SWFTools
Encyclopedia
SWFTools is an Open Source
software tool suite for creating and manipulating SWF
files. Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
, it may be compiled from C source, to run under Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OSX. A pre-compiled installer
is also available for easy installation on Microsoft Windows
' systems, which also installs a GUI wrapper for thr suite's PDF to SWF conversion tool, pdf2swf.
SWFTools relies upon, and links against, additional third-party libraries for some of its functionality, e.g. Xpdf
and PDFlib, freetype
, libjpeg
.
The current stable SWFTools suite version 0.9.1, consists of the following components,
Extra and/or adapted commands are available in the development versions and the Git repository. Detailed information is available on the SWFTools Documentation Wiki ( see External Links ).
The SWFTools suite also includes a Python gFX API library, consisting of a PDF parser (based on xpdf
) and a number of rendering back-ends. Using the API, one can extract text from PDF pages, create bitmaps from pdf, and convert PDF files to SWF. The latter functionality is similar to that offered by the standalone pdf2swf utility detailed above, except more powerful: creation of individual SWF files from single PDF pages, and composited pages from different PDF files.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software tool suite for creating and manipulating SWF
SWF
SWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,...
files. Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, it may be compiled from C source, to run under Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OSX. A pre-compiled installer
is also available for easy installation on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
' systems, which also installs a GUI wrapper for thr suite's PDF to SWF conversion tool, pdf2swf.
SWFTools relies upon, and links against, additional third-party libraries for some of its functionality, e.g. Xpdf
Xpdf
Xpdf is an open-source PDF viewer for the X Window System and Motif.Xpdf runs on practically any Unix-like operating system. Xpdf can decode LZW and read encrypted PDFs. The official version obeys the DRM restrictions of PDF files, which may prevent copying, printing, or converting some PDF files...
and PDFlib, freetype
FreeType
FreeType is a software library written in C that implements a font rasterization engine. It is used to render text on to bitmaps and provides support for other font-related operations.-Details:...
, libjpeg
Libjpeg
libjpeg is a library written entirely in C which contains a widely-used implementation of a JPEG decoder, JPEG encoder and other JPEG utilities...
.
The current stable SWFTools suite version 0.9.1, consists of the following components,
| Component | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| as3compile | A standalone ActionScript 3.0 compiler. |
| avi2swf | AVI animation files to SWF converter (now deprecated, use MEncoder or ffmpeg for this). |
| font2swf | Font file (TTF, Type1) conversiom to SWF. |
| gif2swf | GIFs to SWF conversion. Able to handle animated gifs. |
| jpeg2swf | Generates a slideshow from one or more JPEG pictures. Supports motion estimation compression (h.263) for better compression of video sequences. |
| pdf2swf | PDF to SWF Converter. Generates one frame per page. Enables fully formatted text, ::including tables and formulas, inside a Flash Movie. It's based on the xpdf PDF parser from ::Derek B. Noonburg. |
| png2swf | Like JPEG2SWF, only for PNGs. |
| swfbbox | Allows to read out, optimize and readjust SWF bounding boxes. |
| swfc | SWF file creation from simple script files. Includes ActionScript 2.0/3,0 support. |
| swfcombine | Multi-function tool for SWF ibsertion into Wrapper SWFs, SWF contatenation, stacking, and basic parameter manipulation (e.g. size change ). |
| swfdump | Prints out SWF information, i.e. images/fonts/sounds, contained code disassembly, cross-reference and bounding box data. |
| swfextract | SWF element extraction: Movieclips, Sounds, Images, shapes, etc. |
| swfrender | Bitmap rendering from swf files created with pdf2swf, jpeg2swf or png2swf. |
| swfstrings | Scans SWFs for text data. |
| wav2swf | WAV audio to SWF conversion. |
Extra and/or adapted commands are available in the development versions and the Git repository. Detailed information is available on the SWFTools Documentation Wiki ( see External Links ).
The SWFTools suite also includes a Python gFX API library, consisting of a PDF parser (based on xpdf
Xpdf
Xpdf is an open-source PDF viewer for the X Window System and Motif.Xpdf runs on practically any Unix-like operating system. Xpdf can decode LZW and read encrypted PDFs. The official version obeys the DRM restrictions of PDF files, which may prevent copying, printing, or converting some PDF files...
) and a number of rendering back-ends. Using the API, one can extract text from PDF pages, create bitmaps from pdf, and convert PDF files to SWF. The latter functionality is similar to that offered by the standalone pdf2swf utility detailed above, except more powerful: creation of individual SWF files from single PDF pages, and composited pages from different PDF files.