include DHX Media Vancouver for productions including Pound Puppies and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Fresh TV for Total Drama, Nelvana for 6teen and Clone High, Williams Street for Metalocalypse and Squidbillies, Nickelodeon Animation Studio for Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, among others.

Flash is less commonly used for feature-length animated films; however, 2009's The Secret of Kells, an Irish film, is animated primarily in Adobe Flash, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards.

Several popular online series are currently produced in Flash, such as the Emmy Award-winning Off-Mikes, produced by ESPN and Animax Entertainment; Happy Tree Friends; Gotham Girls, produced by Warner Bros.; Crime Time, produced by Future Thought Productions; and Homestar Runner produced by Mike and Matt Chapman.

Various third-party software packages designed for traditionally trained cartoonists and animators can publish animations in the SWF format.

History[edit]

FutureWave[edit]

The precursor to Flash was a product named SmartSketch, published by FutureWave Software in 1993. The company was founded by Charlie Jackson, Jonathan Gay, and Michelle Welsh.^{[19][20][21][22]} SmartSketch was a vector drawing application for pen computers running the PenPoint OS.^[23][24] When PenPoint failed in the marketplace, SmartSketch was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.^[20][25]

As the Internet became more popular, FutureWave realized the potential for a vector-based web animation tool that might challenge MacromediaShockwave technology.^[19][20] In 1995, FutureWave modified SmartSketch by adding frame-by-frame animation features and released this new product as FutureSplash Animator on Macintosh and PC.^{[19][20][26][27]}

FutureWave approached Adobe Systems with an offer to sell them FutureSplash in 1995, but Adobe turned down the offer at that time.^[20] Microsoft wanted to create an "online TV network" (MSN 2.0) and adopted FutureSplash animated content as a central part of it.^[20]Disney Online used FutureSplash animations for their subscription-based service Disney's Daily Blast.^[19][20]Fox Broadcasting Company launched The Simpsons using FutureSplash.^[20]

Macromedia[edit]

In November 1996, FutureSplash was acquired by Macromedia, and Macromedia re-branded and released FutureSplash Animator as Macromedia Flash 1.0. Flash was a two-part system, a graphics and animation editor known as Macromedia Flash, and a player known as Macromedia Flash Player.

FutureSplash Animator was an animation tool originally developed for pen-based computing devices. Due to the small size of the FutureSplash Viewer, it was particularly suited for download on the Web. Macromedia distributed Flash Player as a free browser plugin in order to quickly gain market share. By 2005, more computers worldwide had Flash Player installed than any other Web media format, including Java, QuickTime, RealNetworks, and Windows Media Player.^[28]

Macromedia upgraded the Flash system between 1996 and 1999 adding MovieClips, Actions (the precursor to ActionScript), Alpha transparency, and other features. As Flash matured, Macromedia's focus shifted from marketing it as a graphics and media tool to promoting it as a Web application platform, adding scripting and data access capabilities to the player while attempting to retain its small footprint.

In 2000, the first major version of ActionScript was developed, and released with Flash 5. Actionscript 2.0 was released with Flash MX 2004 and supported object-oriented programming, improved UI components and other programming features. The last version of Flash released by Macromedia was Flash 8, which focused on graphical upgrades such as filters (blur, drop shadow, etc.), blend modes (similar to Adobe Photoshop), and advanced features for FLV video.

Adobe[edit]

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems on December 3, 2005, and the entire Macromedia product line including Flash, Dreamweaver, Director/Shockwave, Fireworks (which has since been discontinued), and Authorware is now handled by Adobe.

In 2007, Adobe's first version release was Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, the ninth major version of Flash. It introduced the ActionScript 3.0 programming language, which supported modern programming practices and enabled business applications to be developed with Flash. Adobe Flex Builder (built on Eclipse) targeted the enterprise application development market, and was also released the same year. Flex Builder included the Flex SDK, a set of components that included charting, advanced UI, and data services (Flex Data Services).

In 2008, Adobe released the tenth version of Flash, Adobe Flash CS4. Flash 10 improved animation capabilities within the Flash editor, adding a motion editor panel (similar to Adobe After Effects), inverse kinematics (bones), basic 3D object animation, object-based animation, and other text and graphics features. Flash Player 10 included an in-built 3D engine (without GPU acceleration) that allowed basic object transformations in 3D space (position, rotation, scaling).

