[Pro] Flash v HTML5

Hi Quick question please - I am about to buy some software that I can import press-ready PDF files and it will output a flash file that will give me a ‘turning pages’ catalogue, brochure etc that I can upload to a website. I have seen one or two comments about flash being old hat and maybe replaced in the future with HTML5?

Would I be better looking for some software that would generate HTML5 files from PDF files rather than flash or is this only an issue with video content?

Many thanks.

Joe

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Personally, whilst I’m no great fan of Flash, I think it’s going to a long long time (if ever) that Flash is replaced. Let alone when IE will support it! Adobe are already releasing updates to work with mobile devices. So I would go the flash route.

Nathan Garner Creative Director

Austin Wells Design Limited One Elmgate Drive - Littledown - Bournemouth BH7 7EF t 01202 301271 e email@hidden w http://www.austinwellsdesign.co.uk

Member of NAPP | Zen Affiliate | Dorset Business Member | YEC

On 24 Feb 2010, at 15:46, Joe Hankin wrote:

Hi Quick question please - I am about to buy some software that I can import press-ready PDF files and it will output a flash file that will give me a ‘turning pages’ catalogue, brochure etc that I can upload to a website. I have seen one or two comments about flash being old hat and maybe replaced in the future with HTML5?

Would I be better looking for some software that would generate HTML5 files from PDF files rather than flash or is this only an issue with video content?

Many thanks.

Joe

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Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the quick reply! From what you have said then - does IE not support flash now? As I only use Safari on a Mac I’m in the dark! - Would it be a waste of money then if IE uses could not use/see the flash content?

Thanks

Joe

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Well, HTML5 browser support is still limited to the geek-cred browsers: Safari (and all the other WebKit browsers like Chrome) and Firefox (and all the other browsers that use the Gecko rendering engine, like Camino).

That said, the idea behind HTML5 is to remove reliance on proprietary plug-ins, and do as much as possible directly within the browser using public (free) APIs like CSS3 and JavaScript. This is a Very Good Thing, in my opinion. Nobody wants to have the virtual rug pulled out from under; if Adobe changes their mind about something critical within Flash, you have no way to fix that, since the source is closed.

There are lots of ways to skin the page-turn cat. I did a version of this in Freeway with the Scriptaculous library. It’s pretty crude as such things go, but it does work, and doesn’t rely on anything special to work in all major browsers (IE6+, Safari 2+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, or equivalent clone versions).

This demo shows images flipping, and with a little work, it would also work for HTML “pages”, too.

http://scripty.walterdavisstudio.com/flip

Walter

On Feb 24, 2010, at 10:46 AM, Joe Hankin wrote:

Hi Quick question please - I am about to buy some software that I can import press-ready PDF files and it will output a flash file that will give me a ‘turning pages’ catalogue, brochure etc that I can upload to a website. I have seen one or two comments about flash being old hat and maybe replaced in the future with HTML5?

Would I be better looking for some software that would generate HTML5 files from PDF files rather than flash or is this only an issue with video content?

Many thanks.

Joe

quote

I use .swf and .flv Flash slideshows and “flippin’ pages” on a number of sites with no complaints from IE users. However Flash is not native to IE, AFIK and it is the almost ubiquitous Flash Player plug in that makes everything work.

Colin

On 24 Feb 2010, at 15:57, Joe Hankin wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the quick reply! From what you have said then - does IE not support flash now? As I only use Safari on a Mac I’m in the dark! - Would it be a waste of money then if IE uses could not use/ see the flash content?

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Sorry I didn’t mean to say IE doesn’t support flash - it does, I mean’t to imply that IE would be slow on the uptake for support with HTML5 as it doesn’t conform to web standards at the moment.

Nathan Garner Creative Director

Austin Wells Design Limited One Elmgate Drive - Littledown - Bournemouth BH7 7EF t 01202 301271 e email@hidden w http://www.austinwellsdesign.co.uk

Member of NAPP | Zen Affiliate | Dorset Business Member | YEC

On 24 Feb 2010, at 15:57, Joe Hankin wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the quick reply! From what you have said then - does IE not support flash now? As I only use Safari on a Mac I’m in the dark! - Would it be a waste of money then if IE uses could not use/see the flash content?

Thanks

Joe

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Thanks very much for the comprehensive replies. And the impressive demo!

From what has been said then we should get reasonable use out of the software purchase. I like the idea of converting PDF files as I produce these for the printed version.

Again many thanks.

Joe.

Ps - If interested here’s the link to the software and no I’m not on commission!

http://www.3dissue.com/

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Flash is not native to any browser anywhere. All browser require a plug-in to view Flash content.

Flash does enjoy nearly universal use — unless you’re on an iPhone or similar. Adobe is working like crazy to make a version of their plug- in which will work on such a device without sucking the battery dry in 20 minutes, which seems to be the current state of things.

They’re about to release one for Android OS, so we’ll get to see some real-world behavior rather than speculation.

That said, the speculation is pretty well supported: an 8-core Mac Pro will peg all its processors to nearly 100% to render Flash Video, while the same H.264 file running in QuickTime or HTML5 <video> will use one core at 27% or so.

Walter

On Feb 24, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Colin Alcock wrote:

I use .swf and .flv Flash slideshows and “flippin’ pages” on a number of sites with no complaints from IE users. However Flash is not native to IE, AFIK and it is the almost ubiquitous Flash Player plug in that makes everything work.

Colin

On 24 Feb 2010, at 15:57, Joe Hankin wrote:

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the quick reply! From what you have said then - does IE not support flash now? As I only use Safari on a Mac I’m in the dark! - Would it be a waste of money then if IE uses could not use/ see the flash content?

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Having just looked at the link Joe I think that seems like a lot of dosh to fork out - £349 for the Lite version!

David

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Well, one thing is sure. Regardless of the program or file format it takes to create such a document, there will be many print only publications switching over to this kind of digital distribution in the near future. And we can thank Apple (good or ill) for all the new interest in doing so.

And £349 does seem a bit dear.

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Yes the cost is ‘silly money’ and a big investment - hence the question in the first place. The alternatives all seem to offer to host the flash file on their site via a link and charge ‘per issue’ - again not cheap! I thought that the advantage of 3D Lite was I can keep control of the content and I can modify and publish as many issues as I want.

Unless - of course - someone knows differently….

Joe

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It’s worth doling a bit of a wider search. For example;

Free Page Flip - http://www.pixelwit.com/blog/page-flip/page-flip-help/ Advanced Page Flip ($12.50) - http://www.pixelwit.com/blog/page-flip/improved-pageflip/

PageFlip (€25-395) - http://pageflip.hu/

I’ve an example of a JavaScript powered page turner that is similar, but slightly different, to Walter’s example. If you are interested in seeing that I’ll dig it out and post it online. Regards, Tim.

On 25 Feb 2010, at 09:11, Joe Hankin wrote:

Unless - of course - someone knows differently….

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and commercial actions for Freeway Express & Pro. ………………………………………………………………………… Protect your mailto links from being harvested by spambots with Anti Spam. Only available at FreewayActions.com ………………………………………………………………………… http://www.freewayactions.com

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Hi Tim,

Thanks for the links. Perhaps I’m to old for this malarky but the pixelwit site is the hardest site to navigate I have ever come across! I think that the software to convert PDF files must sit on a windows machine the Mac version requires converting PDF pages to JPEG images. My current catalogue is 135 pages - so I may have to keep digging.

Thanks again

Joe.

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