Adobe PDF and Flash CS3 “Integration”
Here are two direct quotes from Adobe’s web site…
- PDF: “Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) lets you capture and view robust information—from any application, on any computer system—and share it with anyone around the world.”
- CS3: “Revolutionary integration – in editions for web, design, and video, and the all encompassing Master Collection – means you can flow across and within applications, in virtually any medium.”
So riddle me this my caped Flashers… Why can’t Flash CS3 import a PDF file? Flash 8 could import PDF files, why not Flash CS3?
Here’s what you see when you try to import a PDF file into Flash 8:
Here’s what you see when you try to import a PDF file into Flash CS3:
Why has a fairly significant feature been removed from an application touting its “REVOLUTIONARY INTEGRATION”? My guess is that it has less to do with “file integration” and more to do with “cash extraction”.
To get a PDF into Flash with CS3 you have to open the PDF file in Illustrator ($599, only $199 if you upgrade), save it as an AI file, and then import it into Flash. I’d like to think Adobe has a good reason for removing the PDF import feature from Flash, but to me this just seems like corporate dickery.
Comments(26)
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@Zachary, I agree, a PDF component sounds like a pretty good idea.
@Tuomo, FlashPaper is a good idea gone bad. I hate all the branding Macromedia/Adobe has put in there and you’re not allowed to remove it.
@Paul, I agree. Those print designers sure do like their PDFs don’t they. You’d think Adobe would try to better integrate the leading print format with the leading rich internet format, but alas it’s not to be. Stupid Adobe.
I import PDFs into flash all the time. Working with print-centric designers who prefer to use inDesign, Importing multipage PDFs as key frames saves a ton of time.
It’s a total drag they’ve removed this ability.
It sounds like what you´re after is flashpaper.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashpaper/
Flash paper is precisely the tool to make stuff for web that looks 100% same (?) as the printed version. For some reason you just don´t see it used too often. (well the main thing is that this used to be Macromedia tool and since Adobe bought Macromedia things haven´t been that nice for flashpaper)
But I think that dynamic import capability would be quite warmly saluted.
You might want to check this out:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1064/On-FlashPaper
Being able to import a PDF into Flash as Illustrator is a good solution. But, a major part of using PDF are the tools and interface that come with the Acrobat Viewer. Are you supposed to build custom controls in flash to reproduce the interface? Clients may need/want to zoom in or out, print pages, copy text, etc.
Surely Adobe should provide an “Acrobat Component” with Flash that will import an external .pdf file and display the controls you select.
Heck, if there is a 3rd party component or template out there that does this please let me know – I am ready to buy!
Zack
@Terry Armstrong, When did Adobe’s CS3 become FreeWare? I beleieve the cheapest you can get both Illustrator and Flash together is in CS3’s Web Premium package which costs $499 if you’re upgrading. That’s $300 more than buying Flash alone.
Ripping out functioning features to keep software ‘affordable’ seems a bit absurd to me.
It’s definitely not a cash issue. CS3 (Creative SUITE 3) includes Illustrator, so you don’t have to buy anything. I’m assuming Adobe had to make choices of what was least important in order to add new features and still keep the Suite affordable, but that is just a guess.
I’ll have to play with the export from Illustrator and see how complicated it actually is.
Thanks for contributing to the topic guys. I remember something similar to this when I worked for a large format digital print shop. You could “print to file”, change the file extension to EPS and then open it in Illustrator, but that was ages ago.
I made some tests, and it seems to work only if there is solely vector based material within the renamed pdf-file. I imported this way pdf-material into flash just this morning.
Apparently the problem lies within the bitmap conversion? Anyway there are probably a dozen versions of pdf and too many options to choose while saving the file. So some of converted pdf:s might work and others not.
This conversion used to work the other way round as well. So if you had an illustrator file but no illustrator, you could rename it into pdf and view it on acrobat reader. But that doesn´t seem work either.
i tried to rename .pdf to .ai and import it into Flash CS3, in WinXP, both AS2 and AS3 files.
but it did not work.
To by pass this: (if working on PC, i don’t know what you are supposed to do on MAC)
Just rename the .pdf file into .ai file. This does the trick.
This works since ai and pdf file formats are basically so close to one another, pdf has a ai file in it.
i still use f8 for the import… export to f cs3!
@Michael, it’s nice to see I’m not the only one. Interesting site you have there too. Thanks for leaving a comment.
i used to use PDF to Flash import all the time to integrate, acad to pdf to flash drawings, and text documents.
i just could not believe, that adobe dropped the PDF import option. made me angry, confused, and doubtful of the direction of real progress.
at least i still have flash 8 options for import.
I usually need to get PDFs into Flash for PageFLip purposes. It looks like that Air app is going to be able to do just about everything.
interesting find while asking myself the question:
How many times have I imported (or had to import) a PDF to Flash?
http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1074