Also in 2008, Adobe released the first version of Adobe Integrated Runtime (later re-branded as Adobe AIR), a runtime engine that replaced Flash Player, and provided additional capabilities to the ActionScript 3.0 language to build desktop and mobile applications. With AIR, developers could access the file system (the user's files and folders), and connected devices such as a joystick, gamepad, and sensors for the first time.

In 2011, Adobe Flash Player 11 was released, and with it the first version of Stage3D, allowing GPU-accelerated 3D rendering for Flash applications and games on desktop platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.^[29] Adobe further improved 3D capabilities from 2011 to 2013, adding support for 3D rendering on Android and iOS platforms, alpha-channels, compressed textures, texture atlases, and other features.^[30][31] Adobe AIR was upgraded to support 64-bit computers, and to allow developers to add additional functionality to the AIR runtime using AIR Native Extensions (ANE).

In 2014, Adobe AIR reached a milestone with over 100,000 unique applications built, and over 1 billion installations logged across the world (May 2014).^[32][33] Adobe AIR was voted the Best Mobile Application Development product at the Consumer Electronics Show on two consecutive years (CES 2014 and CES 2015).^[34][35] In 2016, Adobe renamed Flash Professional, the primary authoring software for Flash content, to Adobe Animate to reflect its growing use for authoring HTML5 content in favour of Flash content.^[36]

Open Screen Project[edit]

On May 1, 2008, Adobe announced the Open Screen Project, with the intent of providing a consistent application interface across devices such as personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics.^[37] When the project was announced, seven goals were outlined: the abolition of licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR, the removal of restrictions on the use of the Shockwave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) file formats, the publishing of application programming interfaces for porting Flash to new devices, and the publishing of The Flash Cast protocol and Action Message Format (AMF), which let Flash applications receive information from remote databases.^[37]

As of February 2009^[update], the specifications removing the restrictions on the use of SWF and FLV/F4V specs have been published.^[38] The Flash Cast protocol—now known as the Mobile Content Delivery Protocol—and AMF protocols have also been made available,^[38] with AMF available as an open source implementation, BlazeDS.

The list of mobile device providers who have joined the project includes Palm, Motorola, and Nokia,^[39] who, together with Adobe, have announced a $10 million Open Screen Project fund.^[40]As of 2012^[update], the Open Screen Project is no longer accepting new applications according to partner BSQuare. However paid licensing is still an option for device makers who want to use Adobe software.^{[citation needed]}

End of life[edit]

Although Flash was previously a dominant platform for online multimedia content, it is slowly being abandoned as Adobe favors a transition to HTML5 due to inherent security flaws and significant resources required to maintain the platform. Apple restricted the use of Flash on iOS in 2010 due to concerns that it performed poorly on its mobile devices, had negative impact on battery life, and was deemed unnecessary for online content.^[41][42] As a result, it was not adopted by Apple for its smartphone and tablet devices, which also reduced its user base and encouraged wider adoption of HTML5 features such as the canvas and video elements, which can replace Flash without the need for plugins. In 2015, Adobe rebranded its Flash authoring environment as Adobe Animate to emphasize its expanded support for HTML5 authoring, and stated that it would "encourage content creators to build with new web standards" rather than using Flash.^[43] In July 2017, Adobe announced that it would declare Flash to be end-of-life at the end of 2020, and will cease support, distribution, and security updates for Flash Player.^[44] After the announcement, developers have started a petition to turn Flash into an open-source project, leading to controversy.^[45]

The Flash Platform will continue in the form of Adobe AIR, which Adobe will continue to develop, and OpenFL, a multi-target open-source implementation of the Flash API.^[46] Additionally, Adobe Animate will continue to be developed by Adobe even after 2020.

Starting from Chrome 76 and Firefox 69, Flash is disabled by default and browsers do not even show a prompt to activate Flash content. Users who want to play Flash content need to manually set a browser to prompt for Flash content, and then during each browser session enable Flash plugin for every site individually. Furthermore, browsers show warnings about the removal of Flash entirely after December 2020. Microsoft Edge based on Chromium will follow the same plan as Google Chrome.^[47]

Google Chrome will block Flash plugin as "out of date" in January 2021 and eventually remove it from the source code.^[48] Also in December 2020 Flash support will be completely removed from Firefox.^[49] Apple will drop Flash Player support from Safari 14 alongside the release of macOS Big Sur.^[50] In a move to further reduce the number of Flash Player installations, Adobe announced plans to add a "time bomb" to Flash to prevent existing installations past End-of-Life date, to prompt users to uninstall Flash, and to remove all existing download links for Flash installers.^[51]

The developers of the minoritary browser Pale Moon have stated they will continue support for NPAPI plugins including Flash.^[52][53]

Enthusiasts of the many Flash-based video games have tried to collect them for preservation.^[54][55]

Format[edit]

FLA[edit]

Flash source files are in the FLA format and contain graphics and animation, as well as embedded assets such as bitmap images, audio files, and FLV video files. The Flash source file format is a proprietary format and Adobe Animate is the only available authoring tool capable of editing such files. Flash source files (.fla) may be compiled into Flash movie files (.swf) using Adobe Animate. Note that FLA files can be edited, but output (.swf) files cannot.

