importing non-vector images

[helen_zoe]

..hi!

i need to import non-vector images from photoshop7. They are type heavy
so need to be crisp. I need to reduce them to anything up to an 8th of their size - they often have 10p type - i need to skew them. (to be displayed in flash of course) ..anything i do ends up in in tremendously bitmapped images
...what can i do at iether / both ends?? anything would be helpful right now

many thanks
h_zoe

[preprint]

I would suggest slicing the image up and saving the text parts as GIFs and the image (color) parts as jpegs.

If the text is all black, make the GIFs with no more than 8 colors. If it is color, make it with a few colors as possible to make it readable.

When you are done, you can reassemble the peices in flash in their own MC.

Hope this helps!

[Ask The Geezer]

I've been doing a lot of work lately with Photoshop images in Flash. I've found that opening the psd in Fireworks, then exporting a swf and keeping everything editible works best. Then import the swf to the library of a fla. You end up with a stack of bitmaps and one movie clip that holds all layers. Open the clip symbol, distribute to layers and save right away.

From there, you can open each layer, convert the bitmap to a movie clip, then go into the clip, Break Apart the image, then save again. At this point, you can then resize the movie clip, skew it or do any other property changes you want on it.

Works very well for me.

[helen_zoe]

thanks guys ..I was begining to think I was going to have to recreate all my art work in flash

do you have any suggestions for a image editing programme which handles type decently - but is a vector programme ?

[preprint]

Both Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand are good.

From Illustrator, you can save your file as a SWF.

In Freehand, you can copy your text (I would convert it to paths first) and paste it into a Flash movie clip. I believe you can also save it as a FLA file, but I am not sure.
You can copy and paste from Illustrator too, but I have not had good results doing that.

Good luck!