Flash Bitmap-Shift Bug Fixed? Sorta.

A few weeks ago I rather excitedly reported that the bitmap-shifting-bug that has plagued Flash since version 3 (yes, you read that correctly) was finally, thankfully, fixed. After a little further experimentation, it turns out I was halfway right. And, well, halfway wrong.

To spare you the long story, Flash has historically stretched / smudged the edges of any imported bitmap image if they did not contain at least a 1 pixel empty margin around the content. This has not only been a huge headache for beginners, but longtime developers (like myself) working in a group environment where bitmaps are shared between mediums.

Turns out the bug is not in the application per se, but in the Player, and choosing which Player you publish to can dramatically affect your results. Bitmaps without empty margins appear smudgy (as always) when you create a Flash Player 6 swf. Switch it to Flash Player 7 however, and the artifacts go away -- a bitmap with and without the empty margin appear the same.

This is all fine and good, but nobody will be publishing Flash Player 7 content (beyond a personal or intranet / closed site) for at least a year (if not longer). Until then, open those bitmaps in Photoshop, select the Canvas Size menu option, add 2 pixels to the width and height, and save. Over, and over, and over, and...