SWF[edit]

Flash movie files are in the SWF format, traditionally called "ShockWave Flash" movies, "Flash movies", or "Flash applications", usually have a .swf file extension, and may be used in the form of a web page plug-in, strictly "played" in a standalone Flash Player, or incorporated into a self-executing Projector movie (with the .exe extension in Microsoft Windows). Flash Video files^{[spec 1]} 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.

The use of vector graphics combined with program code allows Flash files to be smaller—and thus allows streams to use less bandwidth—than the corresponding bitmaps or video clips. For content in a single format (such as just text, video, or audio), other alternatives may provide better performance and consume less CPU power than the corresponding Flash movie, for example, when using transparency or making large screen updates such as photographic or text fades.

In addition to a vector-rendering engine, the Flash Player includes a virtual machine called the ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) for scripting interactivity at run-time, with video, MP3-based audio, and bitmap graphics. As of Flash Player 8, it offers two video codecs: On2 TechnologiesVP6 and Sorenson Spark, and run-time JPEG, Progressive JPEG, PNG, and GIF capability.

3D[edit]

Flash Player 11 introduced a full 3D shader API, called Stage3D, which is fairly similar to WebGL.^[56][57] Stage3D enables GPU-accelerated rendering of 3D graphics within Flash games and applications, and has been used to build Angry Birds, and a couple of other notable games.

Various 3D frameworks have been built for Flash using Stage3D, such as Away3D 4,^[57]CopperCube,^[58]Flare3D,^[59] and Starling.^[60] Professional game engines like Unreal Engine^[61][62] and Unity also export Flash versions which use Stage3D to render 3D graphics.

Flash Video[edit]

Virtually all browser plugins for video are free of charge and cross-platform, including Adobe's offering of Flash Video, which was introduced with Flash version 6. Flash Video has been a popular choice for websites due to the large installed user base and programmability of Flash. In 2010, Apple publicly criticized Adobe Flash, including its implementation of video playback for not taking advantage of hardware acceleration, one reason Flash is not to be found on Apple's mobile devices. Soon after Apple's criticism, Adobe demoed and released a beta version of Flash 10.1, which uses available GPU hardware acceleration even on a Mac. Flash 10.2 beta, released December 2010, adds hardware acceleration for the whole video rendering pipeline.

Flash Player supports two distinct modes of video playback, and hardware accelerated video decoding may not be used for older video content. Such content causes excessive CPU usage compared to comparable content played with other players.

Software Rendered Video

Flash Player supports software rendered video since version 6. Such video supports vector animations displayed above the video content. This obligation may, depending on graphic APIs exposed by the operating system, prohibit using a video overlay, like a traditional multimedia player would use, with the consequence that color space conversion and scaling must happen in software.^[63]

Hardware Accelerated Video

Flash Player supports hardware accelerated video playback since version 10.2, for H.264, F4V, and FLV video formats. Such video is displayed above all Flash content and takes advantage of video codec chipsets installed on the user's device. Developers must specifically use the "StageVideo" technology within Flash Player in order for hardware decoding to be enabled. Flash Player internally uses technologies such as DirectX Video Acceleration and OpenGL to do so.

In tests done by Ars Technica in 2008 and 2009, Adobe Flash Player performed better on Windows than Mac OS X and Linux with the same hardware.^[64][65] Performance has later improved for the latter two, on Mac OS X with Flash Player 10.1,^[66] and on Linux with Flash Player 11.^[67]

Flash Audio[edit]

Flash Audio is most commonly encoded in MP3 or AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) however it can also use ADPCM, Nellymoser (Nellymoser Asao Codec) and Speex audio codecs. Flash allows sample rates of 11, 22 and 44.1 kHz. It cannot have 48 kHz audio sample rate, which is the standard TV and DVD sample rate.

