The best new feature in Flash 8

Its better sure, but the spacing is still pretty kludgy, streets capes neo n, do main, img s etc etc. We've a long way to go yet...

Wow, that's so much better. Way to go Macrodobia or whatever it's going to be called!

I wonder if they've actually fixed the Mac version bug that doesn't save the Library palette with your panel layout? It always seems to be there, version after version ...

Ummm, probably a stupid question but it looks like you're not using anti-aliasing at all in the left screenshot, whereas in the right one, you are... thus comparing pretty much two entirely different fonts, no?

A better comparison would be showing Lucida Grande (or any other font) at a small size with anti-aliasing turned on in both cases. In this scenario, there are clear differences in quality... all to the benefit of sIFR I might add!

I take it that the rendering engine is in the player, have you done any sIFR with v8? My concern is that rendering time might be slower. Still I'd trade a few seconds for some decent looking typography.

Just got started with 8 today, and I am floored by the new FileReference class that allows for uploads within a flash movie AND it allows you to track the progress of those uploads.

For those of us who have been waiting for progress tracking in PHP without all the hacks, this is sweet...

I hadn't done Flash-related projects for a long time until a few days ago, and just downloaded the Flash 8 plugin for OS X. I'm not (yet) familiar with any Flash 8 techniques apart from these mind-boggling examples, but this I can tell -- screen redraws and animation speeds that were painfully, excruciantingly slow on the Mac are finally up to par with the PC plugin's performance. If anything, that alone made my day.

I can't wait to put myself up to date on Actionscript 2 to get all of this mojo working.

Well, the very important fact for me is to be able to activate or desactivate anti-aliasing. Does the new version force anti-aliasing ? That would be a huge error. With Flash 7, i had the choice between aliasing or anti-aliasing by choosing a html type or postscript type. Now, i feel lost.

"Does the new version force anti-aliasing ?"

By default, yes, which was part of the reason why I used Lucida Grande, a system typeface on OS X, as my example.

In earlier versions of the Flash Player any system font (like Verdana, Arial, etc) had to be embedded in order for anti-aliasing to be applied. Which is part of the reason why I've rarely used system faces in my Flash movies. But with Flash Player 8, you can publish dynamic text fields assigned to system typefaces and they will be anti-aliased just as nicely as an embedded face, but without taking a byte size hit in your SWF.

But getting back to the point of the question, yes, you do have control over this, and it's actually more than just on/off. You can turn it off, or use "Anti-Alias for Animation", "Anti-Alias for Readability", or even "Custom Anti-Aliasing" where with a couple of slider controls you can set the thickness / sharpness of the type to your preference. It's very slick.

Ohhh - that looks very nice!! One of the most exciting features for me as well! Can't wait to receive my copy.

Thanks for the info!

Also, just to point out that all the control you have in the ide over fonts, you have access to API's with ActionScript to allow you to build controls in flash and adjust the textfield via code.

It's interesting to me that many would declare the right version superior so quickly. Those smoothed fonts work beautifully at higher sizes, but for a lot of 'regular' type, I feel they sometimes backfire. This is why I think the ClearType approach is better than trying to do all text.

Antialiasing involves blurring, basically, and when you combine that with substandard vision, things can get a little too fuzzy for smaller type. Every time I run into the other room to test Safari, I marvel for a little bit, but inevitably get a little irked and long for my crisp, readable fonts.

To be fair, I'm more of a utilitarian that doesn't give a shit if it my body type looks like it was ripped off the printed page. I embrace the limitations of the medium that are really just bystanders to what's more important: I need to be able to read it.

Yeah, the type update is probably one of the best features, but high performance blurring and drop shadows (when used properly) can be pretty damn handy.

One thing I feel Macromedia really missed with this release is an "Outline" filter for creating solid colored outlines (similar to glow without the blurring).

On a similar note, I think we could have lived without the "Bevel" filter which is bound to be abused across the internet in the coming months.

Hi Todd,
I agree that the anti aliasing is way cool. It is about time that Macromedia started paying attention to how Flash handles type. It would be equally nice, from a production view point if Flash would recognize a font that has been activated without a restart, or would auto activate a font, or offered a way to export with linked graphics and fonts packaged the way page layout has offered since the days of sticks and rocks. What a pain to hand off an .fla and have someone unable to work because they don't have some font I forgot that I used!

Slightly OT, I know that you are a Mac user - how has Flash 8 performed on your system? It is almost unuseable for me (G5 + Tiger) due to scary , excessively long save times. I had to switch to a 3 year old laptop with XP.Works great there (oh the shame!)

One thing I am interested in is if they have added more functionality with CSS. I am currently working on a project with subscript, superscript and odd characters and it is difficult to get them working correctly with css.

The FlashType (aka Saffron) engine is quite amazing. I've done numerous comparisons with ClearType and the old Flash 7 renderer: FlashType is clearly superior to Flash 7 and is on par with ClearType. Nice job Macromedia!

The strangest thing about what your saying, is that i prefer by far the type on the left in your example. I find the rendered text on the right very difficult to read and blurry.

Is this right?

Too bad they didn't upgrade the css... still no line-height or margin-top or -bottom. What is the use of css if simple html like h1 and p do not display properly. Sure the new features are very cool, but designing a simple layout and getting it to work in flash with dynamic content is still a pain in the ass... I'm a bit dissapointed.

I also find the save time on Mac G5 tiger scary - freezes or takes 5+ minutes? Huge bug there any feedback on this bug?