On August 20, 2007, Adobe announced on its blog that with Update 3 of Flash Player 9, Flash Video will also implement some parts of the MPEG-4 international standards.^[68] Specifically, Flash Player will work with video compressed in H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed using AAC (MPEG-4 Part 3), the F4V, MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), M4V, M4A, 3GP, and MOV multimedia container formats, 3GPPTimed Text specification (MPEG-4 Part 17), which is a standardized subtitle format and partial parsing capability for the "ilst" atom, which is the ID3 equivalent iTunes uses to store metadata. MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.263 will not work in F4V file format. Adobe also announced that it will be gradually moving away from the FLV format to the standard ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12) owing to functional limits with the FLV structure when streaming H.264. The final release of the Flash Player implementing some parts of MPEG-4 standards had become available in Fall 2007.^[69]

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 does not have acoustic echo cancellation, unlike the VoIP offerings of Skype and Google Voice, making this and earlier versions of Flash less suitable for group calling or meetings. Flash Player 10.3 Beta incorporates acoustic echo cancellation.

Scripting language[edit]

ActionScript is the programming language used by Flash. It is an enhanced superset of the ECMAScript programming language, with a classical Java-style class model, rather than JavaScript's prototype model.

Specifications[edit]

In October 1998, Macromedia disclosed the Flash Version 3 Specification on its website. It did this in response to many new and often semi-open formats competing with SWF, such as Xara's Flare and Sharp's Extended Vector Animation formats. Several developers quickly created a C library for producing SWF. In February 1999, MorphInk 99 was introduced, the first third-party program to create SWF files. Macromedia also hired Middlesoft to create a freely available developers' kit for the SWF file format versions 3 to 5.

Macromedia made the Flash Files specifications for versions 6 and later available only under a non-disclosure agreement, but they are widely available from various sites.

In April 2006, the Flash SWF file format specification was released with details on the then newest version format (Flash 8). Although still lacking specific information on the incorporated video compression formats (On2, Sorenson Spark, etc.), this new documentation covered all the new features offered in Flash v8 including new ActionScript commands, expressive filter controls, and so on. The file format specification document is offered only to developers who agree to a license agreement that permits them to use the specifications only to develop programs that can export to the Flash file format. The license does not allow the use of the specifications to create programs that can be used for playback of Flash files. The Flash 9 specification was made available under similar restrictions.^[70]

In June 2009, Adobe launched the Open Screen Project (Adobe link), which made the SWF specification available without restrictions. Previously, developers could not use the specification for making SWF-compatible players, but only for making SWF-exporting authoring software. The specification still omits information on codecs such as Sorenson Spark, however.^[71]

Animation tools[edit]

Official tools[edit]

The Adobe Animate authoring program is primarily used to design graphics and animation and publish the same for websites, web applications, and video games. The program also offers limited support for audio and video embedding and ActionScript scripting.

Adobe released Adobe LiveMotion, designed to create interactive animation content and export it to a variety of formats, including SWF. LiveMotion failed to gain any notable user base.^[specify]

In February 2003, Macromedia purchased Presedia, which had developed a Flash authoring tool that automatically converted PowerPoint files into Flash. Macromedia subsequently released the new product as Breeze, which included many new enhancements.

Third-party tools[edit]

Various free and commercial software packages can output animations into the Flash SWF format, suitable for display on the web, including:

• SWiSH Max is an animation editor with preset animation, developed by an ex-employee of Macromedia, that can output Flash animations
• Toon Boom is a traditional animation tool that can output Flash animations
• AppleKeynote allows users to export presentations to Flash SWF animations
• Xara Photo & Graphic Designer can output Flash animations
• Ajax Animator aims to create a Flash development environment
• KToon can edit vectors and generate SWF, but its interface is very different from Macromedia's
• Screencast and Screencam, produces demos or tutorials by capturing the screen and generating a Flash animation of the same
• Vyond is a software as a service tool to create animated videos.
• Anime Studio is a 2D animation software package specialized for character animation, that creates Flash animations
• Question Writer publishes its quizzes to Flash animations
• OpenOffice Impress
• Toufee
• KoolMoves
• Express Animator
• CelAction2D
• Alligator Flash Designer
• Amara Web
• Clash
• Salasaga
• Synfig

The Flash 4 Linux project was an initiative to develop an open sourceLinux application as an alternative to Adobe Animate. Development plans included authoring capacity for 2D animation, and tweening, as well as outputting SWF file formats. F4L evolved into an editor that was capable of authoring 2D animation and publishing of SWF files. Flash 4 Linux was renamed UIRA. UIRA intended to combine the resources and knowledge of the F4L project and the Qflash project, both of which were Open Source applications that aimed to provide an alternative to the proprietary Adobe Flash.

Programming tools[edit]

Official tools[edit]

Adobe provides a series of tools to develop software applications and video games for Flash:

Third-party tools[edit]

Third-party development tools have been created to assist developers in creating software applications and video games with Flash.

• FlashDevelop is a free and open source Flash ActionScript IDE, which includes a project manager and debugger for building applications on Flash Player and Adobe AIR.
• Powerflasher FDT is a commercial ActionScript IDE similar to FlashDevelop.
• Haxe is an open source, high-level object-oriented programming language geared towards web-content creation that can compile SWF files from Haxe programs. As of 2012, Haxe can build programs for Flash Player that perform faster than the same application built with the Adobe Flex SDK compiler, due to additional compiler optimizations supported in Haxe.^{[citation needed]}
• SWFTools (specifically, swfc) is an open-source ActionScript 3.0 compiler which generates SWF files from script files, which includes SVG tags.
• swfmill and MTASC also provide tools to create SWF files by compiling text, ActionScript or XML files into Flash animations
• Ming library, to create SWF files programmatically, has interfaces for C, PHP, C++, Perl, Python, and Ruby. It is able to import and export graphics from XML into SWF.

Players[edit]

Proprietary[edit]

Adobe Flash Player is the multimedia and application player originally developed by Macromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems. It plays SWF files, which can be created by Adobe Animate, Apache Flex, or a number of other Adobe Systems and 3rd party tools. It has support for a scripting language called ActionScript, which can be used to display Flash Video from an SWF file.

Scaleform GFx is a commercial alternative Flash player that features fully hardware-accelerated 2D graphics rendering using the GPU. Scaleform has high conformance with both Flash 10 ActionScript 3^[72] and Flash 8 ActionScript 2. Scaleform GFx is a game development middleware solution that helps create graphical user interfaces or HUDs within 3D video games. It does not work with web browsers.

IrfanView, an image viewer, uses Flash Player to display SWF files.

Open source[edit]

OpenFL is an open-source implementation of the Adobe Flash API.^[46] It allows developers to build a single application against the OpenFL APIs and simultaneously target multiple platforms including iOS, Android, HTML5 (choice of Canvas, WebGL, SVG or DOM), Windows, macOS, Linux, WebAssembly, Flash, AIR, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, TiVo, Raspberry Pi, and Node.js.^[73]

OpenFL mirrors the Flash API for graphical operations. OpenFL applications can be written in Haxe, JavaScript (EcmaScript 5 or 6+), or TypeScript.^[74]

Lightspark is a free and open source SWF player that supports most of ActionScript 3.0 and has a Mozilla-compatible plug-in.^[75] It will fall back on Gnash, a free SWF player supporting ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 (AVM1) code. Lightspark supports OpenGL-based rendering for 3D content. The player is also compatible with H.264 Flash videos on YouTube.

Gnash aims to create a software player and browser plugin replacement for the Adobe Flash Player. Gnash can play SWF files up to version 7, and 80% of ActionScript 2.0.^[76] Gnash runs on Windows, Linux and other platforms for the 32-bit, 64-bit, and other operating systems, but development has slowed significantly in recent years.

Shumway was an open source Flash Player released by Mozilla in November 2012. It was built in JavaScript and is thus compatible with modern web-browsers.^[77][78][79] In early October 2013, Shumway was included by default in the Firefox nightly branch.^[80] Shumway rendered Flash contents by translating contents inside Flash files to HTML5 elements, and running an ActionScript interpreter in JavaScript.^[81] It supported both AVM1 and AVM2, and ActionScript versions 1, 2, and 3.^[82] Development of Shumway ceased in early 2016.^[83]

Availability[edit]

Desktop computers[edit]

Flash Player[edit]

Adobe Flash has been deprecated.^[1] The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is available for three major desktop platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.^[84] On Linux the PPAPI plug-in is available; the NPAPI version wasn't updated to new major versions for a while^[85] until Adobe changed its mind on stopping support and its former plan to discontinue "in 2017".^[86]

Adobe Flash Player is available in four flavors:

• ActiveX-based Plug-in
• NPAPI-based Plug-in
• PPAPI-based Plug-in
• Projector

The ActiveX version is an ActiveX control for use in Internet Explorer and any other Windows applications that support ActiveX technology. The Plug-in versions are available for browsers supporting either NPAPI or PPAPI plug-ins on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. The projector version is a standalone player that can open SWF files directly.^[87]

The following table documents Flash Player and Adobe AIR support on desktop operating systems: