SWF File Format Spec v10

SWF File Format Specification
Version 10
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CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY ADOBE
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NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Published November 2008

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
What’s new in SWF 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 1: Basic Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Coordinates and twips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Integer types and byte order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Fixed-point numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Floating-point numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Encoded integers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Bit values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Using bit values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
String values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Language code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
RGB color record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
RGBA color with alpha record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ARGB color with alpha record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Rectangle record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
MATRIX record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Color transform record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Color transform with alpha record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 2: SWF Structure Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

The SWF header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
SWF file structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Tag format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Definition and control tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Tag ordering in SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Processing a SWF file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
File compression strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3
Chapter 3: The Display List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Clipping layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the display list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Display list tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
PlaceObject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
PlaceObject2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
PlaceObject3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
ClipEventFlags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
RemoveObject. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
RemoveObject2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
ShowFrame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Chapter 4: Control Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

SetBackgroundColor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
FrameLabel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Protect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ExportAssets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ImportAssets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
EnableDebugger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
EnableDebugger2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
ScriptLimits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
SetTabIndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
FileAttributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ImportAssets2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
SymbolClass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
DefineScalingGrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
DefineSceneAndFrameLabelData . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter 5: Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
SWF 3 action model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
SWF 3 actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
SWF 4 action model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
The program counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
SWF 4 actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Stack operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Arithmetic operators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Numerical comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Logical operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
String manipulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Type conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Contents
Control flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Movie control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
SWF 5 action model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
SWF 5 actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ScriptObject actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Type actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Math actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
Stack operator actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
SWF 6 action model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
SWF 6 actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
SWF 7 action model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
SWF 7 actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
SWF 9 action model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
SWF 10 action model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Chapter 6: Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Shape overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Shape example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
Shape structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Fill styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Line styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Shape structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Shape records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Edge records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Shape tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Chapter 7: Gradients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Gradient transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Gradient control points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Gradient structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
GRADIENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
FOCALGRADIENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
GRADRECORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
Chapter 8: Bitmaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

DefineBits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
JPEGTables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
DefineBitsJPEG2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
DefineBitsJPEG3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
DefineBitsLossless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
DefineBitsLossless2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Contents 5
DefineBitsJPEG4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Chapter 9: Shape Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

DefineMorphShape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
DefineMorphShape2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Morph fill styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
MORPHFILLSTYLEARRAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
MORPHFILLSTYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Morph gradient values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
MORPHGRADIENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
MORPHGRADRECORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Morph line styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
MORPHLINESTYLEARRAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
MORPHLINESTYLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
MORPHLINESTYLE2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 10: Fonts and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Glyph text and device text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Static text and dynamic text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Glyph text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Glyph definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
The EM square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Converting TrueType fonts to SWF glyphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Kerning and advance values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Advanced text rendering engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
DefineFont and DefineText . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Static glyph text example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Font tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
DefineFont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
DefineFontInfo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Western indirect fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Japanese indirect fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
DefineFontInfo2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
DefineFont2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
DefineFont3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
DefineFontAlignZones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Kerning record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
DefineFontName . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Static text tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
DefineText . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Text records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Dynamic text tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
DefineEditText. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
6 Contents
CSMTextSettings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196
DefineFont4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
Chapter 11: Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201

Audio coding formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Event sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
DefineSound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
StartSound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
StartSound2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Sound styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Streaming sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
SoundStreamHead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
SoundStreamHead2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
SoundStreamBlock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Frame subdivision for streaming sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
ADPCM compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
ADPCM sound data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
MP3 compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
MP3 sound data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
MP3 frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Nellymoser compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Speex compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Chapter 12: Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Button states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Button tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Events, state transitions, and actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Button tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Button record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
DefineButton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
DefineButton2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
DefineButtonCxform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
DefineButtonSound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Chapter 13: Sprites and Movie Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Sprite names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
DefineSprite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Chapter 14: Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Sorenson H.263 Bitstream Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Summary of differences from H.263 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Video packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Contents 7
Macro block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
Block data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Screen Video bitstream format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Block format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Video packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Image block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
Screen Video V2 bitstream format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
V2 Colorspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
V2 Video Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Image Block V2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Image format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Image block diff position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246
Image block prime position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
On2 Truemotion VP6 bitstream format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
VP6 FLV video packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
VP6 FLV Alpha video packet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
VP6 SWF video packet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
VP6 SWF Alpha video packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
SWF video tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
DefineVideoStream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
VideoFrame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252
Chapter 15: Binary data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

DefineBinaryData . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253
Appendix A: SWF Uncovered: A Simple SWF File Dissected. 255
Appendix B: Reverse index of tag values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Appendix C: Screen Video v2 Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
8 Contents
Introduction
The SWF (pronounced “swiff ”) file format delivers vector graphics, text, video, and sound
over the Internet and is supported by Adobe® Flash® Player software. The SWF file format is
designed to be an efficient delivery format, not a format for exchanging graphics between
graphics editors. It is designed to meet the following goals:
On-screen display—The format is primarily intended for on-screen display and supports
anti-aliasing, fast rendering to a bitmap of any color format, animation, and interactive
buttons.
Extensibility—The format is a tagged format, so it can be evolved with new features while
maintaining backward compatibility with earlier versions of Flash Player.
Network delivery—The format can travel over a network with limited and unpredictable
bandwidth. The files are compressed to be small and support incremental rendering through
streaming. The SWF file format is a binary format and is not human readable like HTML.
The SWF file format uses techniques such as bit-packing and structures with optional fields
to minimize file size.
Simplicity—The format is simple so that Flash Player is small and easily ported. Also, Flash
Player depends upon a limited set of operating system features only.
File independence—The files display with minimal dependence on external resources such
as fonts.
Scalability—The files work well on limited hardware, and can take advantage of better
hardware when it is available. This ability is important because computers have different
monitor resolutions and bit depths.
Speed—The graphics described by SWF files render quickly.
Scriptability—The format includes tags that provide sequences of byte codes to be
interpreted by a stack machine. The byte codes support the ActionScript® language. Flash
Player provides a runtime ActionScript object model that allows interaction with drawing
primitives, servers, and features of Flash Player.
SWF files have the extension .swf and a MIME type of application/x-shockwave-flash.
9
The SWF format has evolved through several versions. Through SWF 5, substantial additions
were made to the SWF tag set. Starting with SWF 6 and later, the SWF format changes less,
as more new features are implemented partly or entirely at the ActionScript level. Starting
with SWF 9, the ActionScript 3.0 language, which employs the new ActionScript Virtual
Machine 2 (AVM2) can be used. Anyone planning to generate SWF file content that uses
newer features should become familiar with the ActionScript object model that Flash Player
exposes. Some references for this information are Programming ActionScript 3.0 (see
www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_cs4_programmingAS3_en), ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference
(see www.adobe.com/go/learn_flashcs4_langref_en), and the Adobe ActionScript Virtual
Machine 2 Overview (PDF file) at www.adobe.com/go/avm2overview.
Adobe seriously considers all feedback to the SWF file format specification. E-mail any
unclear or potentially erroneous information within the specification to Adobe at
flashformat@adobe.com. All such email submissions shall be subject to the Submitted
Materials guidelines in the Terms of Use at www.adobe.com/misc/copyright.html.
What’s new in SWF 10

Flash Player 10 introduces the following features and capabilities:
■ Expands the SWF format’s text capability with the capability to render bidirectional text
(right-to-left) and complex scripts for languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai. To
facilitate this rendering, SWF 10 introduces the DefineFont4 tag.
■ Adds another tag for defining a JPEG called DefineBitsJPEG4. This allows embedding
JPEG images that have an alpha channel for opacity and also a smoothing filter.
■ Expands the Player’s speech coding functionality by adding support for the free and open
source Speex voice codec as well as adding support for higher frequencies in the existing
Nellymoser codec. For more information, see “Speex compression” on page 220.
10 Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Basic Data Types 1

This section describes the basic data types that make up the more complex data structures in
the SWF file format. All other structures in the SWF file format are built on these
fundamental types.
Coordinates and twips

The SWF file format stores all x-y coordinates as integers, usually in a unit of measurement
called a twip. In the SWF format, a twip is 1/20th of a logical pixel. A logical pixel is the same
as a screen pixel when the file is played at 100%—that is, without scaling.
For example, a rectangle 800 twips wide by 400 twips high is rendered as 40 by 20 logical
pixels. Fractional pixel sizes are approximated with anti-aliasing. A rectangle 790 by 390 twips
(39.5 by 19.5 pixels) appears to have slightly blurred edges.
Twips are a good compromise between size and precision. They provide sub-pixel accuracy for
zooming and precise placement of objects, while consuming very few bits per coordinate.
Coordinates in the SWF file format use the traditional graphics axes: x is horizontal and
proceeds from minimum values at the left to maximum values at the right, and y is vertical
and proceeds from minimum values at the top to maximum values at the bottom.
Integer types and byte order

The SWF file format uses 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, signed, and unsigned integer types. All
integer values are stored in the SWF file by using little-endian byte order: the least significant
byte is stored first, and the most significant byte is stored last, in the same way as the Intel x86
architecture. The bit order within bytes in the SWF file format is big-endian: the most
significant bit is stored first, and the least significant bit is stored last.
11
For example:
■ The 32-bit value 0x456e7120 is stored as 20 71 6e 45.
■ The 16-bit value 0xe712 is stored as 12 e7.
All integer types must be byte-aligned. That is, the first bit of an integer value must be stored
in the first bit of a byte in the SWF file.
Signed integers are represented by using traditional 2’s-complement bit patterns. These are the
signed integer representations used on most modern computer platforms. In the 2’s
complement system, negative numbers have 1 as the first bit, and zero and positive numbers
have 0 as the first bit. A negative number, -n, is represented as the bitwise opposite of the
positive-zero number n-1.
Integer Types
Type Comment
SI8 Signed 8-bit integer value
SI8[n] Signed 8-bit array—n is the number of array elements
SI16[n] Signed 16-bit array—n is the is number of array elements
UI8 Unsigned 8-bit integer value
UI8[n] Unsigned 8-bit array—n is the number of array elements

Fixed-point numbers
The SWF file format supports two types of fixed-point numbers: 32-bit and 16-bit.
The 32-bit fixed-point numbers are 16.16. That is, the high 16 bits represent the number
before the decimal point, and the low 16 bits represent the number after the decimal point.
FIXED values are stored like 32-bit integers in the SWF file (using little-endian byte order)
and must be byte aligned.
12 Basic Data Types

For example: The real value 7.5 is equivalent to: 0x0007.8000.
This value is stored in the SWF file as: 00 80 07 00.
SWF 8 and later supports 16-bit 8.8 signed, fixed-point numbers. The high 8 bits represent
the number before the decimal point, and the low 8 bits represent the number after the
decimal point. FIXED8 values are stored like 16-bit integers in the SWF file (using little-
endian byte order) and must be byte aligned.
Fixed-Point Types
Type Comment
FIXED 32-bit 16.16 fixed-point number
FIXED8 16-bit 8.8 fixed-point number
Floating-point numbers
SWF 8 and later supports the use of IEEE Standard 754 compatible floating-point types.
Three types of floating-point numbers are supported.
Floating-Point Types
Type Comment
FLOAT16 Half-precision (16-bit) floating-point number
FLOAT Single-precision (32-bit) IEEE Standard 754 compatible
DOUBLE Double-precision (64-bit) IEEE Standard 754

compatible
FLOAT16 is identical to the characteristics of FLOAT except for changes to the number of
bits allocated to the exponent and mantissa:
■ 1 bit for the sign
■ 5 bits for the exponent, with an exponent bias of 16
■ 10 bits for the mantissa
Floating-point numbers 13
Encoded integers
SWF 9 and later supports the use of integers encoded with a variable number of bytes. One
type of encoded integer is supported.
Floating-Point Types
Type Comment
EncodedU32 Variable length encoded 32-bit unsigned integer
This is a 32-bit unsigned integer value encoded with a variable number of bytes to save space.
All EncodedU32's are encoded as 1-5 bytes depending on the value (larger values need more
space). The encoding method is if the hi bit in the current byte is set, then the next byte is also
part of the value. Each bit in a byte contributes 7 bits to the value, with the hi bit telling us
whether to use the next byte, or if this is the last byte for the value.
This is the algorithm for parsing an EncodedU32:
int GetEncodedU32(unsigned char*& pos)
{
int result = pos[0];
if (!(result & 0x00000080))
{
pos++;
return result;
}
result = (result & 0x0000007f) | pos[1]<<7;
if (!(result & 0x00004000))
{
pos += 2;
return result;
}
result = (result & 0x00003fff) | pos[2]<<14;
if (!(result & 0x00200000))
{
pos += 3;
return result;
}
result = (result & 0x001fffff) | pos[3]<<21;
if (!(result & 0x10000000))
{
pos += 4;
return result;
}
result = (result & 0x0fffffff) | pos[4]<<28;
pos += 5;
return result;
}
14 Basic Data Types

Bit values
Bit values are variable-length bit fields that can represent three types of numbers:
1. Unsigned integers
2. Signed integers
3. Signed 16.16 fixed-point values.
Bit values do not have to be byte aligned. Other types (such as UI8 and UI16) are always byte
aligned. If a byte-aligned type follows a bit value, the last byte that contains the bit value is
padded with zeros.
The following example is a stream of 64 bits. The 64 bits represent 9 values of varying bit
length, followed by a UI16 value:
The bit stream begins with a 6-bit value (BV1), followed by a 5-bit value (BV2) that is spread
across Byte1 and Byte2. BV3 is spread across Byte2 and Byte3, while BV4 is wholly contained
within Byte3. Byte 5 contains two bit values: BV7 and BV8. BV9 is followed by a byte-
aligned type (UI16), so the last four bits of Byte 6 are padded with zeros.
Bit Values
Type Comment
SB[nBits] Signed-bit value (nBits is the number of bits used to store the value)
UB[nBits] Unsigned-bit value (nBits is the number of bits used to store the value)
FB[nBits] Signed, fixed-point bit value (nBits is the number of bits used to store the
value)
When an unsigned-bit value is expanded into a larger word size, the leftmost bits are filled
with zeros. When a signed-bit value is expanded into a larger word size, the high bit is copied
to the leftmost bits.
This expansion is called sign extension. For example, the 4-bit unsigned value UB[4] = 1110
would be expanded to a 16-bit value like this: 0000000000001110 = 14. The same value
interpreted as a signed value, SB[4] = 1110 would be expanded to 1111111111111110 = –2.
Signed-bit values are similar but must take account of the sign bit. The signed value of 35 is
represented as SB[7] = 0100011. The extra zero bit is required; otherwise the high bit is sign
extended and the value is interpreted as negative.
Bit values 15
Fixed-point bit values are 32-bit 16.16 signed, fixed-point numbers. That is, the high 16 bits
represent the number before the decimal point, and the low 16 bits represent the number after
the decimal point. A fixed-point bit value is identical to a signed-bit value, but the
interpretation is different. For example, a 19-bit, signed-bit value of 0x30000 is interpreted as
196608 decimal. The 19-bit, fixed-point bit value 0x30000 is interpreted as 3.0. The format
of this value is effectively 3.16 rather than 16.16.
Using bit values

Bit values are stored by using the minimum number of bits possible for the range needed.
Most bit value fields use a fixed number of bits. Some use a variable number of bits, but in all
such cases, the number of bits to be used is explicitly stated in another field in the same
structure. In these variable-length cases, applications that generate SWF files must determine
the minimum number of bits necessary to represent the actual values that will be specified.
For signed-bit values, if the number to be encoded is positive, an extra bit is necessary to
preserve the leading 0; otherwise sign extension changes the bit value into a negative number.
As an example of variable-sized bit values, consider the RECT structure:
RECT
Field Type Comment
Nbits UB[5] Bits in each rect value field
Xmin SB[Nbits] x minimum position for rect
Xmax SB[Nbits] x maximum position for rect
Ymin SB[Nbits] y minimum position for rect
Ymax SB[Nbits] y maximum position for rect
The Nbits field determines the number of bits used to store the coordinate values Xmin,
Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax. Say the coordinates of the rectangle are as follows:
Xmin = 127 decimal = 1111111 binary
Xmax = 260 decimal = 100000100 binary
Ymin = 15 decimal = 1111 binary
Ymax = 514 decimal = 1000000010 binary
16 Basic Data Types

Nbits is calculated by finding the coordinate that requires the most bits to represent. In this
case, that value is 514 (01000000010 binary) which requires 11 bits to represent. The
rectangle is stored as the following table shows:
RECT
Field Type and Value Comment
Nbits UB[5] = 01011 Bits required (11)
Xmin SB[11] = 00001111111 x minimum in twips (127)
Xmax SB[11] = 00100000100 x maximum in twips (260)
Ymin SB[11] = 00000001111 y minimum in twips (15)
Ymax SB[11] = 01000000010 y maximum in twips (514)
String values
A string value represents a null-terminated character string. The format for a string value is a
sequential list of bytes terminated by the null character byte.
STRING
Field Type Comment
String UI8[zero or more] Non-null string character data
StringEnd UI8 Marks end of string; always zero
In SWF 5 or earlier, STRING values are encoded using either ANSI (which is a superset of
ASCII) or shift-JIS (a Japanese encoding). You cannot indicate the encoding that is used;
instead, the decoding choice is made according to the locale in which Flash Player is running.
This means that text content in SWF 5 or earlier can only be encoded in ANSI or shift-JIS,
and the target audience must be known during authoring—otherwise garbled text results.
In SWF 6 or later, STRING values are always encoded by using the Unicode UTF-8 standard.
This is a multibyte encoding; each character is composed of between one and four bytes.
UTF-8 is a superset of ASCII; the byte range 0 to 127 in UTF-8 exactly matches the ASCII
mapping, and all ASCII characters 0 to 127 are represented by just one byte. UTF-8
guarantees that whenever a character other than character 0 (the null character) is encoded by
using more than one byte, none of those bytes are zero. This avoids the appearance of internal
null characters in UTF-8 strings, meaning that it remains safe to treat null bytes as string
terminators, just as for ASCII strings.
String values 17
Language code
A language code identifies a spoken language that applies to text. Language codes are
associated with font specifications in the SWF file format.
NOTE
A language code does not specify a text encoding; it specifies a spoken language.
LANGCODE
Field Type Comment
LanguageCode UI8 Language code (see following)
Flash Player uses language codes to determine line-breaking rules for dynamic text, and to
choose backup fonts when a specified device font is unavailable. Other uses for language codes
may be found in the future.
A language code of zero means no language. This code results in behavior that is dependent on
the locale in which Flash Player is running.
At the time of writing, the following language codes are recognized by Flash Player:
■ 1 = Latin (the western languages covered by Latin-1: English, French, German, and so on)
■ 2 = Japanese
■ 3 = Korean
■ 4 = Simplified Chinese
■ 5 = Traditional Chinese
RGB color record

The RGB record represents a color as a 24-bit red, green, and blue value.
RGB
Field Type Comment
Red UI8 Red color value
Green UI8 Green color value
Blue UI8 Blue color value
18 Basic Data Types

RGBA color with alpha record
The RGBA record represents a color as 32-bit red, green, blue and alpha value. An RGBA
color with an alpha value of 255 is completely opaque. An RGBA color with an alpha value of
zero is completely transparent. Alpha values between zero and 255 are partially transparent.
RGBA
Field Type Comment
Alpha UI8 alpha value defining opacity
ARGB color with alpha record

The ARGB record behaves exactly like the RGBA record, but the alpha value for the ARGB
record is in the first byte.
ARGB
Field Type Comment
Alpha UI8 alpha value defining opacity
ARGB color with alpha record 19

Rectangle record
A rectangle value represents a rectangular region defined by a minimum x- and y-coordinate
position and a maximum x- and y-coordinate position. The RECT record must be byte
aligned.
RECT
Field Type Comment
Nbits UB[5] Bits used for each subsequent
field
Xmin SB[Nbits] x minimum position for

rectangle in twips
Xmax SB[Nbits] x maximum position for

rectangle in twips
Ymin SB[Nbits] y minimum position for

rectangle in twips
Ymax SB[Nbits] y maximum position for

rectangle in twips
MATRIX record
The MATRIX record represents a standard 2x3 transformation matrix of the sort commonly
used in 2D graphics. It is used to describe the scale, rotation, and translation of a graphic
object. The MATRIX record must be byte aligned.
MATRIX
Field Type Comment
HasScale UB[1] Has scale values if equal to 1
NScaleBits If HasScale = 1, UB[5] Bits in each scale value field
ScaleX If HasScale = 1, FB[NScaleBits] x scale value
ScaleY If HasScale = 1, FB[NScaleBits] y scale value

HasRotate UB[1] Has rotate and skew values if equal
to 1
NRotateBits If HasRotate = 1, UB[5] Bits in each rotate value field
RotateSkew0 If HasRotate = 1, First rotate and skew value

FB[NRotateBits]
20 Basic Data Types

MATRIX
Field Type Comment
RotateSkew1 If HasRotate = 1, Second rotate and skew value
FB[NRotateBits]
NTranslateBits UB[5] Bits in each translate value field
TranslateX SB[NTranslateBits] x translate value in twips
TranslateY SB[NTranslateBits] y translate value in twips
The ScaleX, ScaleY, RotateSkew0 and RotateSkew1 fields are stored as 16.16 fixed-point
values. The TranslateX and TranslateY values are stored as signed values in twips.
The MATRIX record is optimized for common cases such as a matrix that performs a
translation only. In this case, the HasScale and HasRotate flags are zero, and the matrix only
contains the TranslateX and TranslateY fields.
The mapping from the MATRIX fields to the 2x3 matrix is as follows:
ScaleX RotateSkew0
RotateSkew1 ScaleY
TranslateX TranslateY
For any coordinates (x, y), the transformed coordinates (x', y') are calculated as follows:
x' = x * ScaleX + y * RotateSkew1 + TranslateX
y' = x * RotateSkew0 + y * ScaleY + TranslateY
The following table describes how the members of the matrix are used for each type of
operation:
ScaleX RotateSkew0 RotateSkew1 ScaleY

Rotation Cosine Sine Negative sine Cosine
Scaling Horizontal Nothing Nothing Vertical scaling

scaling component
component
Shear Nothing Horizontal Vertical Nothing
proportionality proportionality
constant constant
Reflection Horizontal Nothing Nothing Vertical reflection

reflection component
component
MATRIX record 21
Color transform record
The CXFORM record defines a simple transform that can be applied to the color space of a
graphic object. The following are the two types of transform possible:
■ Multiplication transforms
■ Addition transforms
Multiplication transforms multiply the red, green, and blue components by an 8.8 fixed-point
multiplication term. The fixed-point representation of 1.0 is 0x100 or 256 decimal.
For any color (R,G,B), the transformed color (R', G', B') is calculated as follows:
R' = (R * RedMultTerm) / 256
G' = (G * GreenMultTerm) / 256
B' = (B * BlueMultTerm) / 256
Addition transforms add an addition term (positive or negative) to the red, green, and blue
components of the object being displayed. If the result is greater than 255, the result is
clamped to 255. If the result is less than zero, the result is clamped to zero.
For any color (R,G,B), the transformed color (R', G', B') is calculated as follows:
R' = max(0, min(R + RedAddTerm, 255))
G' = max(0, min(G + GreenAddTerm, 255))
B' = max(0, min(B + BlueAddTerm, 255))
Addition and multiplication transforms can be combined as follows. The multiplication

operation is performed first:
R' = max(0, min(((R * RedMultTerm) / 256) + RedAddTerm, 255))
G' = max(0, min(((G * GreenMultTerm) / 256) + GreenAddTerm, 255))
B' = max(0, min(((B * BlueMultTerm) / 256) + BlueAddTerm, 255))
The CXFORM record must be byte aligned.
CXFORM
Field Type Comment
HasAddTerms UB[1] Has color addition values if equal
to 1
HasMultTerms UB[1] Has color multiply values if equal to

1
Nbits UB[4] Bits in each value field
RedMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Red multiply value
GreenMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Green multiply value
BlueMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Blue multiply value
22 Basic Data Types

CXFORM
Field Type Comment
RedAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Red addition value
GreenAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Green addition value
BlueAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Blue addition value
Color transform with alpha record

The CXFORMWITHALPHA record extends the functionality of CXFORM by allowing
color transforms to be applied to the alpha channel, as well as the red, green, and blue
channels.
The following are the two types of transform possible:
■ Multiplication Transforms
■ Addition Transforms
Multiplication transforms multiply the red, green, blue, and alpha components by an
8.8 fixed-point value. The fixed-point representation of 1.0 is 0x100 or 256 decimal.
Therefore, the result of a multiplication operation should be divided by 256.
For any color (R,G,B,A), the transformed color (R', G', B', A') is calculated as follows:
R' = (R * RedMultTerm) / 256
G' = (G * GreenMultTerm) / 256
B' = (B * BlueMultTerm) / 256
A' = (A * AlphaMultTerm) / 256
The CXFORMWITHALPHA record is most commonly used to display objects as partially

transparent, achieved by multiplying the alpha channel by some value between zero and 256.
Addition transforms add a fixed value (positive or negative) to the red, green, blue, and alpha
components of the object being displayed. If the result is greater than 255, the result is
clamped to 255. If the result is less than zero, the result is clamped to zero.
For any color (R,G,B,A), the transformed color (R', G', B', A') is calculated as follows:
R' = max(0, min(R + RedAddTerm, 255))
G' = max(0, min(G + GreenAddTerm, 255))
B' = max(0, min(B + BlueAddTerm, 255))
A' = max(0, min(A + AlphaAddTerm, 255))
Color transform with alpha record 23

Addition and multiplication transforms can be combined as follows. The multiplication
operation is performed first:
R' = max(0, min(((R * RedMultTerm) / 256) + RedAddTerm, 255))
G' = max(0, min(((G * GreenMultTerm) / 256) + GreenAddTerm, 255))
B' = max(0, min(((B * BlueMultTerm) / 256) + BlueAddTerm, 255))
A' = max(0, min(((A * AlphaMultTerm) / 256) + AlphaAddTerm, 255))
Like the CXFORM record, the CXFORMWITHALPHA record is byte aligned.
CXFORMWITHALPHA
Field Type Comment
HasAddTerms UB[1] Has color addition values if
equal to 1
HasMultTerms UB[1] Has color multiply values if

equal to 1
Nbits UB[4] Bits in each value field
RedMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Red multiply value
GreenMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Green multiply value
BlueMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Blue multiply value
AlphaMultTerm If HasMultTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Alpha multiply value
RedAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Red addition value
GreenAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Green addition value
BlueAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Blue addition value
AlphaAddTerm If HasAddTerms = 1, SB[Nbits] Transparency addition

value
24 Basic Data Types

CHAPTER 2
SWF Structure Summary 2

This chapter provides a summary of the elements that comprise a SWF file.
The SWF header

All SWF files begin with the following header. The types are defined in Chapter 1, “Basic
Data Types,” on page 11,
SWF File Header

Field Type Comment
Signature UI8 Signature byte:
“F” indicates uncompressed
“C” indicates compressed (SWF 6 and later only)
Signature UI8 Signature byte always “W”
Signature UI8 Signature byte always “S”
Version UI8 Single byte file version (for example, 0x06 for SWF 6)
FileLength UI32 Length of entire file in bytes
FrameSize RECT Frame size in twips
FrameRate UI16 Frame delay in 8.8 fixed number of frames per second
FrameCount UI16 Total number of frames in file
The header begins with a three-byte signature of either 0x46, 0x57, 0x53 (“FWS”); or 0x43,
0x57, 0x53 (“CWS”). An FWS signature indicates an uncompressed SWF file; CWS
indicates that the entire file after the first 8 bytes (that is, after the FileLength field) was
compressed by using the ZLIB open standard. The data format that the ZLIB library uses is
described by Request for Comments (RFCs) documents 1950 to 1952. CWS file compression
is permitted in SWF 6 or later only.
25
A one-byte version number follows the signature. The version number is not an ASCII
character, but an 8-bit number. For example, for SWF 4, the version byte is 0x04, not the
ASCII character “4” (0x34).
The FileLength field is the total length of the SWF file, including the header. If this is an
uncompressed SWF file (FWS signature), the FileLength field should exactly match the file
size. If this is a compressed SWF file (CWS signature), the FileLength field indicates the total
length of the file after decompression, and thus generally does not match the file size. Having
the uncompressed size available can make the decompression process more efficient.
The FrameSize field defines the width and height of the on-screen display. This field is stored
as a RECT structure, meaning that its size may vary according to the number of bits needed
to encode the coordinates. The FrameSize RECT always has Xmin and Ymin value of 0; the
Xmax and Ymax members define the width and height (see “Using bit values” on page 16).
The FrameRate is the desired playback rate in frames per second. This rate is not guaranteed
if, for example, Flash Player is running on a slow or busy CPU.
The FrameCount is the total number of frames in this SWF file.
SWF file structure

Following the header is a series of tagged data blocks. All tags share a common format, so any
program parsing a SWF file can skip over blocks it does not understand. Data inside the block
can point to offsets within the block, but can never point to an offset in another block. This
ability enables tags to be removed, inserted, or modified by tools that process a SWF file.
The FileAttributes tag is only required for SWF 8 and later.
FileAttributes
Header Tag Tag Tag End tag
tag ...
SWF File Structure
26 SWF Structure Summary

Tag format
Each tag begins with a tag type and a length. The tag-header formats can be either short or
long. Short tag headers are used for tags with 62 bytes of data or less. Long tag headers, with a
signed 32-bit length field, can be used for any tag size up to 2GB, far larger than is presently
practical.
RECORDHEADER (short)
Field Type Comment
TagCodeAndLength UI16 Upper 10 bits: tag type
Lower 6 bits: tag length
N OT E
The TagCodeAndLength field is a two-byte word, not a bit field of 10 bits followed by a
bit field of 6 bits. The little-endian byte ordering of a SWF file makes these two layouts
different.
The length specified in the TagCodeAndLength field does not include the
RECORDHEADER that starts a tag.
If the tag is 63 bytes or longer, it is stored in a long tag header. The long tag header consists of
a short tag header with a length of 0x3f, followed by a 32-bit length.
RECORDHEADER (long)
Field Type Comment
TagCodeAndLength UI16 Tag type and length of 0x3F
Packed together as in short header
Length SI32 Length of tag
Definition and control tags

The two categories of tags in a SWF file are as follows:
Definition tags define the content of the SWF file—the shapes, text, bitmaps, sounds, and so
on. Each definition tag assigns a unique ID called a character ID to the content it defines.
Flash Player then stores the character in a repository called the dictionary. Definition tags, by
themselves, do not cause anything to be rendered.
Control tags create and manipulate rendered instances of characters in the dictionary, and
control the flow of the file.
Definition and control tags 27

Tag ordering in SWF files
Generally speaking, tags in a SWF can occur in any order. However, you must observe the
following rules:
■ The FileAttributes tag must be the first tag in the SWF file for SWF 8 and later.
■ A tag should only depend on tags that come before it. A tag should never depend on a tag
that comes later in the file.
■ A definition tag that defines a character must occur before any control tag that refers to
that character.
■ Streaming sound tags must be in order. Out-of-order streaming sound tags result in the
sound being played out of order.
■ The End tag is always the last tag in the SWF file.
The dictionary
The dictionary is a repository of characters that are defined, and are available for control tags
to use. The process of building and using the dictionary is as follows:
1. The definition tag defines some content, such as a shape, font, bitmap, or sound.
2. The definition tag assigns a unique CharacterId to the content.
3. The content is saved in the dictionary under the CharacterId.
4. A control tag uses the CharacterId to retrieve the content from the dictionary, and performs
some action on the content, such as displaying a shape, or playing a sound.
Every definition tag must specify a unique ID. Duplicate IDs are not allowed. Typically, the
first CharacterId is 1, the second CharacterId is 2, and so on. The number zero (0) is special
and is considered a null character.
Control tags are not the only tags that reference the dictionary. Definition tags can use
characters from the dictionary to define more complex characters. For example, the
DefineButton and DefineSprite tags refer to other characters to define their contents. The
DefineText tag can refer to font characters to select different fonts for the text.

The following diagram illustrates a typical interaction between definition tags, control tags,
and the dictionary:
Tags in SWF file Dictionary
DefineShape as character 1 Character 1

Shape
DefineSound as character 2
Character 2
DefineFont as character 3 Sound
PlaceObject character 1 Character 3

Add shape to display list* Font
DefineText as character 4 Character 4

Uses font defined as character 3 Text
PlaceObject character 4 Character 5

Add text to display list* Morph
ShowFrame
Render contents of the display*
DefineMorphShape as character 5
Contol tag
StartSound character 2
Definition tag
PlaceObject character 5
Character
Add Morph to display list*
ShowFrame
Render contents of the display*
* See The Display List.
Processing a SWF file

Flash Player processes all of the tags in a SWF file until a ShowFrame tag is encountered. At
this point, the display list is copied to the screen and Flash Player is idle until it is time to
process the next frame. The contents of the first frame are the cumulative effect of performing
all of the control tag operations before the first ShowFrame tag. The contents of the second
frame are the cumulative effect of performing all of the control tag operations from the
beginning of the file to the second ShowFrame tag, and so on.
Processing a SWF file 29

File compression strategy
Since SWF files are frequently delivered over a network connection, they should be as
compact as possible. Several techniques are used to accomplish this, including the following
items:
Reuse—The structure of the character dictionary makes it easy to reuse elements in a SWF
file. For example, a shape, button, sound, font, or bitmap can be stored in a file once and
referenced many times.
Compression—Shapes are compressed by using an efficient delta encoding scheme; often the
first coordinate of a line is assumed to be the last coordinate of the previous line. Distances are
also often expressed relative to the last position.
Default values—Some structures, like matrixes and color transforms, have common fields
that are used more often than others. For example, for a matrix, the most common field is the
translation field. Scaling and rotation are less common. Therefore, if the scaling field is not
present, it is assumed to be 100%. If the rotation field is not present, it is assumed that there
is no rotation. This use of default values helps to minimize file sizes.
Change Encoding—As a rule, SWF files only store the changes between states. This is
reflected in shape data structures and in the place-move-remove model that the display list
uses.
Shape Data Structure—The shape data structure uses a unique structure to minimize the
size of shapes and to render anti-aliased shapes efficiently on the screen.
Summary
A SWF file is made up of a header, followed by a number of tags. The two types of tags are
definition tags and control tags. Definition tags define the objects known as characters,
which are stored in the dictionary. Control tags manipulate characters, and control the flow
of the file.

CHAPTER 3
The Display List 3

Displaying a frame of a SWF file is a three-stage process:
1. Objects are defined with definition tags such as DefineShape, DefineSprite, and so on.
Each object is given a unique ID called a character, and is stored in a repository called the
dictionary.
2. Selected characters are copied from the dictionary and placed on the display list, which is
the list of the characters that will be displayed in the next frame.
3. Once complete, the contents of the display list are rendered to the screen with ShowFrame.
A depth value is assigned to each character on the display list. The depth determines the
stacking order of the character. Characters with lower depth values are displayed underneath
characters with higher depth values. A character with a depth value of 1 is displayed at the
bottom of the stack. A character can appear more than once in the display list, but at different
depths. Only one character can be at any given depth.
In SWF 1 and 2, the display list was a flat list of the objects that are present on the screen at
any given time. In SWF 3 and later versions, the display list is a hierarchical list where an
element on the display can have a list of child elements. For more information, see
DefineSprite.
The following six tags are used to control the display list:
■ PlaceObject Adds a character to the display list.
■ PlaceObject2 & PlaceObject3 Adds a character to the display list, or modifies the
character at the specified depth.
■ RemoveObject Removes the specified character from the display list.
■ RemoveObject2 Removes the character at the specified depth.
■ ShowFrame Renders the contents of the display list to the display.
N OT E
The older tags, PlaceObject and RemoveObject, are rarely used in SWF 3 and
later versions.
31
The following diagram illustrates the display process. First, three objects are defined: a shape,
a text object, and a sprite. These objects are given character IDs and stored in the dictionary.
Character 1 (the shape) is then placed at depth 1, the bottom of the stack, and will be
obscured by all other characters when the frame is rendered. Character 2 (the text) is placed
twice; once at depth 2, and once at depth 4, the top of the stack. Character 3 (the sprite) is
placed at depth 3.
Definition Dictionary Display List
Top
DefineShape Character ID = 1 Character ID = 2
Character ID = 1 Depth = 4
DefineText Character ID = 3
Character ID = 2
DefineSprite Character ID = 2
Character ID = 3
Character ID = 1
Depth = 1
Bottom
Clipping layers
Flash Player supports a special kind of object in the display list called a clipping layer. A
character placed as a clipping layer is not displayed; rather it clips (or masks) the characters
placed above it. The ClipDepth field in PlaceObject2 specifies the top-most depth that the
clipping layer masks.
32 The Display List

For example, if a shape was placed at depth 1 with a ClipDepth of 4, all depths above 1, up to
and including depth 4, are masked by the shape placed at depth 1. Characters placed at depths
above 4 are not masked.
Display List Key
Top
Character ID =4 Clipping Layer
Depth = 5
Character ID = 3 Character masked

Depth = 4 by Clipping Layer
Character ID = 3 Character not masked

Depth = 3 by Clipping Layer
Character ID = 2
Depth = 2
Character ID = 1
Depth = 1
ClipDepth = 4
Bottom
Using the display list

The following procedure creates and displays an animation:
1. Define each character with a definition tag.
Each character is given a unique character ID, and added to the dictionary.
2. Add each character to the display list with a PlaceObject2 tag. Each PlaceObject2 tag
specifies the character to be displayed, plus the following attributes:
A depth value, which controls the stacking order of the character being placed. Characters
with lower depth values appear to be underneath characters with higher depth values. A
depth value of 1 means the character is displayed at the bottom of the stack. Only one
character can be at any given depth.
A transformation matrix, which determines the position, scale, factor, and angle of
rotation of the character being placed. The same character can be placed more than once
(at different depths) with a different transformation matrix.
An optional color transform, which specifies the color effect applied to the character
being placed. Color effects include transparency and color shifts.
An optional name string, which identifies the character being placed for SetTarget
actions. SetTarget is used to perform actions inside sprite objects.
Using the display list 33

An optional ClipDepth value, which specifies the top-most depth that will be masked by
the character being placed.
An optional ratio value, which controls how a morph character is displayed when placed.
A ratio of zero displays the character at the start of the morph. A ratio of 65535 displays
the character at the end of the morph.
3. Use a ShowFrame tag to render the contents of the display list to the screen.
4. Use a PlaceObject2 tag to modify each character on the display List.
Each PlaceObject2 assigns a new transformation matrix to the character at a given depth.
The character ID is not specified because each depth can have only one character.
5. Use a ShowFrame tag to display the characters in their new positions.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each frame of the animation.
N OT E
If a character does not change from frame to frame, you do not need to replace the
unchanged character after each frame.
6. Use a RemoveObject2 tag to Remove each character from the display list.
Only the depth value is required to identify the character being removed.
Display list tags

Display list tags are used to add character and character attributes to a display list.
PlaceObject
The PlaceObject tag adds a character to the display list. The CharacterId identifies the
character to be added. The Depth field specifies the stacking order of the character. The
Matrix field species the position, scale, and rotation of the character. If the size of the
PlaceObject tag exceeds the end of the transformation matrix, it is assumed that a
ColorTransform field is appended to the record. The ColorTransform field specifies a color
effect (such as transparency) that is applied to the character. The same character can be added
more than once to the display list with a different depth and transformation matrix.
NOT E
PlaceObject is rarely used in SWF 3 and later versions; it is superseded by PlaceObject2

and PlaceObject3.
34 The Display List

The minimum file format version is SWF 1.
PlaceObject
Field Type Comment
Header RECORDHEADER Tag type = 4
CharacterId UI16 ID of character to place
Depth UI16 Depth of character
Matrix MATRIX Transform matrix data
ColorTransform (optional) CXFORM Color transform data
PlaceObject2
The PlaceObject2 tag extends the functionality of the PlaceObject tag. The PlaceObject2 tag
can both add a character to the display list, and modify the attributes of a character that is
already on the display list. The PlaceObject2 tag changed slightly from SWF 4 to SWF 5. In
SWF 5, clip actions were added.
The tag begins with a group of flags that indicate which fields are present in the tag. The
optional fields are CharacterId, Matrix, ColorTransform, Ratio, ClipDepth, Name, and
ClipActions. The Depth field is the only field that is always required.
The depth value determines the stacking order of the character. Characters with lower depth
values are displayed underneath characters with higher depth values. A depth value of 1 means
the character is displayed at the bottom of the stack. Any given depth can have only one
character. This means a character that is already on the display list can be identified by its
depth alone (that is, a CharacterId is not required).
The PlaceFlagMove and PlaceFlagHasCharacter tags indicate whether a new character is
being added to the display list, or a character already on the display list is being modified. The
meaning of the flags is as follows:
■ PlaceFlagMove = 0 and PlaceFlagHasCharacter = 1
A new character (with ID of CharacterId) is placed on the display list at the specified
depth. Other fields set the attributes of this new character.
The character at the specified depth is modified. Other fields modify the attributes of this
character. Because any given depth can have only one character, no CharacterId is
required.
Display list tags 35

The character at the specified Depth is removed, and a new character (with ID of
CharacterId) is placed at that depth. Other fields set the attributes of this new character.
For example, a character that is moved over a series of frames has PlaceFlagHasCharacter set
in the first frame, and PlaceFlagMove set in subsequent frames. The first frame places the new
character at the desired depth, and sets the initial transformation matrix. Subsequent frames
replace the transformation matrix of the character at the desired depth.
The optional fields in PlaceObject2 have the following meaning:
■ The CharacterId field specifies the character to be added to the display list. CharacterId is
used only when a new character is being added. If a character that is already on the display
list is being modified, the CharacterId field is absent.
■ The Matrix field specifies the position, scale and rotation of the character being added
or modified.
■ The ColorTransform field specifies the color effect applied to the character being added
or modified.
■ The Ratio field specifies a morph ratio for the character being added or modified. This
field applies only to characters defined with DefineMorphShape, and controls how far the
morph has progressed. A ratio of zero displays the character at the start of the morph. A
ratio of 65535 displays the character at the end of the morph. For values between zero and
65535 Flash Player interpolates between the start and end shapes, and displays an in-
between shape.
■ The ClipDepth field specifies the top-most depth that will be masked by the character
being added. A ClipDepth of zero indicates that this is not a clipping character.
■ The Name field specifies a name for the character being added or modified. This field is
typically used with sprite characters, and is used to identify the sprite for SetTarget
actions. It allows the main file (or other sprites) to perform actions inside the sprite (see
“Sprites and Movie Clips” on page 231).
■ The ClipActions field, which is valid only for placing sprite characters, defines one or
more event handlers to be invoked when certain events occur.
36 The Display List

PlaceObject2
Field Type Comment
PlaceFlagHasClipActions UB[1] SWF 5 and later: has
clip actions (sprite
characters only)
Otherwise: always 0
PlaceFlagHasClipDepth UB[1] Has clip depth
PlaceFlagHasName UB[1] Has name
PlaceFlagHasRatio UB[1] Has ratio
PlaceFlagHasColorTransform UB[1] Has color transform
PlaceFlagHasMatrix UB[1] Has matrix
PlaceFlagHasCharacter UB[1] Places a character
PlaceFlagMove UB[1] Defines a character to

be moved
CharacterId If PlaceFlagHasCharacter ID of character to place

UI16
Matrix If PlaceFlagHasMatrix Transform matrix data

MATRIX
ColorTransform If PlaceFlagHasColorTransform Color transform data

CXFORMWITHALPHA
Ratio If PlaceFlagHasRatio UI16
Name If PlaceFlagHasName STRING Name of character

ClipDepth If PlaceFlagHasClipDepth UI16 Clip depth
(see “Clipping layers”
on page 32)
ClipActions If PlaceFlagHasClipActions SWF 5 and later:

CLIPACTIONS Clip Actions Data

Clip actions are valid for placing sprite characters only. Clip actions define event handlers for
a sprite character.
CLIPACTIONS
Field Type Comment
Reserved UI16 Must be 0
AllEventFlags CLIPEVENTFLAGS All events used in these clip

actions
ClipActionRecords CLIPACTIONRECORD Individual event handlers

[one or more]
ClipActionEndFlag If SWF version <= 5, UI16 Must be 0

If SWF version >= 6, UI32
CLIPACTIONRECORD
Field Type Comment
EventFlags CLIPEVENTFLAGS Events to which this handler
applies
ActionRecordSize UI32 Offset in bytes from end of this

field to next
CLIPACTIONRECORD (or
ClipActionEndFlag)
KeyCode If EventFlags contain Key code to trap (see

ClipEventKeyPress: UI8 “DefineButton2” on page 226)
Otherwise absent
Actions ACTIONRECORD Actions to perform

[one or more]
PlaceObject3
The PlaceObject3 tag extends the functionality of the PlaceObject2 tag. PlaceObject3 adds
the following new features:
■ The PlaceFlagHasClassName field indicates that a class name will be specified, indicating
the type of object to place. Because we no longer use ImportAssets in ActionScript 3.0,
there needed to be some way to place a Timeline object using a class imported from
another SWF, which does not have a 16-bit character ID in the instantiating SWF.
Supported in Flash Player 9.0.45.0 and later.
38 The Display List

■ The PlaceFlagHasImage field indicates the creation of native Bitmap objects on the
display list. When PlaceFlagHasClassName and PlaceFlagHasImage are both defined, this
indicates a Bitmap class to be loaded from another SWF. Immediately following the flags
is the class name (as above) for the BitmapData class in the loaded SWF. A Bitmap object
will be placed with the named BitmapData class as it's internal data. When
PlaceFlagHasCharacter and PlaceFlagHasImage are both defined, this indicates a Bitmap
from the current SWF. The BitmapData to be used as its internal data will be defined by
the following characterID. This only occurs when the BitmapData has a class associated
with it. If there is no class associated with the BitmapData, DefineShape should be used
with a Bitmap fill. Supported in Flash Player 9.0.45.0 and later.
■ The PlaceFlagHasCacheAsBitmap field specifies whether Flash Player should internally
cache a display object as a bitmap. Caching can speed up rendering when the object does
not change frequently.
■ A number of different blend modes can be specified as an alternative to normal alpha
compositing. The following blend modes are supported:
Add Layer
Alpha Lighten
Darken Overlay
Difference Multiply
Erase Screen
Hardlight Subtract
Invert
■ A number of bitmap filters can be applied to the display object. Adding filters implies that
the display object will be cached as a bitmap. The following bitmap filters are supported:
Bevel Drop shadow

Blur Glow
Color matrix Gradient bevel
Convolution Gradient glow

PlaceObject3
Field Type Comment
PlaceFlagHasClipActions UB[1] SWF 5 and later: has clip
actions (sprite characters
only)
Otherwise: always 0
PlaceFlagHasClipDepth UB[1] Has clip depth
PlaceFlagHasName UB[1] Has name
PlaceFlagHasRatio UB[1] Has ratio
PlaceFlagHasColorTransfo UB[1] Has color transform

rm
PlaceFlagHasMatrix UB[1] Has matrix
PlaceFlagHasCharacter UB[1] Places a character
PlaceFlagMove UB[1] Defines a character to be

moved
Reserved UB[3] Must be 0
PlaceFlagHasImage UB[1] Has class name or

character ID of bitmap to
place. If
PlaceFlagHasClassName,
use ClassName. If
PlaceFlagHasCharacter,
use CharacterId
PlaceFlagHasClassName UB[1] Has class name of object

to place
PlaceFlagHasCacheAsBit UB[1] Enables bitmap caching

map
PlaceFlagHasBlendMode UB[1] Has blend mode
PlaceFlagHasFilterList UB[1] Has filter list

ClassName If PlaceFlagHasClassName or Name of the class to place

(PlaceFlagHasImage and
PlaceFlagHasCharacter), String
40 The Display List

PlaceObject3
Field Type Comment
CharacterId If PlaceFlagHasCharacter, UI16 ID of character to place
Matrix If PlaceFlagHasMatrix, MATRIX Transform matrix data
ColorTransform If PlaceFlagHasColorTransform, Color transform data

CXFORMWITHALPHA
Ratio If PlaceFlagHasRatio, UI16
Name If PlaceFlagHasName, STRING Name of character
ClipDepth If PlaceFlagHasClipDepth, UI16 Clip depth

(see Clipping layers)
SurfaceFilterList If PlaceFlagHasFilterList, List of filters on this object
FILTERLIST
BlendMode If PlaceFlagHasBlendMode, UI8 0 or 1 = normal

2 = layer
3 = multiply
4 = screen
5 = lighten
6 = darken
7 = difference
8 = add
9 = subtract
10 = invert
11 = alpha
12 = erase
13 = overlay
14 = hardlight
Values 15 to 255 are
reserved.
BitmapCache If PlaceFlagHasCacheAsBitmap, 0 = Bitmap cache disabled

UI8 1-255 = Bitmap cache
enabled
ClipActions If PlaceFlagHasClipActions, SWF 5 and later:

CLIPACTIONS Clip Actions Data
FILTERLIST
Field Type Comment
NumberOfFilters UI8 Number of Filters
Filter FILTER[NumberOfFilters] List of filters

FILTER
Field Type Comment
FilterID UI8 0 = Has DropShadowFilter
1 = Has BlurFilter
2 = Has GlowFilter
3 = Has BevelFilter
4 = Has GradientGlowFilter
5 = Has ConvolutionFilter
6 = Has ColorMatrixFilter
7 = Has GradientBevelFilter
DropShadowFilter If FilterID = 0, Drop Shadow filter

DROPSHADOWFILTER
BlurFilter If FilterID = 1, BLURFILTER Blur filter
GlowFilter If FilterID = 2, GLOWFILTER Glow filter
BevelFilter If FilterID = 3, BEVELFILTER Bevel filter
GradientGlowFilter If FilterID = 4, Gradient Glow filter

GRADIENTGLOWFILTER
ConvolutionFilter If FilterID = 5, Convolution filter

CONVOLUTIONFILTER
ColorMatrixFilter If FilterID = 6, Color Matrix filter

COLORMATRIXFILTER
GradientBevelFilter If FilterID = 7, Gradient Bevel filter

GRADIENTBEVELFILTER
Color Matrix filter

A Color Matrix filter applies a color transformation on the pixels of a display list object. Given
an input RGBA pixel in a display list object, the color transformation is calculated in the
following way:
The resulting RGBA values are saturated.

The matrix values are stored from left to right and each row from top to bottom. The last row
is always assumed to be (0,0,0,0,1) and does not need to be stored.
COLORMATRIXFILTER
Field Type Comment
Matrix FLOAT[20] Color matrix values
42 The Display List

R' r0 r1 r2 r3 r4 R
G' g0 g1 g2 g3 g4 G
B' = b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 B
A' a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 A
1 0 0 0 0 1 1
Convolution filter
The Convolution filter is a two-dimensional discrete convolution. It is applied on each pixel
of a display object. In the following mathematical representation, F is the input pixel plane, G
is the input matrix, and H is the output pixel plane:
MatrixY – 1 MatrixX – 1
H x y = F x + i – MatrixX ---------------------- y + j – MatrixY ---------------------- + Bias G i j
2 2
j=0 i=0 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Divisor

The convolution is applied on each of the RGBA color components and then saturated,
except when the PreserveAlpha flag is set; in this case, the alpha channel value is not modified.
The clamping flag specifies how pixels outside of the input pixel plane are handled. If set to
false, the DefaultColor value is used, and otherwise, the pixel is clamped to the closest valid
input pixel.
CONVOLUTIONFILTER
Field Type Comment
MatrixX UI8 Horizontal matrix size
MatrixY UI8 Vertical matrix size
Divisor FLOAT Divisor applied to the

matrix values
Bias FLOAT Bias applied to the matrix

values
Matrix FLOAT[MatrixX * MatrixY] Matrix values
DefaultColor RGBA Default color for pixels

outside the image
Clamp UB[1] Clamp mode
PreserveAlpha UB[1] Preserve the alpha
Blur filter
The blur filter is based on a sub-pixel precise median filter (also known as a box filter). The
filter is applied on each of the RGBA color channels.
The general mathematical representation of a simple non-sub-pixel precise median filter is as
follows, and can be easily extended to support sub-pixel precision.
N OT E
This representation assumes that BlurX and BlurY are odd integers in order to get the
same result as Flash Player. The filter window is always centered on a pixel in Flash
Player.
44 The Display List

BlurY – 1 BlurX – 1
BlurX- y + j – BlurY
H x y = F x + i – --------------- ----------------
2 2
j=0 i=0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BlurX BlurY
When the number of passes is set to three, it closely approximates a Gaussian Blur filter. A
higher number of passes is possible, but for performance reasons, Adobe does not recommend
it.
BLURFILTER
Field Type Comment
BlurX FIXED Horizontal blur amount
BlurY FIXED Vertical blur amount
Passes UB[5] Number of blur passes

Drop Shadow filter

The Drop Shadow filter is based on the same median filter as the blur filter, but the filter is
applied only on the alpha color channel to obtain a shadow pixel plane.
The angle parameter is in radians. With angle set to 0, the shadow shows on the right side of
the object. The distance is measured in pixels. The shadow pixel plane values are interpolated
bilinearly if sub-pixel values are used.
The strength of the shadow normalized is 1.0 in fixed point. The strength value is applied by
multiplying each value in the shadow pixel plane.
Various compositing options are available for the drop shadow to support both inner and
outer shadows in regular or knockout modes.

The resulting color value of each pixel is obtained by multiplying the color channel of the
provided RGBA color value by the associated value in the shadow pixel plane. The resulting
pixel value is composited on the original input pixel plane by using one of the specified
compositing modes.
DROPSHADOWFILTER
Field Type Comment
DropShadowColor RGBA Color of the shadow
Angle FIXED Radian angle of the drop

shadow
Distance FIXED Distance of the drop

shadow
Strength FIXED8 Strength of the drop

shadow
InnerShadow UB[1] Inner shadow mode
Knockout UB[1] Knockout mode
CompositeSource UB[1] Composite source

Always 1
Glow filter
The Glow filter works in the same way as the Drop Shadow filter, except that it does not have
a distance and angle parameter. Therefore, it can run slightly faster.
GLOWFILTER
Field Type Comment
GlowColor RGBA Color of the shadow
Strength FIXED8 Strength of the glow
InnerGlow UB[1] Inner glow mode
46 The Display List

GLOWFILTER
Field Type Comment
Always 1

Bevel filter
The Bevel filter creates a smooth bevel on display list objects.
BEVELFILTER
Field Type Comment
ShadowColor RGBA Color of the shadow
HighlightColor RGBA Color of the highlight
Angle FIXED Radian angle of the drop

shadow
Distance FIXED Distance of the drop
shadow
Strength FIXED8 Strength of the drop

shadow
InnerShadow UB[1] Inner shadow mode

Always 1
OnTop UB[1] OnTop mode
Gradient Glow and Gradient Bevel filters

The Gradient Glow and Gradient Bevel filters are extensions of the normal Glow and Bevel
Filters and allow a gradient to be specified instead of a single color. Instead of multiplying a
single color value by the shadow-pixel plane value, the shadow-pixel plane value is mapped
directly into the gradient ramp to obtain the resulting color pixel value, which is then
composited by using one of the specified compositing modes.
GRADIENTGLOWFILTER
Field Type Comment
NumColors UI8 Number of colors in the
gradient
GradientColors RGBA[NumColors] Gradient colors
GradientRatio UI8[NumColors] Gradient ratios
48 The Display List

GRADIENTGLOWFILTER
Field Type Comment
Angle FIXED Radian angle of the

gradient glow
Distance FIXED Distance of the gradient

glow
Strength FIXED8 Strength of the gradient

glow
InnerShadow UB[1] Inner glow mode

Always 1
GRADIENTBEVELFILTER
Field Type Comment
NumColors UI8 Number of colors in the
gradient
GradientColors RGBA[NumColors] Gradient colors
GradientRatio UI8[NumColors] Gradient ratios

Angle FIXED Radian angle of the

gradient bevel
Distance FIXED Distance of the gradient

bevel
Strength FIXED8 Strength of the gradient

bevel
InnerShadow UB[1] Inner bevel mode

GRADIENTBEVELFILTER
Field Type Comment
Always 1
ClipEventFlags
The CLIPEVENTFLAGS sequence specifies one or more sprite events to which an event
handler applies. In SWF 5 and earlier, CLIPEVENTFLAGS is 2 bytes; in SWF 6 and later, it
is 4 bytes.
CLIPEVENTFLAGS
Field Type Comment
ClipEventKeyUp UB[1] Key up event
ClipEventKeyDown UB[1] Key down event
ClipEventMouseUp UB[1] Mouse up event
ClipEventMouseDown UB[1] Mouse down event
ClipEventMouseMove UB[1] Mouse move event
ClipEventUnload UB[1] Clip unload event
ClipEventEnterFrame UB[1] Frame event
ClipEventLoad UB[1] Clip load event
ClipEventDragOver UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse

drag over event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventRollOut UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse
rollout event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventRollOver UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse

rollover event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventReleaseOutside UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse

release outside event
Otherwise: always 0
50 The Display List

CLIPEVENTFLAGS
Field Type Comment
ClipEventRelease UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse
release inside event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventPress UB[1] SWF 6 and later: mouse

press event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventInitialize UB[1] SWF 6 and later: initialize
event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventData UB[1] Data received event
Reserved If SWF version >= 6, UB[5] Always 0
ClipEventConstruct If SWF version >= 6, UB[1] SWF 7 and later: construct

event
Otherwise: always 0
ClipEventKeyPress If SWF version >= 6, UB[1] Key press event
ClipEventDragOut If SWF version >= 6, UB[1] Mouse drag out event
Reserved If SWF version >= 6, UB[8] Always 0
The extra events added in SWF 6 correspond to the button movie clips in the Flash authoring
tool, which are sprites that can be scripted in the same way as buttons (see
BUTTONCONDACTION). The DragOut through Press events correspond to the button
state transition events in button action conditions; the correspondence between them is
shown in the description of Button events (see “Events, state transitions, and actions”
on page 222).
The KeyDown and KeyUp events are not specific to a particular key; handlers for these events
are executed whenever any key on the keyboard (with the possible exception of certain special
keys) transitions to the down state or up state, respectively. To find out what key made the
transition, actions within a handler should call methods of the ActionScript Key object.
The KeyPress event works differently from KeyDown and KeyUp. KeyPress is specific to a
particular key or ASCII character (which is specified in the CLIPACTIONRECORD).
KeyPress events work in an identical way (see BUTTONCONDACTION).

RemoveObject
The RemoveObject tag removes the specified character (at the specified depth) from the
display list.
RemoveObject
Field Type Comment
CharacterId UI16 ID of character to remove
RemoveObject2
The RemoveObject2 tag removes the character at the specified depth from the display list.
RemoveObject2
Field Type Comment
ShowFrame
The ShowFrame tag instructs Flash Player to display the contents of the display list. The file is
paused for the duration of a single frame.
ShowFrame
Field Type Comment
52 The Display List

CHAPTER 4
Control Tags 4
Control tags manage some overall aspects of files, frames, and playback in SWF files.
SetBackgroundColor
The SetBackgroundColor tag sets the background color of the display.
SetBackgroundColor
Field Type Comment
BackgroundColor RGB Color of the display background
FrameLabel
The FrameLabel tag gives the specified Name to the current frame. ActionGoToLabel uses
this name to identify the frame.
FrameLabel
Field Type Comment
Name STRING Label for frame
53
In SWF files of version 6 or later, an extension to the FrameLabel tag called named anchors is
available. A named anchor is a special kind of frame label that, in addition to labeling a frame
for seeking using ActionGoToLabel, labels the frame for seeking using HTML anchor syntax.
The browser plug-in versions of Adobe Flash Player, in version 6 and later, will inspect the
URL in the browser’s Location bar for an anchor specification (a trailing phrase of the form
#anchorname). If an anchor specification is present in the Location bar, Flash Player will
begin playback starting at the frame that contains a FrameLabel tag that specifies a named
anchor of the same name, if one exists; otherwise playback will begin at Frame 1 as usual. In
addition, when Flash Player arrives at a frame that contains a named anchor, it will add an
anchor specification with the given anchor name to the URL in the browser’s Location bar.
This ensures that when users create a bookmark at such a time, they can later return to the
same point in the SWF file, subject to the granularity at which named anchors are present
within the file.
To create a named anchor, insert one additional non-null byte after the null terminator of the
anchor name. This is valid only for SWF 6 or later.
NamedAnchor
Field Type Comment
Name Null-terminated STRING. Label for frame.

(0 is NULL)
Named Anchor flag UI8 Always 1
Protect
The Protect tag marks a file as not importable for editing in an authoring environment. If the
Protect tag contains no data (tag length = 0), the SWF file cannot be imported. If this tag is
present in the file, any authoring tool should prevent the file from loading for editing.
If the Protect tag does contain data (tag length is not 0), the SWF file can be imported if the
correct password is specified. The data in the tag is a null-terminated string that specifies an
MD5-encrypted password. Specifying a password is only supported in SWF 5 or later.
The MD5 password encryption algorithm used was written by Poul-Henning Kamp and is
freely distributable. It resides in the FreeBSD tree at src/lib/libcrypt/crypt-md5.c. The
EnableDebugger tag also uses MD5 password encryption algorithm.
54 Control Tags
Protect
Field Type Comment
End
The End tag marks the end of a file. This must always be the last tag in a file. The End tag is
also required to end a sprite definition.
End
Field Type Comment
ExportAssets
The ExportAssets tag makes portions of a SWF file available for import by other SWF files
(see “ImportAssets” on page 56). For example, ten SWF files that are all part of the same
website can share an embedded custom font if one file embeds the font and exports the font
character. Each exported character is identified by a string. Any type of character can be
exported.
If the value of the character in ExportAssets was previously exported with a different identifier,
Flash Player associates the tag with the latter identifier. That is, if Flash Player has already read
a given value for Tag1 and the same Tag1 value is read later in the SWF file, the second Name1
value is used.
Export Assets
Field Type Comment
Count UI16 Number of assets to export
Tag1 UI16 First character ID to export
Name1 STRING Identifier for first exported

character
ExportAssets 55
Export Assets
Field Type Comment
...
TagN UI16 Last character ID to export
NameN STRING Identifier for last exported

character
ImportAssets
The ImportAssets tag imports characters from another SWF file. The importing SWF file
references the exporting SWF file by the URL where it can be found. Imported assets are
added to the dictionary just like characters defined within a SWF file.
The URL of the exporting SWF file can be absolute or relative. If it is relative, it will be
resolved relative to the location of the importing SWF file.
The ImportAssets tag must be earlier in the frame than any later tags that rely on the
imported assets.
The ImportAssets tag was deprecated in SWF 8; Flash Player 8 or later ignores this tag. In
SWF 8 or later, use the ImportAssets2 tag instead.
The minimum file format version is SWF 5, and the maximum file format version is SWF 7.
ImportAssets
Field Type Comment
URL STRING URL where the source
SWF file can be found
Count UI16 Number of assets to import
Tag1 UI16 Character ID to use for first

imported character in
importing SWF file (need
not match character ID in
exporting SWF file)
Name1 STRING Identifier for first imported

character (must match an
identifier in exporting SWF
file)
...
56 Control Tags
ImportAssets
Field Type Comment
TagN UI16 Character ID to use for last
importing SWF file
NameN STRING Identifier for last imported

character
EnableDebugger
The EnableDebugger tag enables debugging. The password in the EnableDebugger tag is
encrypted by using the MD5 algorithm, in the same way as the Protect tag.
The EnableDebugger tag was deprecated in SWF 6; Flash Player 6 or later ignores this tag
because the format of the debugging information required in the ActionScript debugger was
changed in SWF 6. In SWF 6 or later, use the EnableDebugger2 tag instead.
The minimum and maximum file format version is SWF 5.
EnableDebugger
Field Type Comment
Password Null-terminated STRING. (0 MD5-encrypted password

is NULL)
EnableDebugger2
The EnableDebugger2 tag enables debugging. The Password field is encrypted by using the
MD5 algorithm, in the same way as the Protect tag.
EnableDebugger2
Field Type Comment
Reserved UI16 Always 0
Password Null-terminated STRING. MD5-encrypted password

(0 is NULL)
EnableDebugger2 57
ScriptLimits
The ScriptLimits tag includes two fields that can be used to override the default settings for
maximum recursion depth and ActionScript time-out: MaxRecursionDepth and
ScriptTimeoutSeconds.
The MaxRecursionDepth field sets the ActionScript maximum recursion limit. The default
setting is 256 at the time of this writing. This default can be changed to any value greater
than zero (0).
The ScriptTimeoutSeconds field sets the maximum number of seconds the player should
process ActionScript before displaying a dialog box asking if the script should be stopped.
The default value for ScriptTimeoutSeconds varies by platform and is between 15 to 20
seconds. This default value is subject to change.
ScriptLimits
Field Type Comment
MaxRecursionDepth UI16 Maximum recursion depth
ScriptTimeoutSeconds UI16 Maximum ActionScript

processing time before
script stuck dialog box
displays
SetTabIndex
Flash Player maintains a concept of tab order of the interactive and textual objects displayed.
Tab order is used both for actual tabbing and, in SWF 6 and later, to determine the order in
which objects are exposed to accessibility aids (such as screen readers). The SWF 7
SetTabIndex tag sets the index of an object within the tab order.
If no character is currently placed at the specified depth, this tag is ignored.
You can also use using the ActionScript tabIndex property to establish tab ordering, but this
does not provide a way to set a tab index for a static text object, because the player does not
provide a scripting reflection of static text objects. Fortunately, this is not a problem for the
purpose of tabbing, because static text objects are never actually tab stops. However, this is a
problem for the purpose of accessibility ordering, because static text objects are exposed to
accessibility aids. When generating SWF content that is intended to be accessible and
contains static text objects, the SetTabIndex tag is more useful than the tabIndex property.
58 Control Tags
SetTabIndex
Field Type Comment
TabIndex UI16 Tab order value
FileAttributes
The FileAttributes tag defines characteristics of the SWF file. This tag is required for SWF 8
and later and must be the first tag in the SWF file. Additionally, the FileAttributes tag can
optionally be included in all SWF file versions.
The HasMetadata flag identifies whether the SWF file contains the Metadata tag. Flash Player
does not care about this bit field or the related tag but it is useful for search engines.
The UseNetwork flag signifies whether Flash Player should grant the SWF file local or
network file access if the SWF file is loaded locally. The default behavior is to allow local SWF
files to interact with local files only, and not with the network. However, by setting the
UseNetwork flag, the local SWF can forfeit its local file system access in exchange for access to
the network. Any version of SWF can use the UseNetwork flag to set the file access for locally
loaded SWF files that are running in Flash Player 8 or later.
FileAttributes 59
FileAttributes
Field Type Comment
UseDirectBlit UB[1] If 1, the SWF file uses hardware acceleration

to blit graphics to the screen, where such
(see note following acceleration is available.
table) If 0, the SWF file will not use hardware
accelerated graphics facilities.
Minimum file version is 10.
UseGPU UB[1] If 1, the SWF file uses GPU compositing

features when drawing graphics, where such
(see note following acceleration is available.
table) If 0, the SWF file will not use hardware
accelerated graphics facilities.
Minimum file version is 10.
HasMetadata UB[1] If 1, the SWF file contains the Metadata tag.

If 0, the SWF file does not contain the
Metadata tag.
ActionScript3 UB[1] If 1, this SWF uses ActionScript 3.0.

If 0, this SWF uses ActionScript 1.0 or 2.0.
Minimum file format version is 9.
UseNetwork UB[1] If 1, this SWF file is given network file access

when loaded locally.
If 0, this SWF file is given local file access
when loaded locally.

N OT E
The UseDirectBlit and UseGPU flags are relevant only when a SWF file is playing in the
standalone Flash Player. When a SWF file plays in a web browser plug-in, UseDirectBlit
is equivalent to specifying a wmode of “direct” in the tags that embed the SWF inside
the HTML page, while UseGPU is equivalent to a wmode of “gpu”.
ImportAssets2
The ImportAssets2 tag replaces the ImportAssets tag for SWF 8 and later. ImportAssets2
60 Control Tags
currently mirrors the ImportAssets tag’s functionality.
The ImportAssets2 tag imports characters from another SWF file. The importing SWF file
references the exporting SWF file by the URL where it can be found. Imported assets are
added to the dictionary just like characters defined within a SWF file.
The URL of the exporting SWF file can be absolute or relative. If it is relative, it is resolved
relative to the location of the importing SWF file.
The ImportAssets2 tag must be earlier in the frame than any later tags that rely on the
imported assets.
ImportAssets2 61
ImportAssets2
Field Type Comment
URL STRING URL where the source
SWF file can be found
Count UI16 Number of assets to import
Tag1 UI16 Character ID to use for first

importing SWF file (need
not match character ID in
exporting SWF file)
Name1 STRING Identifier for first imported

character (must match an
identifier in exporting SWF
file)
...
TagN UI16 Character ID to use for last

importing SWF file
NameN STRING Identifier for last imported
character
SymbolClass
The SymbolClass tag creates associations between symbols in the SWF file and
ActionScript 3.0 classes. It is the ActionScript 3.0 equivalent of the ExportAssets tag. If the
character ID is zero, the class is associated with the main timeline of the SWF. This is how the
root class of a SWF is designated. Classes listed in the SymbolClass tag are available for
creation by other SWF files (see StartSound2, DefineEditText (HasFontClass), and
PlaceObject3 (PlaceFlagHasClassName and PlaceFlagHasImage). For example, ten SWF files
that are all part of the same website can share an embedded custom font if one file embeds
and exports the font class.
62 Control Tags
SymbolClass
Field Type Comment
NumSymbols UI16 Number of symbols that

will be associated by this
tag.
Tag1 U16 The 16-bit character tag ID

for the symbol to associate
Name1 STRING The fully-qualified name of

the ActionScript 3.0 class
with which to associate this
symbol. The class must
have already been
declared by a DoABC tag.
... ... ...
TagN U16 Tag ID for symbol N
NameN STRING Fully-qualified class name

for symbol N
Metadata
The Metadata tag is an optional tag to describe the SWF file to an external process. The tag
embeds XML metadata in the SWF file so that, for example, a search engine can locate this
tag, access a title for the SWF file, and display that title in search results. Flash Player always
ignores the Metadata tag.
If the Metadata tag is included in a SWF file, the FileAttributes tag must also be in the SWF
file with its HasMetadata flag set. Conversely, if the FileAttributes tag has the HasMetadata
flag set, the Metadata tag must be in the SWF file. The Metadata tag can only be in the SWF
file one time.
The format of the metadata is RDF that is compliant with Adobe’s Extensible Metadata
Platform (XMP™) specification. For more information about RDF and XMP, see the
following sources:
■ The RDF Primer at www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer
■ The RDF Specification at www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-rdf-syntax-19990222
■ The XMP home page at www.adobe.com/products/xmp
Metadata 63
The following examples show two of many acceptable ways to represent the Metadata string
in the SWF file. The first example provides basic information about the SWF file, the title
and description:
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=’http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#’>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=’’ xmlns:dc=’http://purl.org/dc/1.1’>
<dc:title>Simple Title</dc:title>
<dc:description>Simple Description</dc:description>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
In the second example, the title is described for multiple languages:

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=’http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#’>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=’’ xmlns:dc=’http://purl.org/dc/1.1’>
<dc:title>
<rdf:Alt>
<rdf:li xml:lang=’x-default’>Default Title</rdf:li>
<rdf:li xml:lang=’en-us’>US English Title</rdf:li>
<rdf:li xml:lang=’fr-fr’>Titre Français</rdf:li>
<rdf:li xml:lang=’it-it’>Titolo Italiano</rdf:li>
</rdf:Alt>
</dc:title>
<dc:description>Simple Description</dc:description>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
The Metadata string is stored in the SWF file with all unnecessary white space removed.
Metadata
Field Type Comment
Metadata STRING XML Metadata
64 Control Tags
DefineScalingGrid
The DefineScalingGrid tag introduces the concept of 9-slice scaling, which allows
component-style scaling to be applied to a sprite or button character.
When the DefineScalingGrid tag associates a character with a 9-slice grid, Flash Player
conceptually divides the sprite or button into nine sections with a grid-like overlay. When the
character is scaled, each of the nine areas is scaled independently. To maintain the visual
integrity of the character, corners are not scaled, while the remaining areas of the image are
scaled larger or smaller, as needed.
DefineScalingGrid
Field Type Comment
CharacterId UI16 ID of sprite or button

character upon which the
scaling grid will be applied.
Splitter RECT Center region of 9-slice

grid
The Splitter rectangle specifies the center portion of the nine regions of the scaling grid, and
from this rectangle Flash Player derives the 9-slice grid. The width and height of the rectangle
must be at least one twip each (1/20 pixel), or Flash Player ignores the DefineScalingGrid tag.
When a sprite or button with a DefineScalingGrid association is scaled, the nine regions of
the character scale according to the following table:
No scale Horizontal scale No scale
Horizontal and Vertical scale

Vertical scale
vertical scale
No scale Horizontal scale No scale
9-slice scaling does not affect the children of, or any text within, the specified character. These
objects transform normally.
The sprite or button with a DefineScalingGrid association cannot be rotated or skewed, and
doing so disables 9-slice behavior. However, this limitation does not apply to parents or
children of the 9-slice object, and parent rotation or skew is applied to the 9-slice objects in
the normal manner.
DefineScalingGrid 65
Flash Player stretches any fills in the character to fit the shape.
9-slice scaling does not affect the bounds or origin of any object.
If a 9-slice character is scaled below its original size, the five scaling regions are consumed until
they become very small. Once the minimum size is reached, Flash Player reverts to normal,
non-9-slice scaling.
DefineSceneAndFrameLabelData
The DefineSceneAndFrameLabelData tag contains scene and frame label data for a
MovieClip. Scenes are supported for the main timeline only, for all other movie clips a single
scene is exported.
DefineSceneAndFrameLabelData
Field Type Comment
SceneCount EncodedU32 Number of scenes

Offset1 EncodedU32 Frame offset for scene 1
Name1 STRING Name of scene 1
... ... ...

OffsetN EncodedU32 Frame offset for scene N
NameN STRING Name of scene N
FrameLabelCount EncodedU32 Number of frame labels
FrameNum1 EncodedU32 Frame number of frame

label #1 (zero-based,
global to symbol)
FrameLabel1 STRING Frame label string of frame

label #1
... ... ...
FrameNumN EncodedU32 Frame number of frame

label #N (zero-based,
global to symbol)
FrameLabelN STRING Frame label string of frame

label #N
66 Control Tags
CHAPTER 5
Actions 5
Actions are an essential part of an interactive SWF file. Actions allow a file to react to events
such as mouse movements or mouse clicks. The SWF 3 action model and earlier supports a
simple action model. The SWF 4 action model supports a greatly enhanced action model that
includes an expression evaluator, variables, and conditional branching and looping. The
SWF 5 action model adds a JavaScript-style object model, data types, and functions.
SWF 3 action model

The SWF 3 action model consists of eleven instructions for Flash Player:
Instruction See Description

Play ActionPlay Start playing at the current frame
Stop ActionStop Stop playing at the current frame
NextFrame ActionNextFrame Go to the next frame
PreviousFrame ActionPreviousFrame Go to the previous frame

GotoFrame ActionGotoFrame Go to the specified frame
GotoLabel ActionGoToLabel Go to the frame with the specified label
WaitForFrame ActionWaitForFrame Wait for the specified frame
GetURL ActionGetURL Get the specified URL

StopSounds ActionStopSounds Stop all sounds playing
ToggleQuality ActionToggleQuality Toggle the display between high and low

quality
SetTarget ActionSetTarget Change the context of subsequent actions to a

named object
67
An action (or list of actions) can be triggered by a button state transition, or by SWF 3
actions. The action is not executed immediately, but is added to a list of actions to be
processed. The list is executed on a ShowFrame tag, or after the button state has changed. An
action can cause other actions to be triggered, in which case, the action is added to the list of
actions to be processed. Actions are processed until the action list is empty.
By default, Timeline actions such as Stop (see ActionStop), Play (see ActionPlay), and
GoToFrame (see ActionGotoFrame) apply to files that contain them. However, the SetTarget
action (see ActionSetTarget), which is called Tell Target in the Adobe Flash user interface, can
be used to send an action command to another file or sprite (see DefineSprite).
SWF 3 actions
The actions in this section are available in SWF 3.
DoAction
DoAction instructs Flash Player to perform a list of actions when the current frame is
complete. The actions are performed when the ShowFrame tag is encountered, regardless of
where in the frame the DoAction tag appears.
Starting with SWF 9, if the ActionScript3 field of the FileAttributes tag is 1, the contents of
the DoAction tag will be ignored.
Field Type Comment

Actions ACTIONRECORD [zero or more] List of actions to perform (see

following table, ActionRecord)
ActionEndFlag UI8 = 0 Always set to 0
ACTIONRECORD
An ACTIONRECORD consists of an ACTIONRECORDHEADER followed by a possible
data payload. The ACTIONRECORDHEADER describes the action using an ActionCode.
If the action also carries data, the ActionCode’s high bit will be set which indicates that the
ActionCode is followed by a 16-bit length and a data payload. Note that many actions have
no data payload and only consist of a single byte value.
68 Actions
An ACTIONRECORDHEADER has the following layout:
Field Type Comment
ActionCode UI8 An action code
Length If code >= 0x80, UI16 The number of bytes in the

ACTIONRECORDHEADER, not
counting the ActionCode and
Length fields.
ActionGotoFrame
ActionGotoFrame instructs Flash Player to go to the specified frame in the current file.
Field Type Comment

ActionGotoFrame ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x81; Length is
always 2
Frame UI16 Frame index
ActionGetURL
ActionGetURL instructs Flash Player to get the URL that UrlString specifies. The URL can
be of any type, including an HTML file, an image or another SWF file. If the file is playing in
a browser, the URL is displayed in the frame that TargetString specifies. The "_level0" and
"_level1" special target names are used to load another SWF file into levels 0 and 1
respectively.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetURL ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x83
UrlString STRING Target URL string
TargetString STRING Target string
ActionNextFrame
ActionNextFrame instructs Flash Player to go to the next frame in the current file.
Field Type Comment

ActionNextFrame ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x04
SWF 3 action model 69

ActionPreviousFrame
ActionPreviousFrame instructs Flash Player to go to the previous frame of the current file.
Field Type Comment

ActionPrevFrame ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x05
ActionPlay
ActionPlay instructs Flash Player to start playing at the current frame.
Field Type Comment

ActionPlay ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x06
ActionStop
ActionStop instructs Flash Player to stop playing the file at the current frame.
Field Type Comment

ActionStop ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x07
ActionToggleQuality
ActionToggleQuality toggles the display between high and low quality.
Field Type Comment

ActionToggleQualty ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x08
ActionStopSounds
ActionStopSounds instructs Flash Player to stop playing all sounds.
Field Type Comment

ActionStopSounds ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x09
70 Actions
ActionWaitForFrame
ActionWaitForFrame instructs Flash Player to wait until the specified frame; otherwise skips
the specified number of actions.
Field Type Comment

ActionWaitForFrame ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8A; Length is
always 3
Frame UI16 Frame to wait for
SkipCount UI8 Number of actions to skip if

frame is not loaded
ActionSetTarget
ActionSetTarget instructs Flash Player to change the context of subsequent actions, so they
apply to a named object (TargetName) rather than the current file.
For example, the SetTarget action can be used to control the Timeline of a sprite object. The
following sequence of actions sends a sprite called "spinner" to the first frame in its
Timeline:
1. SetTarget "spinner"
2. GotoFrame zero
3. SetTarget " " (empty string)
4. End of actions. (Action code = 0)
All actions following SetTarget “spinner” apply to the spinner object until SetTarget “”,
which sets the action context back to the current file. For a complete discussion of target
names see DefineSprite.
Field Type Comment

ActionSetTarget ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8B
TargetName STRING Target of action target
ActionGoToLabel
ActionGoToLabel instructs Flash Player to go to the frame associated with the specified label.
You can attach a label to a frame with the FrameLabel tag.
Field Type Comment

ActionGoToLabel ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8C
Label STRING Frame label

SWF 4 action model
The SWF 4 file format supports a greatly enhanced action model that includes an expression
evaluator, variables, conditional branching and looping.
Flash Player 4 incorporates a stack machine that interprets and executes SWF 4 actions. The
key SWF 4 action is ActionPush. This action is used to push one or more parameters onto the
stack. Unlike SWF 3 actions, SWF 4 actions do not have parameters embedded in the tag,
rather they push parameters onto the stack, and pop results off the stack.
The expression evaluator is also stack based. Arithmetic operators include ActionAdd,
ActionSubtract, ActionMultiply, and ActionDivide. The Flash authoring tool converts
expressions to a series of stack operations. For example, the expression 1+x*3 is represented as
the following action sequence:
ActionPush "x"
ActionGetVariable
ActionPush "3"
ActionMultiply
ActionPush "1"
ActionAdd
The result of this expression is on the stack.

N OT E
All values on the stack, including numeric values, are stored as strings. In the preceding
example, the numeric values 3 and 1 are pushed onto the stack as the strings "3" and
"1".
The program counter

The current point of execution of Flash Player is called the program counter (PC). The value
of the PC is defined as the address of the action that follows the action currently being
executed. Control flow actions such as ActionJump change the value of the PC. These actions
are similar to branch instructions in assembler, or the goto instruction in other languages. For
example, ActionJump tells Flash Player to jump to a new position in the action sequence. The
new PC is specified as an offset from the current PC. Both positive and negative offsets can
occur, so Flash Player can jump forward and backward in the action sequence.
72 Actions
SWF 4 actions
The following actions are available in SWF 4:
Type of action Name of action

Arithmetic operators ActionAdd
ActionDivide
ActionMultiply
ActionSubtract
Numerical comparison ActionEquals

ActionLess
Logical operators ActionAnd

ActionNot
ActionOr
String manipulation ActionStringAdd

ActionStringEquals
ActionStringExtract
ActionStringLength
ActionMBStringExtract
ActionMBStringLength
ActionStringLess
Stack operations ActionPop

ActionPush
Type conversion ActionAsciiToChar
ActionCharToAscii
ActionToInteger
ActionMBAsciiToChar
ActionMBCharToAscii
Control flow ActionCall
ActionIf
ActionJump
Variables ActionGetVariable
ActionSetVariable

Movie control ActionGetURL2
ActionGetProperty
ActionGotoFrame2
ActionRemoveSprite
ActionSetProperty
ActionSetTarget2
ActionStartDrag
ActionWaitForFrame2
ActionCloneSprite
ActionEndDrag
Utilities ActionGetTime
ActionRandomNumber
ActionTrace
Stack operations
This section lists stack operations.
ActionPush
ActionPush pushes one or more values to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionPush ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x96
Type UI8 0 = string literal

1 = floating-point literal
The following types are available in SWF
5 and later:
2 = null
3 = undefined
4 = register
5 = Boolean
6 = double
7 = integer
8 = constant 8
9 = constant 16
String If Type = 0, STRING Null-terminated character string
Float If Type = 1, FLOAT 32-bit IEEE single-precision little-endian

floating-point value
RegisterNumber If Type = 4, UI8 Register number
74 Actions
Field Type Comment
Boolean If Type = 5, UI8 Boolean value
Double If Type = 6, DOUBLE 64-bit IEEE double-precision little-

endian double value
Integer If Type = 7, UI32 32-bit little-endian integer
Constant8 If Type = 8, UI8 Constant pool index (for indexes < 256)
(see ActionConstantPool)
Constant16 If Type = 9, UI16 Constant pool index (for indexes >= 256)
(see ActionConstantPool)
ActionPush pushes one or more values onto the stack. The Type field specifies the type of the
value to be pushed.
If Type = 1, the value to be pushed is specified as a 32-bit IEEE single-precision little-endian
floating-point value. PropertyIds are pushed as FLOATs. ActionGetProperty and
ActionSetProperty use PropertyIds to access the properties of named objects.
If Type = 4, the value to be pushed is a register number. Flash Player supports up to 4
registers. With the use of ActionDefineFunction2, up to 256 registers can be used.
In the first field of ActionPush, the length in ACTIONRECORD defines the total number of
Type and value bytes that follow the ACTIONRECORD itself. More than one set of Type
and value fields may follow the first field, depending on the number of bytes that the length
in ACTIONRECORD specifies.
ActionPop
ActionPop pops a value from the stack and discards it.
Field Type Comment

ActionPop ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x17
ActionPop pops a value off the stack and discards the value.
Arithmetic operators
The following sections describe arithmetic operators.

ActionAdd
ActionAdd adds two numbers and pushes the result back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionAdd ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0A
ActionAdd does the following:

1. Pops value A off the stack.
2. Pops value B off the stack.
3. Converts A and B to floating-point; non-numeric values evaluate to 0.
4. Adds the numbers A and B.
5. Pushes the result, A+B, to the stack.
ActionSubtract
ActionSubtract subtracts two numbers and pushes the result back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionSubtract ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0B
ActionSubtract does the following:

4. Subtracts A from B.
5. Pushes the result, B-A, to the stack.
ActionMultiply
ActionMultiply multiplies two numbers and pushes the result back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionMultiply ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0C
ActionMultiply does the following:

76 Actions
4. Multiplies A times B.
5. Pushes the result, A*B, to the stack.
ActionDivide
ActionDivide divides two numbers and pushes the result back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionDivide ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0D
ActionDivide does the following:

4. Divides B by A.
5. Pushes the result, B/A, to the stack.
6. If A is zero, the result NaN, Infinity, or -Infinity is pushed to the stack in SWF 5 and
later. In SWF 4, the result is the string #ERROR#.
Numerical comparison
ActionEquals
ActionEquals tests two numbers for equality.
Field Type Comment

ActionEquals ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0E
ActionEquals does the following:

4. Compares the numbers for equality.
5. If the numbers are equal, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later.
For SWF 4, 1 is pushed to the stack.
6. Otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later.

For SWF 4, 0 is pushed to the stack.
ActionLess
ActionLess tests if a number is less than another number
Field Type Comment

ActionLess ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x0F
ActionLess does the following:

4. If B < A, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (1 is pushed for SWF 4);
otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (0 is pushed for SWF 4).
Logical operators
ActionAnd
ActionAnd performs a logical AND of two numbers.
Field Type Comment

ActionAnd ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x10
ActionAdd does the following:

4. If both numbers are nonzero, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (1 is pushed
for SWF 4); otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (0 is pushed for
SWF 4).
78 Actions
ActionOr
ActionOr performs a logical OR of two numbers.
Field Type Comment

ActionOr ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x11
ActionOr does the following:

4. If either of the numbers is nonzero, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (1 is
pushed for SWF 4); otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (0 is
pushed for SWF 4).
ActionNot
ActionNot performs a logical NOT of a number.
N OT E
In SWF 5 files, the ActionNot operator converts its argument to a Boolean value, and
pushes a result of type Boolean. In SWF 4 files, the argument and result are numbers.
Field Type Comment

ActionNot ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x12
Result Boolean
ActionNot does the following:

1. Pops a value off the stack.
2. Converts the value to floating point; non-numeric values evaluate to 0.
3. If the value is zero, true is pushed on the stack for SWF 5 and later (1 is pushed for
SWF 4).
4. If the value is nonzero, false is pushed on the stack for SWF 5 and later (0 is pushed for
SWF 4).

String manipulation
ActionStringEquals
ActionStringEquals tests two strings for equality.
Field Type Comment

ActionStringEquals ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x13
ActionStringEquals does the following:

3. Compares A and B as strings.
The comparison is case-sensitive.
4. If the strings are equal, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (SWF 4 pushes 1).
5. Otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (SWF 4 pushes 0).
ActionStringLength
ActionStringLength computes the length of a string.
Field Type Comment

ActionStringLength ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x14
ActionStringLength does the following:

1. Pops a string off the stack.
2. Calculates the length of the string and pushes it to the stack.
ActionStringAdd
ActionStringAdd concatenates two strings.
Field Type Comment

ActionStringAdd ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x21
ActionStringAdd does the following:

80 Actions
3. Pushes the concatenation BA to the stack.
ActionStringExtract
ActionStringExtract extracts a substring from a string.
Field Type Comment

ActionStringExtract ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x15
ActionStringExtract does the following:

1. Pops number count off the stack.
2. Pops number index off the stack.
3. Pops string string off the stack.
4. Pushes the substring of the string starting at the indexed character and count characters in
length to the stack.
5. If either index or count do not evaluate to integers, the result is the empty string.
ActionStringLess
ActionStringLess tests to see if a string is less than another string
Field Type Comment

ActionStringLess ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x29
ActionStringLess does the following:

3. If B < A using a byte-by-byte comparison, true is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later
(SWF 4 pushes 1); otherwise, false is pushed to the stack for SWF 5 and later (SWF 4
pushes 0).
ActionMBStringLength
ActionMBStringLength computes the length of a string and is multi-byte aware.
Field Type Comment

ActionMBStringLength ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x31
ActionMBStringLength does the following:

1. Pops a string off the stack.
2. Calculates the length of the string in characters and pushes it to the stack.
This is a multi-byte aware version of ActionStringLength. On systems with double-byte
support, a double-byte character is counted as a single character.
ActionMBStringExtract
ActionMBStringExtract extracts a substring from a string and is multi-byte aware.
Field Type Comment

ActionMBStringExtract ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x35
It does the following:

1. Pops the number count off the stack.
2. Pops the number index off the stack.
3. Pops the string string off the stack.
4. Pushes the substring of string starting at the index’th character and count characters in
length to the stack.
N OTE
If either index or count do not evaluate to integers, the result is the empty string.
This is a multi-byte aware version of ActionStringExtract. Index and count are treated as
character indexes, counting double-byte characters as single characters.
Type conversion
ActionToInteger
ActionToInteger converts a value to an integer.
Field Type Comment

ActionToInteger ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x18
ActionToInteger does the following:

2. Converts the value to a number.
3. Discards any digits after the decimal point, resulting in an integer.
82 Actions
4. Pushes the resulting integer to the stack.
ActionCharToAscii
ActionCharToAscii converts character code to ASCII.
Field Type Comment

ActionCharToAscii ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x32
ActionCharToAscii does the following:

2. Converts the first character of the value to a numeric ASCII character code.
3. Pushes the resulting character code to the stack.
ActionAsciiToChar
ActionAsciiToChar converts a value to an ASCII character code.
Field Type Comment

ActionAsciiToChar ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x33
ActionAsciiToChar does the following:

2. Converts the value from a number to the corresponding ASCII character.
3. Pushes the resulting character to the stack.
ActionMBCharToAscii
ActionMBCharToAscii converts character code to ASCII and is multi-byte aware.
Field Type Comment

ActionMBCharToAscii ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x36
ActionMBCharToAscii does the following:

2. Converts the first character of the value to a numeric character code.
If the first character of the value is a double-byte character, a 16-bit value is constructed
with the first byte as the high-order byte and the second byte as the low-order byte.
3. Pushes the resulting character code to the stack.

ActionMBAsciiToChar
ActionMBAsciiToChar converts ASCII to character code and is multi-byte aware.
Field Type Comment

ActionMBAsciiToChar ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x37
ActionMBAsciiToChar does the following:

2. Converts the value from a number to the corresponding character.
If the character is a 16-bit value (>= 256), a double-byte character is constructed with the
first byte containing the high-order byte, and the second byte containing the low-order
byte.
3. Pushes the resulting character to the stack.
Control flow
ActionJump
ActionJump creates an unconditional branch.
Field Type Comment

ActionJump ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x99
BranchOffset SI16 Offset
ActionJump adds BranchOffset bytes to the instruction pointer in the execution stream.
The offset is a signed quantity, enabling branches from –32,768 bytes to 32,767 bytes. An
offset of 0 points to the action directly after the ActionJump action.
ActionIf
ActionIf creates a conditional test and branch.
Field Type Comment

ActionIf ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x9D
BranchOffset SI16 Offset
84 Actions
ActionIf does the following:
1. Pops Condition, a number, off the stack.
2. Converts Condition to a Boolean value.
3. Tests if Condition is true.
If Condition is true, BranchOffset bytes are added to the instruction pointer in the
execution stream.
NOT E
When playing a SWF 4 file, Condition is not converted to a Boolean value and is
instead compared to 0, not true.
The offset is a signed quantity, enabling branches from –32768 bytes to 32767 bytes. An
offset of 0 points to the action directly after the ActionIf action.
ActionCall
ActionCall calls a subroutine.
Field Type Comment

ActionCall ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x9E
ActionCall does the following:

This value should be either a string that matches a frame label, or a number that indicates
a frame number. The value can be prefixed by a target string that identifies the movie clip
that contains the frame being called.
2. If the frame is successfully located, the actions in the target frame are executed.
After the actions in the target frame are executed, execution resumes at the instruction
after the ActionCall instruction.
3. If the frame cannot be found, nothing happens.

Variables
ActionGetVariable
ActionGetVariable gets a variable’s value.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetVariable ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x1C
ActionGetVariable does the following:

1. Pops a name off the stack, a string that names is the variable to get.
2. Pushes the value of the variable to the stack.
A variable in another execution context can be referenced by prefixing the variable name with
the target path and a colon. For example: /A/B:FOO references variable FOO in a movie clip
with a target path of /A/B.
ActionSetVariable
ActionSetVariable sets a variable.
Field Type Comment

ActionSetVariable ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x1D
ActionSetVariable does the following:

1. Pops the value off the stack.
2. Pops the name off the stack, a string which names the variable to set.
3. Sets the variable name in the current execution context to value.
A variable in another execution context can be referenced by prefixing the variable name with
the target path and a colon. For example: /A/B:FOO references the FOO variable in the movie
clip with a target path of /A/B.
86 Actions
Movie control
ActionGetURL2
ActionGetURL2 gets a URL and is stack based.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetURL2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x9A; Length is
always 1
SendVarsMethod UB[2] 0 = None

1 = GET
2 = POST
Reserved UB[4] Always 0
LoadTargetFlag UB[1] 0 = Target is a browser window

1 = Target is a path to a sprite
LoadVariablesFlag UB[1] 0 = No variables to load
1 = Load variables
ActionGetURL2 does the following:

1. Pops target off the stack.
■ A LoadTargetFlag value of 0 indicates that the target is a window. The target can be an
empty string to indicate the current window.
■ A LoadTargetFlag value of 1 indicates that the target is a path to a sprite. The target
path can be in slash or dot syntax.
2. Pops a URL off the stack; the URL specifies the URL to be retrieved.
3. SendVarsMethod specifies the method to use for the HTTP request.
■ A SendVarsMethod value of 0 indicates that this is not a form request, so the movie
clip’s variables should not be encoded and submitted.
■ A SendVarsMethod value of 1 specifies a HTTP GET request.
■ A SendVarsMethod value of 2 specifies a HTTP POST request.
4. If the SendVarsMethod value is 1 (GET) or 2 (POST), the variables in the current movie
clip are submitted to the URL by using the standard x-www-form-urlencoded encoding
and the HTTP request method specified by method.

If the LoadVariablesFlag is set, the server is expected to respond with a MIME type of
application/x-www-form-urlencoded and a body in the format
var1=value1&var2=value2&...&varx=valuex. This response is used to populate
ActionScript variables rather than display a document. The variables populated can be in a
timeline (if LoadTargetFlag is 0) or in the specified sprite (if LoadTargetFlag is 1).
If the LoadTargetFlag is specified without the LoadVariablesFlag, the server is expected to
respond with a MIME type of application/x-shockwave-flash and a body that consists of a
SWF file. This response is used to load a subfile into the specified sprite rather than to display
an HTML document.
ActionGotoFrame2
ActionGotoFrame2 goes to a frame and is stack based.
Field Type Comment

ActionGotoFrame2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x9F
SceneBiasFlag UB[1] Scene bias flag
Play flag UB[1] 0 = Go to frame and stop

1 = Go to frame and play
SceneBias If SceneBiasFlag = 1, UI16 Number to be added to frame

determined by stack argument
ActionGotoFrame2 does the following:

1. Pops a frame off the stack.
■ If the frame is a number, n, the next frame of the movie to be displayed is the nth
frame in the current movie clip.
■ If the frame is a string, frame is treated as a frame label. If the specified label exists in
the current movie clip, the labeled frame will become the current frame. Otherwise,
the action is ignored.
2. Either a frame or a number can be prefixed by a target path, for example, /MovieClip:3 or
/MovieClip:FrameLabel.
3. If the Play flag is set, the action goes to the specified frame and begins playing the enclosing
movie clip. Otherwise, the action goes to the specified frame and stops.
88 Actions
ActionSetTarget2
ActionSetTarget2 sets the current context and is stack based.
Field Type Comment

ActionSetTarget2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x20
ActionSetTarget2 pops the target off the stack and makes it the current active context.
This action behaves exactly like ActionSetTarget but is stack based to enable the target path to
be the result of expression evaluation.
ActionGetProperty
ActionGetProperty gets a file property.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetProperty ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x22
ActionGetProperty does the following:

1. Pops index off the stack.
2. Pops target off the stack.
3. Retrieves the value of the property enumerated as index from the movie clip with target
path target and pushes the value to the stack.
The following table lists property index values. The _quality, _xmouse and _ymouse
properties are available in SWF 5 and later.
Property Value
_X 0
_Y 1
_xscale 2
_yscale 3
_currentframe 4
_totalframes 5
_alpha 6
_visible 7
_width 8
_height 9

Property Value
_rotation 10
_target 11
_framesloaded 12
_name 13
_droptarget 14
_url 15
_highquality 16
_focusrect 17
_soundbuftime 18
_quality 19
_xmouse 20
_ymouse 21
ActionSetProperty
ActionSetProperty sets a file property.
Field Type Comment

ActionSetProperty ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x23
ActionSetProperty does the following:

2. Pops an index off the stack.
3. Pops a target off the stack.
4. Sets the property enumerated as index in the movie clip with the target path target to the
value value.
ActionCloneSprite
ActionCloneSprite clones a sprite.
Field Type Comment

ActionCloneSprite ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x24
ActionCloneSprite does the following:
90 Actions
1. Pops a depth off the stack.
3. Pops a source off the stack.
4. Duplicates the movie clip source, giving the new instance the name target, at z-order depth
depth.
ActionRemoveSprite
ActionRemoveSprite removes a clone sprite.
Field Type Comment

ActionRemoveSprite ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x25
ActionRemoveSprite does the following:

2. Removes the clone movie clip that the target path target identifies.
ActionStartDrag
ActionStartDrag starts dragging a movie clip.
Field Type Comment

ActionStartDrag ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x27
ActionStartDrag does the following:

1. Pops a target off the stack; target identifies the movie clip to be dragged.
2. Pops lockcenter off the stack. If lockcenter evaluates to a nonzero value, the center of the
dragged movie clip is locked to the mouse position. Otherwise, the movie clip moves
relative to the mouse position when the drag started.
3. Pops constrain off the stack.
4. If constrain evaluates to a nonzero value:
■ Pops y2 off the stack.
■ Pops x2 off the stack.
■ Pops y1 off the stack.
■ Pops x1 off the stack.

ActionEndDrag
ActionEndDrag ends the drag operation in progress, if any.
Field Type Comment

ActionEndDrag ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x28
ActionWaitForFrame2
ActionWaitForFrame2 waits for a frame to be loaded and is stack based.
Field Type Comment

ActionWaitForFrame2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8D; Length is
always 1
SkipCount UI8 The number of actions to skip
ActionWaitForFrame2 does the following:

1. Pops a frame off the stack.
2. If the frame is loaded, skip the next n actions that follow the current action, where n is
indicated by SkipCount.
The frame is evaluated in the same way as ActionGotoFrame2.
Utilities
ActionTrace
ActionTrace sends a debugging output string.
Field Type Comment

ActionTrace ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x26
ActionTrace does the following:

2. In the Test Movie mode of the Adobe Flash editor, ActionTrace appends a value to the
output window if the debugging level is not set to None.
In Adobe Flash Player, nothing happens.
92 Actions
ActionGetTime
ActionGetTime reports the milliseconds since Adobe Flash Player started.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetTime ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x34
ActionGetTime does the following:

1. Calculates as an integer the number of milliseconds since Flash Player was started.
2. Pushes the number to the stack.
ActionRandomNumber
ActionRandomNumber calculates a random number.
Field Type Comment

ActionRandomNumber ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x30
ActionRandomNumber does the following:

1. Pops the maximum off the stack.
2. Calculates a random number as an integer in the range 0…(maximum-1).
3. Pushes the random number to the stack.
SWF 5 action model

SWF 5 is similar to SWF 4. New actions greatly expand ActionScript functionality. There are
also new type conversion, math and stack operator actions.

SWF 5 actions
Following is an overview of SWF 5 actions:

ScriptObject actions ActionCallFunction
ActionCallMethod
ActionConstantPool
ActionDefineFunction
ActionDefineLocal
ActionDefineLocal2
ActionDelete
ActionDelete2
ActionEnumerate
ActionEquals2
ActionGetMember
ActionInitArray
ActionInitObject
ActionNewMethod
ActionNewObject
ActionSetMember
ActionTargetPath
ActionWith
Type actions ActionToNumber

ActionToString
ActionTypeOf
Math actions ActionAdd2

ActionLess2
ActionModulo
Stack operator actions ActionBitAnd

ActionBitLShift
ActionBitOr
ActionBitRShift
ActionBitURShift
ActionBitXor
ActionDecrement
ActionIncrement
ActionPush (Enhancements)
ActionPushDuplicate
ActionReturn
ActionStackSwap
ActionStoreRegister
94 Actions
ScriptObject actions
ActionCallFunction
ActionCallFunction executes a function. The function can be an ActionScript built-in
function (such as parseInt), a user-defined ActionScript function, or a native function. For
more information, see ActionNewObject.
Field Type Comment

ActionCallFunction ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3D
ActionCallFunction does the following:

1. Pops the function name (String) from the stack.
2. Pops numArgs (int) from the stack.
3. Pops the arguments off the stack.
4. Invokes the function, passing the arguments to it.
5. Pushes the return value of the function invocation to the stack.
If no appropriate return value is present (that is, the function does not have a return
statement), a push undefined message is generated by the compiler and is pushed to the
stack. The undefined return value should be popped off the stack.
For all of the call actions (ActionCallMethod, ActionNewMethod, ActionNewObject, and
ActionCallFunction) and initialization actions (ActionInitObject and ActionInitArray), the
arguments of the function are pushed onto the stack in reverse order, with the rightmost
argument first and the leftmost argument last. The arguments are subsequently popped off in
order (first to last).
ActionCallMethod
ActionCallMethod pushes a method (function) call onto the stack, similar to
ActionNewMethod.
Field Type Comment

ActionCallMethod ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x52

If the named method exists, ActionCallMethod does the following:
1. Pops the name of the method from the stack.
If the method name is blank or undefined, the object is taken to be a function object that
should be invoked, rather than the container object of a method. For example, if
CallMethod is invoked with object obj and method name blank, it's equivalent to using
the syntax:
obj();
If a method’s name is foo, it's equivalent to:

obj.foo();
2. Pops the ScriptObject, object, from the stack.

3. Pops the number of arguments, args, from the stack.
5. Executes the method call with the specified arguments.
6. Pushes the return value of the method or function to the stack.
If no appropriate return value is present (the function does not have a return statement), a
push undefined is generated by the compiler and is pushed to the stack. The undefined
return value should be popped off the stack.
ActionConstantPool
ActionConstantPool creates a new constant pool, and replaces the old constant pool if one
already exists.
Field Type Comment

ActionConstantPool ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x88
Count UI16 Number of constants to follow
ConstantPool STRING[Count] String constants
96 Actions
ActionDefineFunction
NOTE
ActionDefineFunction is rarely used as of SWF 7 and later; it was superseded by

ActionDefineFunction2.
ActionDefineFunction defines a function with a given name and body size.
Field Type Comment

ActionDefineFunction ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x9B
FunctionName STRING Function name, empty if

anonymous
NumParams UI16 # of parameters
param 1 STRING Parameter name 1
param 2 STRING Parameter name 2
...
param N STRING Parameter name N
codeSize UI16 # of bytes of code that follow
ActionDefineFunction parses (in order) FunctionName, NumParams, [param1, param2, …,

param N] and then code size.
ActionDefineFunction does the following:
1. Parses the name of the function (name) from the action tag.
2. Skips the parameters in the tag.
3. Parses the code size from the tag.
After the DefineFunction tag, the next codeSize bytes of action data are considered to be
the body of the function.
4. Gets the code for the function.
ActionDefineFunction can be used in the following ways:
Usage 1 Pushes an anonymous function on the stack that does not persist. This function is
a function literal that is declared in an expression instead of a statement. An anonymous
function can be used to define a function, return its value, and assign it to a variable in one
expression, as in the following ActionScript:
area = (function () {return Math.PI * radius *radius;})(5);

Usage 2 Sets a variable with a given FunctionName and a given function definition. This is
the more conventional function definition. For example, in ActionScript:
function Circle(radius) {
this.radius = radius;
this.area = Math.PI * radius * radius;
}
ActionDefineLocal
ActionDefineLocal defines a local variable and sets its value. If the variable already exists, the
value is set to the newly specified value.
Field Type Comment

ActionDefineLocal ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3C
ActionDefineLocal does the following:

2. Pops a name off the stack.
ActionDefineLocal2
ActionDefineLocal2 defines a local variable without setting its value. If the variable already
exists, nothing happens. The initial value of the local variable is undefined.
Field Type Comment

ActionDefineLocal2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x41
ActionDefineLocal2 pops name off the stack.
ActionDelete
ActionDelete deletes a named property from a ScriptObject.
Field Type Comment

ActionDelete ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3A
ActionDelete does the following:

1. Pops the name of the property to delete off the stack.
2. Pops the object to delete the property from.
98 Actions
ActionDelete2
ActionDelete2 deletes a named property. Flash Player first looks for the property in the
current scope, and if the property cannot be found, continues to search in the encompassing
scopes.
Field Type Comment

ActionDelete2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3B
ActionDelete2 pops the name of the property to delete off the stack.
ActionEnumerate
ActionEnumerate obtains the names of all “slots” in use in an ActionScript object—that is, for
an object obj, all names X that could be retrieved with the syntax obj.X. ActionEnumerate is
used to implement the for..in statement in ActionScript.
N OT E
Certain special slot names are omitted; for a list of these, search for the term DontEnum in
the ECMA-262 standard.
Field Type Comment

ActionEnumerate ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x46
ActionEnumerate does the following:

1. Pops the name of the object variable (which can include slash-path or dot-path syntax) off
of the stack.
2. Pushes a null value onto the stack to indicate the end of the slot names.
3. Pushes each slot name (a string) onto the stack.
N OT E
The order in which slot names are pushed is undefined.
ActionEquals2
ActionEquals2 is similar to ActionEquals, but ActionEquals2 knows about types. The equality
comparison algorithm from ECMA-262 Section 11.9.3 is applied.
Field Type Comment

ActionEquals2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x49

ActionEquals2 does the following:
1. Pops arg1 off the stack.
2. Pops arg2 off the stack.
3. Pushes the return value to the stack.
ActionGetMember
ActionGetMember retrieves a named property from an object, and pushes the value of the
property onto the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionGetMember ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4E
ActionGetMember does the following:

1. Pops the name of the member function.
2. Pops the ScriptObject object off of the stack.
3. Pushes the value of the property on to the stack.
For example, assume obj is an object, and it is assigned a property, foo, as follows:
obj.foo = 3;
Then, ActionGetMember with object set to obj and name set to foo pushes 3 onto the stack.
If the specified property does not exist, undefined is pushed to the stack.
The object parameter cannot actually be of type Object. If the object parameter is a primitive
type such as number, Boolean, or string, it is converted automatically to a temporary wrapper
object of class Number, Boolean, or String. Thus, methods of wrapper objects can be invoked
on values of primitive types. For example, the following correctly prints 5:
var x = "Hello";
trace (x.length);
In this case, the variable, x, contains the primitive string, "Hello". When x.length is
retrieved, a temporary wrapper object for x is created by using the String type, which has a
length property.
100 Actions
ActionInitArray
ActionInitArray initializes an array in a ScriptObject and is similar to ActionInitObject. The
newly created object is pushed to the stack. The stack is the only existing reference to the
newly created object. A subsequent SetVariable or SetMember action can store the newly
created object in a variable.
Field Type Comment

ActionInitArray ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x42
ActionInitArray pops elems and then [arg1, arg2, …, argn] off the stack.
ActionInitArray does the following:
1. Gets the number of arguments (or elements) from the stack.
2. If arguments are present, ActionInitArray initializes an array object with the right number
of elements.
3. Initializes the array as a ScriptObject.
4. Sets the object type to Array.
5. Populates the array with initial elements by popping the values off of the stack.
ActionInitObject
ActionInitObject initializes an object and is similar to ActionInitArray. The newly created
object is pushed to the stack. The stack is the only existing reference to the newly created
object. A subsequent SetVariable or SetMember action can store the newly created object in a
variable.
Field Type Comment

ActionInitObject ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x43
ActionInitObject pops elems off of the stack. Pops [value1, name1, …, valueN, nameN]
off the stack.

ActionInitObject does the following:
1. Pops the number of initial properties from the stack.
2. Initializes the object as a ScriptObject.
3. Sets the object type to Object.
4. Pops each initial property off the stack.
For each initial property, the value of the property is popped off the stack, then the name
of the property is popped off the stack. The name of the property is converted to a string.
The value can be of any type.
ActionNewMethod
ActionNewMethod invokes a constructor function to create a new object. A new object is
constructed and passed to the constructor function as the value of the this keyword.
Arguments can be specified to the constructor function. The return value from the
constructor function is discarded. The newly constructed object is pushed to the stack, similar
to ActionCallMethod and ActionNewObject.
Field Type Comment

ActionNewMethod ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x53
ActionNewMethod does the following:

1. Pops the name of the method from the stack.
2. Pops the ScriptObject from the stack.
If the name of the method is blank, the ScriptObject is treated as a function object that is
invoked as the constructor function. If the method name is not blank, the named method
of the ScriptObject is invoked.
3. Pops the number of arguments from the stack.
4. Executes the method call.
5. Pushes the newly constructed object to the stack.
If no appropriate return value occurs (for instance, the function does not have a return
statement), the compiler generates a push undefined and pushes it to the stack. The
undefined return value should be popped off the stack.
102 Actions
ActionNewObject
ActionNewObject invokes a constructor function. A new object is created and passed to the
constructor function as the this keyword. In addition, arguments can optionally be specified
to the constructor function on the stack. The return value of the constructor function is
discarded. The newly constructed object is pushed to the stack. ActionNewObject is similar
to ActionCallFunction and ActionNewMethod.
Field Type Comment

ActionNewObject ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x40
ActionNewObject does the following:

1. Pops the object name (STRING) this from the stack.
2. Pops numArgs (int) from the stack.
4. Invokes the named object as a constructor function, passing it the specified arguments and
a newly constructed object as the this keyword.
5. The return value of the constructor function is discarded.
6. The newly constructed object is pushed to the stack.
ActionSetMember
ActionSetMember sets a property of an object. If the property does not already exist, it is
created. Any existing value in the property is overwritten.
Field Type Comment

ActionSetMember ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4F

ActionSetMember does the following:
1. Pops the new value off the stack.
2. Pops the object name off the stack.
3. Pops the object off of the stack.
ActionTargetPath
If the object in the stack is of type MovieClip, the object’s target path is pushed on the stack
in dot notation. If the object is not a MovieClip, the result is undefined rather than the
movie clip target path.
Field Type Comment

ActionTargetPath ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x45
ActionTargetPath does the following:

1. Pops the object off the stack.
2. Pushes the target path onto the stack.
ActionWith
Defines a With block of script.
Field Type Comment

ActionWith ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x94
Size UI16 # of bytes of code that follow
ActionWith does the following:

1. Pops the object involved with the With.
2. Parses the size (body length) of the With block from the ActionWith tag.
3. Checks to see if the depth of calls exceeds the maximum depth, which is 16 for SWF 6 and
later, and 8 for SWF 5.
If the With depth exceeds the maximum depth, the next Size bytes of data are skipped
rather than executed.
4. After the ActionWith tag, the next Size bytes of action codes are considered to be the body
of the With block.
5. Adds the With block to the scope chain.
104 Actions
Type actions
ActionToNumber
Converts the object on the top of the stack into a number, and pushes the number back to
the stack.
For the Object type, the ActionScript valueOf() method is invoked to convert the object to
a Number type for ActionToNumber. Conversions between primitive types, such as from
String to Number, are built-in.
Field Type Comment

ActionToNumber ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4A
ActionToNumber does the following:

2. Pushes the number on to the stack.
ActionToString
ActionToString converts the object on the top of the stack into a String, and pushes the
string back to the stack.
For the Object type, the ActionScript toString() method is invoked to convert the object
to the String type for ActionToString.
Field Type Comment

ActionToString ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4B
ActionToString does the following:

2. Pushes the string on to the stack.

ActionTypeOf
ActionTypeOf pushes the object type to the stack, which is equivalent to the ActionScript
TypeOf() method. The possible types are:
“number”
“boolean”
“string”
“object”
“movieclip”
“null”
“undefined”
“function”
Field Type Comment

ActionTypeOf ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x44
ActionTypeOf does the following:

1. Pops the value to determine the type of off the stack.
2. Pushes a string with the type of the object on to the stack.
Math actions
ActionAdd2
ActionAdd2 is similar to ActionAdd, but performs the addition differently, according to the
data types of the arguments. The addition operator algorithm in ECMA-262 Section 11.6.1 is
used. If string concatenation is applied, the concatenated string is arg2 followed by arg1.
Field Type Comment

ActionAdd2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x47
ActionAdd2 does the following:

1. Pops arg1 off of the stack.
3. Pushes the result back to the stack.
106 Actions
ActionLess2
ActionLess2 calculates whether arg1 is less than arg2 and pushes a Boolean return value to the
stack. This action is similar to ActionLess, but performs the comparison differently according
to the data types of the arguments. The abstract relational comparison algorithm in ECMA-
262 Section 11.8.5 is used.
Field Type Comment

ActionLess2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x48
ActionLess2 does the following:

3. Compares arg2 < arg1.
4. Pushes the return value (a Boolean value) onto the stack.
ActionModulo
ActionModulo calculates x modulo y. If y is 0, then NaN (0x7FC00000) is pushed to the
stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionModulo ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3F
ActionModulo does the following:

1. Pops x then y off of the stack.
2. Pushes the value x % y on to the stack.
Stack operator actions
ActionBitAnd
ActionBitAnd pops two numbers off of the stack, performs a bitwise AND, and pushes an
S32 number to the stack. The arguments are converted to 32-bit unsigned integers before
performing the bitwise operation. The result is a SIGNED 32-bit integer.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitAnd ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x60

ActionBitAnd does the following:
1. Pops arg1 then arg2 off of the stack.
2. Pushes the result to the stack.
ActionBitLShift
ActionBitLShift pops the shift count arg and then value off of the stack. The value argument
is converted to 32-bit signed integer and only the least significant 5 bits are used as the shift
count. The bits in the value arg are shifted to the left by the shift count. ActionBitLShift
pushes an S32 number to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitLShift ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x63
ActionBitLShift does the following:

1. Pops shift count arg, then value off of the stack.
ActionBitOr
ActionBitOr pops two numbers off of the stack, performs a bitwise OR, and pushes an S32
number to the stack. The arguments are converted to 32-bit unsigned integers before
performing the bitwise operation. The result is a SIGNED 32-bit integer.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitOr ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x61
ActionBitOr does the following:

1. Pops arg1 then arg2 off of the stack.
108 Actions
ActionBitRShift
ActionBitRShift pops the shift count from the stack. Pops the value from the stack. The value
argument is converted to a 32-bit signed integer and only the least significant 5 bits are used
as the shift count.
The bits in the arg value are shifted to the right by the shift count. ActionBitRShift pushes an
S32 number to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitRShift ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x64
ActionBitRShift does the following:

1. Pops the shift count from the stack.
2. Pops the value to shift from the stack.
ActionBitURShift
ActionBitURShift pops the value and shift count arguments from the stack. The value
argument is converted to 32-bit signed integer and only the least significant 5 bits are used as
the shift count.
The bits in the arg value are shifted to the right by the shift count. ActionBitURShift pushes
a UI32 number to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitURShift ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x65
ActionBitURShift does the following:

1. Pops the shift count from the stack.
2. Pops the value to shift from the stack.

ActionBitXor
ActionBitXor pops two numbers off of the stack, performs a bitwise XOR, and pushes an S32
number to the stack.
The arguments are converted to 32-bit unsigned integers before performing the bitwise
operation. The result is a SIGNED 32-bit integer.
Field Type Comment

ActionBitXor ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x62
ActionBitXor does the following:

1. Pops arg1 and arg2 off of the stack.
2. Pushes the result back to the stack.
ActionDecrement
ActionDecrement pops a value from the stack, converts it to number type, decrements it by 1,
and pushes it back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionDecrement ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x51
ActionDecrement does the following:

1. Pops the number off of the stack.
2. Pushes the result on to the stack.
ActionIncrement
ActionIncrement pops a value from the stack, converts it to number type, increments it by 1,
and pushes it back to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionIncrement ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x50
ActionIncrement does the following:

1. Pops the number off of the stack.
2. Pushes the result on to the stack.
110 Actions
ActionPush (Enhancements)
With SWF 5, eight new types were added to ActionPush. For more on ActionPush, see the
SWF 4 actions.
ActionPushDuplicate
ActionPushDuplicate pushes a duplicate of top of stack (the current return value) to the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionPushDuplicate ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4C
ActionReturn
ActionReturn forces the return item to be pushed off the stack and returned. If a return is not
appropriate, the return item is discarded.
Field Type Comment

ActionReturn ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x3E
ActionReturn pops a value off the stack.
ActionStackSwap
ActionStackSwap swaps the top two ScriptAtoms on the stack.
Field Type Comment

ActionStackSwap ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x4D
ActionStackSwap does the following:

1. Pops Item1 and then Item2 off of the stack.
2. Pushes Item2 and then Item1 back to the stack.
ActionStoreRegister
ActionStoreRegister reads the next object from the stack (without popping it) and stores it in
one of four registers. If ActionDefineFunction2 is used, up to 256 registers are available.
Field Type Comment

ActionStoreRegister ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x87
RegisterNumber UI8

ActionStoreRegister parses register number from the StoreRegister tag.
SWF 6 action model

SWF 6 adds the DoInitAction action-definition tag, and a few new action bytecodes.
SWF 6 actions
■ DoInitAction
■ ActionInstanceOf
■ ActionEnumerate2
■ ActionStrictEquals
■ ActionGreater
■ ActionStringGreater
DoInitAction
The DoInitAction tag is similar to the DoAction tag: it defines a series of bytecodes to be
executed. However, the actions defined with DoInitAction are executed earlier than the usual
DoAction actions, and are executed only once.
In some situations, actions must be executed before the ActionScript representation of the first
instance of a particular sprite is created. The most common such action is calling
Object.registerClass to associate an ActionScript class with a sprite. Such a call is generally
found within the #initclip pragma in the ActionScript language. DoInitAction is used to
implement the #initclip pragma.
A DoInitAction tag specifies a particular sprite to which its actions apply. A single frame can
contain multiple DoInitAction tags; their actions are executed in the order in which the tags
appear. However, the SWF file can contain only one DoInitAction tag for any particular
sprite.
The specified actions are executed immediately before the normal actions of the frame in
which the DoInitAction tag appears. This only occurs the first time that this frame is
encountered; playback reaches the same frame again later, actions provided in DoInitAction
are skipped.
112 Actions
Starting with SWF 9, if the ActionScript3 field of the FileAttributes tag is 1, the contents of
the DoInitAction tag will be ignored.
NOT E
Specifying actions at the beginning of a DoAction tag is not the same as specifying them
in a DoInitAction tag. Flash Player takes steps before the first action in a DoAction tag,
most relevantly the creation of ActionScript objects that represent sprites. The actions in
DoInitAction occur before these implicit steps are performed.
Field Type Comment

Sprite ID UI16 Sprite to which these actions apply
Actions ACTIONRECORD[zero or more] List of actions to perform
ActionEndFlag UI8 Always set to 0
ActionInstanceOf
ActionInstanceOf implements the ActionScript instanceof() operator. This is a Boolean
operator that indicates whether the left operand (typically an object) is an instance of the class
represented by a constructor function passed as the right operand.
Additionally, with SWF 7 or later, ActionInstanceOf also supports with interfaces. If the right
operand constructor is a reference to an interface object, and the left operand implements this
interface, ActionInstanceOf accurately reports that the left operand is an instance of the right
operand.
Field Type Comment

ActionInstanceOf ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x54
ActionInstanceOf does the following:

1. Pops constr then obj off of the stack.
2. Determines if obj is an instance of constr.
3. Pushes the return value (a Boolean value) onto the stack.
ActionEnumerate2
ActionEnumerate2 is similar to ActionEnumerate, but uses a stack argument of object type
rather than using a string to specify its name.
Field Type Comment

ActionEnumerate2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x55

ActionEnumerate2 does the following:
1. Pops obj off of the stack.
2. Pushes a null value onto the stack to indicate the end of the slot names.
3. Pushes each slot name (a string) from obj onto the stack.
N OT E
The order in which slot names are pushed is undefined.
ActionStrictEquals
ActionStrictEquals is similar to ActionEquals2, but the two arguments must be of the same
type in order to be considered equal. Implements the ‘===’ operator from the ActionScript
language.
Field Type Comment

ActionStrictEquals ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x66
ActionStrictEquals does the following:

1. Pops arg1 then arg2 off the stack.
2. Pushes the return value, a Boolean value, to the stack.
ActionGreater
ActionGreater is the exact opposite of ActionLess2. Originally there was no ActionGreater,
because it can be emulated by reversing the order of argument pushing, then performing an
ActionLess followed by an ActionNot. However, this argument reversal resulted in a reversal
of the usual order of evaluation of arguments, which in a few cases led to surprises.
Field Type Comment

ActionGreater ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x67
ActionGreater does the following:

1. Pops arg1 and then arg2 off of the stack.
2. Compares if arg2 > arg1.
3. Pushes the return value, a Boolean value, onto the stack.
114 Actions
ActionStringGreater
ActionStringGreater is the exact opposite of ActionStringLess. This action code was added for
the same reasons as ActionGreater.
Field Type Comment

ActionStringGreater ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x68
ActionStringGreater does the following:

1. Pops arg1 and then arg2 off of the stack.
2. Compares if arg2 > arg1, using byte-by-byte comparison.
3. Pushes the return value, a Boolean value, onto the stack.
SWF 7 action model
SWF 7 actions
■ ActionDefineFunction2
■ ActionExtends
■ ActionCastOp
■ ActionImplementsOp
■ ActionTry
■ ActionThrow
ActionDefineFunction2
ActionDefineFunction2 is similar to ActionDefineFunction, with additional features that can
help speed up the execution of function calls by preventing the creation of unused variables in
the function’s activation object and by enabling the replacement of local variables with a
variable number of registers. With ActionDefineFunction2, a function can allocate its own
private set of up to 256 registers. Parameters or local variables can be replaced with a register,
which is loaded with the value instead of the value being stored in the function’s activation
object. (The activation object is an implicit local scope that contains named arguments and
local variables. For further description of the activation object, see the ECMA-262 standard.)

ActionDefineFunction2 also includes six flags to instruct Flash Player to preload variables,
and three flags to suppress variables. By setting PreloadParentFlag, PreloadRootFlag,
PreloadSuperFlag, PreloadArgumentsFlag, PreloadThisFlag, or
PreloadGlobalFlag, common variables can be preloaded into registers before the function
executes (_parent, _root, super, arguments, this, or _global, respectively). With flags
SuppressSuper, SuppressArguments, and SuppressThis, common variables super,
arguments, and this are not created. By using suppress flags, Flash Player avoids pre-
evaluating variables, thus saving time and improving performance.
No suppress flags are provided for _parent, _root, or _global because Flash Player always
evaluates these variables as needed; no time is ever wasted on pre-evaluating these variables.
Specifying both the preload flag and the suppress flag for any variable is not allowed.
The body of the function that ActionDefineFunction2 specifies should use ActionPush and
ActionStoreRegister for local variables that are assigned to registers. ActionGetVariable and
ActionSetVariable cannot be used for variables assigned to registers.
Flash Player 6 release 65 and later supports ActionDefineFunction2.
Field Type Comment

ActionDefineFunction2 ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8E
FunctionName STRING Name of function, empty if

anonymous
NumParams UI16 # of parameters
RegisterCount UI8 Number of registers to

allocate, up to 255 registers
(from 0 to 254)
PreloadParentFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload _parent

into register
1 = Preload _parent into
register
PreloadRootFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload _root into
register
1 = Preload _root into
register
SuppressSuperFlag UB[1] 0 = Create super variable

1 = Don’t create super
variable
116 Actions
Field Type Comment
PreloadSuperFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload super into
register
1 = Preload super into
register
SuppressArgumentsFlag UB[1] 0 = Create arguments

variable
1 = Don’t create arguments
variable
PreloadArgumentsFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload arguments

into register
1 = Preload arguments into
register
SuppressThisFlag UB[1] 0 = Create this variable
1 = Don’t create this variable
PreloadThisFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload this into

register
1 = Preload this into register
PreloadGlobalFlag UB[1] 0 = Don’t preload _global

into register
1 = Preload _global into
register
Parameters REGISTERPARAM[NumParams] See REGISTERPARAM,
following
codeSize UI16 # of bytes of code that follow

REGISTERPARAM is defined as follows:
Field Type Comment

Register UI8 For each parameter to the function,
a register can be specified.
If the register specified is zero, the
parameter is created as a variable
named ParamName in the activation
object, which can be referenced with
ActionGetVariable and
ActionSetVariable.
If the register specified is nonzero,
the parameter is copied into the
register, and it can be referenced
with ActionPush and
ActionStoreRegister, and no
variable is created in the activation
object.
ParamName STRING Parameter name
The function body following an ActionDefineFunction2 consists of further action codes, just
as for ActionDefineFunction.
Flash Player selects register numbers by first copying each argument into the register specified
in the corresponding REGISTERPARAM record. Next, the preloaded variables are copied
into registers starting at 1, and in the order this, arguments, super, _root, _parent,
and _global, skipping any that are not to be preloaded. (The SWF file must accurately
specify which registers will be used by preloaded variables and ensure that no parameter uses a
register number that falls within this range, or else that parameter is overwritten by a
preloaded variable.)
The value of NumParams should equal the number of parameter registers. The value of
RegisterCount should equal NumParams plus the number of preloaded variables and the
number of local variable registers desired.
For example, if NumParams is 2, RegisterCount is 6, PreloadThisFlag is 1, and
PreloadRootFlag is 1, the REGISTERPARAM records will probably specify registers 3 and 4.
Register 1 will be this, register 2 will be _root, registers 3 and 4 will be the first and second
parameters, and registers 5 and 6 will be for local variables.
118 Actions
ActionExtends
ActionExtends implements the ActionScript extends keyword. ActionExtends creates an
inheritance relationship between two classes, called the subclass and the superclass.
SWF 7 adds ActionExtends to the file format to avoid spurious calls to the superclass
constructor function (which would occur when inheritance was established under
ActionScript 1.0). Consider the following code:
Subclass.prototype = new Superclass();
Before the existence of ActionExtends, this code would result in a spurious call to the
Superclass superconstructor function. Now, ActionExtends is generated by the
ActionScript compiler when the code class A extends B is encountered, to set up the
inheritance relationship between A and B.
Field Type Comment

ActionExtends ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x69
ActionExtends does the following:

1. Pops the ScriptObject superclass constructor off the stack.
2. Pops the ScriptObject subclass constructor off the stack.
3. Creates a new ScriptObject.
4. Sets the new ScriptObject’s __proto__ property to the superclass’ prototype property.
5. Sets the new ScriptObject’s __constructor__ property to the superclass.
6. Sets the subclass’ prototype property to the new ScriptObject.
These steps are the equivalent to the following ActionScript:
Subclass.prototype = new Object();
Subclass.prototype.__proto__ = Superclass.prototype;
Subclass.prototype.__constructor__ = Superclass;
ActionCastOp
ActionCastOp implements the ActionScript cast operator, which allows the casting from one
data type to another. ActionCastOp pops an object off the stack and attempts to convert the
object to an instance of the class or to the interface represented by the constructor function.
Field Type Comment

ActionCastOp ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x2B

ActionCastOp does the following:
1. Pops the ScriptObject to cast off the stack.
2. Pops the constructor function off the stack.
3. Determines if object is an instance of constructor (doing the same comparison as
ActionInstanceOf).
4. If the object is an instance of constructor, the popped ScriptObject is pushed onto the
stack.
If the object is not an instance of constructor, a null value is pushed onto the stack.
ActionImplementsOp
ActionImplementsOp implements the ActionScript implements keyword. The
ActionImplementsOp action specifies the interfaces that a class implements, for use by
ActionCastOp. ActionImplementsOp can also specify the interfaces that an interface
implements, as interfaces can extend other interfaces.
Field Type Comment

ActionImplementsOp ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x2C
ActionImplementsOp does the following:

1. Pops the constructor function off the stack.
The constructor function represents the class that will implement the interfaces. The
constructor function must have a prototype property.
2. Pops the count of implemented interfaces off the stack.
3. For each interface count, pops a constructor function off of the stack.
The constructor function represents an interface.
4. Sets the constructor function’s list of interfaces to the array collected in the previous step,
and sets the count of interfaces to the count popped in step 2.
120 Actions
ActionTry
ActionTry defines handlers for exceptional conditions, implementing the ActionScript try,
catch, and finally keywords.
Field Type Comment

ActionTry ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x8F
Reserved UB[5] Always zero
CatchInRegisterFlag UB[1] 0 - Do not put caught object

into register (instead, store in
named variable)
1 - Put caught object into
register (do not store in named
variable)
FinallyBlockFlag UB[1] 0 - No finally block

1 - Has finally block
CatchBlockFlag UB[1] 0 - No catch block

1 - Has catch block
TrySize UI16 Length of the try block
CatchSize UI16 Length of the catch block
FinallySize UI16 Length of the finally block
CatchName If CatchInRegisterFlag = 0, Name of the catch variable

STRING
CatchRegister If CatchInRegisterFlag = 1, UI8 Register to catch into
TryBody UI8[TrySize] Body of the try block

CatchBody UI8[CatchSize] Body of the catch block, if any
FinallyBody UI8[FinallySize] Body of the finally block, if any

N OTE
The CatchSize and FinallySize fields always exist, whether or not the CatchBlockFlag or
FinallyBlockFlag settings are 1.
N OT E
The try, catch, and finally blocks do not use end tags to mark the end of their respective
blocks. Instead, the length of a block is set by the TrySize, CatchSize, and FinallySize
values.

ActionThrow
ActionThrow implements the ActionScript throw keyword. ActionThrow is used to signal, or
throw, an exceptional condition, which is handled by the exception handlers declared with
ActionTry.
If any code within the try block throws an object, control passes to the catch block, if one
exists, then to the finally block, if one exists. The finally block always executes, regardless
of whether an error was thrown.
If an exceptional condition occurs within a function and the function does not include a
catch handler, the function and any caller functions are exited until a catch block is found
(executing all finally handlers at all levels).
Any ActionScript data type can be thrown, though typically usage is to throw objects.
Field Type Comment

ActionThrow ACTIONRECORDHEADER ActionCode = 0x2A
ActionThrow pops the value to be thrown off the stack.
SWF 9 action model

SWF 9 added the DoABC action-definition tag. This tag contains an .abc bytecode block that
is parsed by the ActionScript 3.0 virtual machine. The DoABC tag is the main vehicle for
delivering ActionScript 3.0 bytecode.
122 Actions
DoABC
The DoABC tag is similar to the DoAction tag: it defines a series of bytecodes to be executed.
However, the bytecodes contained within the DoABC tag run in the ActionScript 3.0 virtual
machine.
Field Type Comment

Flags UI32 A 32-bit flags value, which may

contain the following bits set:
kDoAbcLazyInitializeFlag = 1:
Indicates that the ABC block
should not be executed
immediately, but only parsed. A
later finddef may cause its
scripts to execute.
Name STRING The name assigned to the

bytecode.
ABCData BYTE[] A block of .abc bytecode to be

parsed by the ActionScript 3.0
virtual machine, up to the end
of the tag.
For details on the contents and format of the ABCData field, see the Adobe ActionScript
Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2) Overview at www.adobe.com/go/avm2overview/.
SWF 10 action model

There are no changes to the action model in SWF 10.

124 Actions
CHAPTER 6
Shapes 6
The SWF shape architecture is designed to be compact, flexible and rendered very quickly to
the screen. It is similar to most vector formats in that shapes are defined by a list of edges
called a path. A path may be closed, where the start and end of the path meet to close the
figure, or open, where the path forms an open-ended stroke. A path may contain a mixture of
straight edges, curved edges, and ‘pen up and move’ commands. The latter allows multiple
disconnected figures to be described by a single shape structure.
A fill style defines the appearance of an area enclosed by a path. Fill styles supported by the
SWF file format include a color, a gradient, or a bitmap image.
A line style defines the appearance of the outline of a path. The line style may be a stroke of
any thickness and color.
Most vector formats allow only one fill and line style per path. The SWF file format extends
this concept by allowing each edge to have its own line and fill style. This can have
unpredictable results when fill styles change in the middle of a path.
The Adobe Flash authoring tool also supports two fill styles per edge, one for each side of the
edge: FillStyle0 and FillStyle1. FillStyle0 should always be used first and then FillStyle1 if the
shape is filled on both sides of the edge.
Shape overview
A shape is composed of the following elements:
CharacterId—A 16-bit value that uniquely identifies this shape as a ‘character’ in the
dictionary. The CharacterId can be referred to in control tags such as PlaceObject. Characters
can be reused and combined with other characters to make more complex shapes.
Bounding box—The rectangle that completely encloses the shape.
Fill style array—A list of all the fill styles used in a shape.
Line style array—A list of all the line styles used in a shape.
125
Shape record array—A list of shape records. Shape records can define straight or curved
edges, style changes, or move the drawing position.
NOT E
Line and fill styles are defined only once and may be used (and reused) by any of the
edges in the shape.
Shape example
The following example appears to be a collection of shapes, but it can be described with a
single DefineShape tag.
The red circle, red square and green rounded-rectangle are closed paths. The curved line is an
open path. The red square consists of all straight edges, the red circle consists of all curved
edges, while the rounded rectangle has curved edges interspersed with straight edges.
There are two fill styles, solid green and solid red, and two line styles, 1-pixel black, and 2-
pixel black. The red circle and red square share the same fill and line styles. The rounded
rectangle and curved line share the same line style.
Here’s how to describe this example with the SWF file format.
Define the fill styles:

1. First, the fill styles are defined with a FILLSTYLEARRAY. The two unique fill styles are
solid red and solid green.
2. This is followed by a LINESTYLEARRAY that includes the two unique line styles: 1-pixel
black, and 2-pixel black.
3. This is followed by an array of shape records (see Shape records).
126 Shapes
All shape records share a similar structure but can have varied meaning. A shape record can
define straight or curved edge, a style change, or it can move the current drawing position.
Define the curved line:

1. The first shape record selects the 2-pixel-wide line style, and moves the drawing position
to the top of the curved line by setting the StateMoveTo flag.
2. The next shape record is a curved edge, which ends to the bottom of the line. The path is
not closed.
Define the red square:

1. The next shape record selects the 1-pixel line style and the red fill style. It also moves the
drawing position to the upper-left corner of the red rectangle.
2. The following four shape records are straight edges. The last edge must end at the upper-
left corner. Flash Player requires that closed figures be joined explicitly. That is, the first
and last points must be coincident.
Define the red circle:

1. The next shape record does not change any style settings, but moves the drawing position
to the top of the red circle.
2. The following eight shape records are curved edges that define the circle. Again, the path
must finish where it started.
Define the green rounded-rectangle:

1. The next shape record selects the 2-pixel-wide line style, and the green fill. It also moves
the drawing position to the upper left of the rounded-rectangle.
2. The following twelve shape records are a mixture of straight shape records (the sides)
interspersed with curved shape records (the rounded corners). The path finishes where it
began.
Shape structures
Fill styles
The SWF file format supports three basic types of fills for a shape.
Solid fill A simple RGB or RGBA color that fills a portion of a shape. An alpha value of 255
means a completely opaque fill. An alpha value of zero means a completely transparent fill.
Any alpha between 0 and 255 will be partially transparent.
Shape structures 127

Gradient Fill A gradient fill can be either a linear or a radial gradient. For an in-depth
description of how gradients are defined, see Gradients.
Bitmap fill Bitmap fills refer to a bitmap characterId. There are two styles: clipped and tiled.
A clipped bitmap fill repeats the color on the edge of a bitmap if the fill extends beyond the
edge of the bitmap. A tiled fill repeats the bitmap if the fill extends beyond the edge of the
bitmap.
FILLSTYLEARRAY
A fill style array enumerates a number of fill styles. The format of a fill style array is described
in the following table:
FILLSTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
FillStyleCount UI8 Count of fill styles.
FillStyleCountExtended If FillStyleCount = 0xFF, UI16 Extended count of fill styles.

Supported only for Shape2
and Shape3.
FillStyles FILLSTYLE[FillStyleCount] Array of fill styles.
128 Shapes
FILLSTYLE
The format of a fill style value within the file is described in the following table:
FILLSTYLE
Field Type Comment
FillStyleType UI8 Type of fill style:
0x00 = solid fill
0x10 = linear gradient fill
0x12 = radial gradient fill
0x13 = focal radial gradient fill
(SWF 8 file format and later
only)
0x40 = repeating bitmap fill
0x41 = clipped bitmap fill
0x42 = non-smoothed
repeating bitmap
0x43 = non-smoothed clipped
bitmap
Color If type = 0x00, RGBA (if Shape3); Solid fill color with opacity
RGB (if Shape1 or Shape2) information.
GradientMatrix If type = 0x10, 0x12, or 0x13, Matrix for gradient fill.

MATRIX
Gradient If type = 0x10 or 0x12, GRADIENT Gradient fill.

If type = 0x13, FOCALGRADIENT
(SWF 8 and later only)
BitmapId If type = 0x40, 0x41, 0x42 or 0x43, ID of bitmap character for fill.
UI16
BitmapMatrix If type = 0x40, 0x41, 0x42 or 0x43, Matrix for bitmap fill.
MATRIX

Line styles
A line style array enumerates a number of line styles.
LINESTYLEARRAY
The format of a line style array is described in the following table:
LINESTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
LineStyleCount UI8 Count of line styles.
LineStyleCountExtended If LineStyleCount = 0xFF, UI16 Extended count of line styles.
LineStyles If Shape1, Shape2, or Shape3, Array of line styles.

LINESTYLE[count]
If Shape4,
LINESTYLE2[count]
LINESTYLE
A line style represents a width and color of a line. The format of a line style value within the
file is described in the following table:
LINESTYLE
Field Type Comment
Width UI16 Width of line in twips.
Color RGB (Shape1 or Shape2) Color value including alpha

RGBA (Shape3) channel information for
Shape3.
N OTE
Before the introduction of LINESTYLE2 in SWF 8, all lines in the SWF file format have
rounded joins and round caps. Different join styles and end styles can be simulated with
a very narrow shape that looks identical to the desired stroke.
NOT E
The SWF file format has no native support for dashed or dotted line styles. A dashed line
can be simulated by breaking up the path into a series of short lines.
130 Shapes
LINESTYLE2
LINESTYLE2 builds upon the capabilities of the LINESTYLE record by allowing the use of
new types of joins and caps as well as scaling options and the ability to fill a stroke. In order to
use LINESTYLE2, the shape must be defined with DefineShape4—not DefineShape,
DefineShape2, or DefineShape3.
While the LINESTYLE record permits only rounded joins and round caps, LINESTYLE2
also supports miter and bevel joins, and square caps and no caps. The following diagram
illustrates the complete array of joins and caps:
Miter Join Round Join Bevel Join
None Cap Round Cap Square Cap

When using LINESTYLE2 for a miter join, a MiterLimitFactor must be specified and is used
to calculate the maximum miter length:
Maximum miter length = LINESTYLE2 MiterLimitFactor * LINESTYLE2 Width
If the miter join exceeds the maximum miter length, Flash Player will cut off the miter. Note
that MiterLimitFactor is an 8.8 fixed-point value.
LINESTYLE2 also includes the option for pixel hinting to correct blurry vertical or
horizontal lines.
LINESTYLE2
Field Type Comment
Width UI16 Width of line in twips.
StartCapStyle UB[2] Start cap style:

0 = Round cap
1 = No cap
2 = Square cap

LINESTYLE2
Field Type Comment
JoinStyle UB[2] Join style:
0 = Round join
1 = Bevel join
2 = Miter join
HasFillFlag UB[1] If 1, fill is defined in FillType.

If 0, uses Color field.
NoHScaleFlag UB[1] If 1, stroke thickness will not
scale if the object is scaled
horizontally.
NoVScaleFlag UB[1] If 1, stroke thickness will not

vertically.
PixelHintingFlag UB[1] If 1, all anchors will be aligned
to full pixels.
Reserved UB[5] Must be 0.
NoClose UB[1] If 1, stroke will not be closed if

the stroke’s last point
matches its first point. Flash
Player will apply caps instead
of a join.
EndCapStyle UB[2] End cap style:

0 = Round cap
1 = No cap
2 = Square cap
MiterLimitFactor If JoinStyle = 2, UI16 Miter limit factor is an 8.8

fixed-point value.
Color If HasFillFlag = 0, RGBA Color value including alpha

channel.
FillType If HasFillFlag = 1, FILLSTYLE Fill style for this stroke.
132 Shapes
Shape structures
The SHAPE structure defines a shape without fill style or line style information.
SHAPE
SHAPE is used by the DefineFont tag, to define character glyphs.
SHAPE
Field Type Comment
NumFillBits UB[4] Number of fill index bits.
NumLineBits UB[4] Number of line index bits.
ShapeRecords SHAPERECORD[one or more] Shape records (see following).
SHAPEWITHSTYLE
The SHAPEWITHSTYLE structure extends the SHAPE structure by including fill style and
line style information. SHAPEWITHSTYLE is used by the DefineShape tag.
SHAPEWITHSTYLE
Field Type Comment
FillStyles FILLSTYLEARRAY Array of fill styles.
LineStyles LINESTYLEARRAY Array of line styles.
NumFillBits UB[4] Number of fill index bits.
NumLineBits UB[4] Number of line index bits.

ShapeRecords SHAPERECORD[one or more] Shape records (see following).
NOT E
The LINESTYLELARRAY and FILLSTYLEARRAY begin at index 1, not index 0.

The following diagram illustrates the SHAPEWITHSTYLE structure.
Shape Tag
Fill Styles
Line Styles
Change Fills
Edges
Change Fills
Edges
First, the Fill styles and Line styles are defined. These are defined only once and are referred to
by array index.
The blue area represents the array of Shape records. The first shape record selects a fill from
the fill style array, and moves the drawing position to the start of the shape. This is followed
by a series of edge records that define the shape. The next record changes the fill style, and the
subsequent edge records are filled using this new style.
This tag is a completely autonomous object. The style change records only refer to fill and line
styles that have been defined in this tag.
Shape records
There are four types of shape records:
■ End shape record
■ Style change record
■ Straight edge record
■ Curved edge record
Each individual shape record is byte-aligned within an array of shape records; one shape
record is padded to a byte boundary before the next shape record begins.
134 Shapes
Each shape record begins with a TypeFlag. If the TypeFlag is zero, the shape record is a non-
edge record, and a further five bits of flag information follow.
EndShapeRecord
The end shape record simply indicates the end of the shape record array. It is a non-edge
record with all five flags equal to zero.
ENDSHAPERECORD
Field Type Comment
TypeFlag UB[1] Non-edge record flag.
Always 0.
EndOfShape UB[5] End of shape flag.

Always 0.
StyleChangeRecord
The style change record is also a non-edge record. It can be used to do the following:
1. Select a fill or line style for drawing.
2. Move the current drawing position (without drawing).
3. Replace the current fill and line style arrays with a new set of styles.
Because fill and line styles often change at the start of a new path, it is useful to perform more
than one action in a single record. For example, say a DefineShape tag defines a red circle and
a blue square. After the circle is closed, it is necessary to move the drawing position, and
replace the red fill with the blue fill. The style change record can achieve this with a single
shape record.
STYLECHANGERECORD
Field Type Comment
TypeFlag UB[1] Non-edge record flag.
Always 0.
StateNewStyles UB[1] New styles flag. Used by

DefineShape2 and
DefineShape3 only.
StateLineStyle UB[1] Line style change flag.
StateFillStyle1 UB[1] Fill style 1 change flag.
StateFillStyle0 UB[1] Fill style 0 change flag.

STYLECHANGERECORD
Field Type Comment
StateMoveTo UB[1] Move to flag.
MoveBits If StateMoveTo, UB[5] Move bit count.
MoveDeltaX If StateMoveTo, SB[MoveBits] Delta X value.
MoveDeltaY If StateMoveTo, SB[MoveBits] Delta Y value.
FillStyle0 If StateFillStyle0, UB[FillBits] Fill 0 Style.
FillStyle1 If StateFillStyle1, UB[FillBits] Fill 1 Style.
LineStyle If StateLineStyle, UB[LineBits] Line Style.
FillStyles If StateNewStyles, Array of new fill styles.

FILLSTYLEARRAY
LineStyles If StateNewStyles, Array of new line styles.

LINESTYLEARRAY
NumFillBits If StateNewStyles, UB[4] Number of fill index bits for new

styles.
NumLineBits If StateNewStyles, UB[4] Number of line index bits for

new styles.
In the first shape record MoveDeltaX and MoveDeltaY are relative to the shape origin.
In subsequent shape records, MoveDeltaX and MoveDeltaY are relative to the current
drawing position.
The style arrays begin at index 1, not index 0. FillStyle = 1 refers to the first style in the fill
style array, FillStyle = 2 refers to the second style in the fill style array, and so on. A fill style
index of zero means the path is not filled, and a line style index of zero means the path has no
stroke. Initially the fill and line style indices are set to zero—no fill or stroke.
FillStyle0 and FillStyle1

The Adobe Flash authoring tool supports two fill styles per edge, one for each side of the edge:
FillStyle0 and FillStyle1. For shapes that don’t self-intersect or overlap, FillStyle0 should be
used. For overlapping shapes the situation is more complex.
136 Shapes
For example, if a shape consists of two overlapping squares, and only FillStyle0 is defined,
Flash Player renders a ‘hole’ where the paths overlap. This area can be filled using FillStyle1.
In this situation, the rule is that for any directed vector, FillStyle0 is the color to the left of the
vector, and FillStyle1 is the color to the right of the vector (as shown in the following
diagram).
N OTE
FillStyle0 and FillStyle1 should not be confused with FILLSTYLEARRAY indices.

FillStyle0 and FillStyle1 are variables that contain indices into the FILLSTYLEARRAY.

Edge records
Edge records have a TypeFlag of 1. There are two types of edge records: straight and curved.
The StraightFlag determines the type.
StraightEdgeRecord
The StraightEdgeRecord stores the edge as an X-Y delta. The delta is added to the current
drawing position, and this becomes the new drawing position. The edge is rendered between
the old and new drawing positions.
Straight edge records support three types of lines:
1. General lines.
2. Horizontal lines.
3. Vertical lines.
General lines store both X and Y deltas, the horizontal and vertical lines store only the X delta
and Y delta respectively.
STRAIGHTEDGERECORD
Field Type Comment
TypeFlag UB[1] This is an edge record.
Always 1.
StraightFlag UB[1] Straight edge.

Always 1.
NumBits UB[4] Number of bits per value

(2 less than the actual number).
GeneralLineFlag UB[1] General Line equals 1.

Vert/Horz Line equals 0.
VertLineFlag If GeneralLineFlag = 0, Vertical Line equals 1.

SB[1] Horizontal Line equals 0.
DeltaX If GeneralLineFlag = 1 or X delta.

if VertLineFlag = 0,
SB[NumBits+2]
DeltaY If GeneralLineFlag = 1 or Y delta.
if VertLineFlag = 1,
SB[NumBits+2]
138 Shapes
CurvedEdgeRecord
The SWF file format differs from most vector file formats by using Quadratic Bezier curves
rather than Cubic Bezier curves. PostScript™ uses Cubic Bezier curves, as do most drawing
applications.The SWF file format uses Quadratic Bezier curves because they can be stored
more compactly, and can be rendered more efficiently.
The following diagram shows a Quadratic Bezier curve and a Cubic Bezier curve.
A Quadratic Bezier curve has 3 points: 2 on-curve anchor points, and 1 off-curve control
point. A Cubic Bezier curve has 4 points: 2 on-curve anchor points, and 2 off-curve control
points.
The curved-edge record stores the edge as two X-Y deltas. The three points that define the
Quadratic Bezier are calculated like this:
1. The first anchor point is the current drawing position.
2. The control point is the current drawing position + ControlDelta.
3. The last anchor point is the current drawing position + ControlDelta + AnchorDelta.
The last anchor point becomes the current drawing position.
CURVEDEDGERECORD
Field Type Comment
Always 1.
StraightFlag UB[1] Curved edge.

Always 0.

(2 less than the actual number).
ControlDeltaX SB[NumBits+2] X control point change.
ControlDeltaY SB[NumBits+2] Y control point change.
AnchorDeltaX SB[NumBits+2] X anchor point change.
AnchorDeltaY SB[NumBits+2] Y anchor point change.

Converting between quadratic and cubic Bezier curves
Replace the single off-curve control point of the quadratic Bezier curve with two new
off-curve control points for the cubic Bezier curve. Place each new off-curve control point
along the line between one of the on-curve anchor points and the original off-curve control
point. The new off-curve control points should be 2/3 of the way from the on-curve anchor
point to the original off-curve control point. The diagram of quadratic and cubic Bezier
curves above illustrates this substitution.
A cubic Bezier curve can be approximated only with a quadratic Bezier curve, because you
are going from a third-order curve to a second-order curve. This involves recursive subdivision
of the curve, until the cubic curve and the quadratic equivalent are matched within some
arbitrary tolerance.
For a discussion of how to approximate cubic Bezier curves with quadratic Bezier curves see
the following:
■ Converting Bezier Curves to Quadratic Splines at stevehollasch.com/cgindex/curves/cbez-
quadspline.html
■ TrueType Reference Manual, Converting Outlines to the TrueType Format at
developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/RM08/appendixE.html
Shape tags
DefineShape
The DefineShape tag defines a shape for later use by control tags such as PlaceObject. The
ShapeId uniquely identifies this shape as ‘character’ in the Dictionary. The ShapeBounds field
is the rectangle that completely encloses the shape. The SHAPEWITHSTYLE structure
includes all the paths, fill styles and line styles that make up the shape.
DefineShape
Field Type Comment
Header RECORDHEADER Tag type = 2.
ShapeId UI16 ID for this character.
ShapeBounds RECT Bounds of the shape.
Shapes SHAPEWITHSTYLE Shape information.
140 Shapes
DefineShape2
DefineShape2 extends the capabilities of DefineShape with the ability to support more than
255 styles in the style list and multiple style lists in a single shape.
DefineShape2
Field Type Comment
DefineShape3
DefineShape3 extends the capabilities of DefineShape2 by extending all of the RGB color
fields to support RGBA with opacity information.
DefineShape3
Field Type Comment
DefineShape4
DefineShape4 extends the capabilities of DefineShape3 by using a new line style record in the
shape. LINESTYLE2 allows new types of joins and caps as well as scaling options and the
ability to fill a stroke.

DefineShape4 specifies not only the shape bounds but also the edge bounds of the shape.
While the shape bounds are calculated along the outside of the strokes, the edge bounds are
taken from the outside of the edges, as shown in the following diagram. The EdgeBounds
field assists Flash Player in accurately determining certain layouts.
Strokes
Edges
Shape bounds
Edge bounds
In addition, DefineShape4 includes new hinting flags UsesNonScalingStrokes and

UsesScalingStrokes. These flags assist Flash Player in creating the best possible area for
invalidation.
DefineShape4
Field Type Comment
EdgeBounds RECT Bounds of the shape, excluding

strokes.

UsesFillWindingRule UB[1] If 1, use fill winding rule.
Minimum file format version is
SWF 10
UsesNonScalingStrokes UB[1] If 1, the shape contains at least

one non-scaling stroke.
UsesScalingStrokes UB[1] If 1, the shape contains at least

one scaling stroke.
142 Shapes
CHAPTER 7
Gradients 7
Gradients are a special type of shape fill for SWF shapes. They create ramps of colors that
interpolate between two or more fixed colors.
Here is an overview of the SWF gradient model:
■ There are two styles of gradient: Linear and Radial. In addition, with the SWF 8 file
format, a new radial gradient type is added to allow the focal point to be set.
■ Each gradient has its own transformation matrix, and can be transformed independently
of its parent shape.
■ A gradient can have up to eight control points in SWF 7 file format and previous versions,
or up to fifteen control points in SWF 8 and later. Colors are interpolated between the
control points to create the color ramp.
■ Each control point is defined by a ratio and an RGBA color. The ratio determines the
position of the control point in the gradient; the RGBA value determines its color.
Following are some examples of SWF gradients (from left to right):
■ A simple white-to-black linear gradient.
■ A simple white-to-black radial gradient.
■ A “rainbow” gradient consisting of seven control points; red, yellow, green, cyan, blue,
purple, and red.
■ A three-point gradient, where the end points are opaque and the center point is
transparent. The result is a gradient in the alpha-channel that allows the diamond shape in
the background to show through.
143
Gradient transformations
All gradients are defined in a standard space called the gradient square. The gradient square is
centered at (0,0), and extends from (-16384,-16384) to (16384,16384).
Each gradient is mapped from the gradient square to the display surface using a standard
transformation matrix. This matrix is stored in the FILLSTYLE structure.
Example: In the following diagram a linear gradient is mapped onto a circle 4096 units in
diameter, and centered at (2048,2048).
The 2x3 MATRIX required for this mapping is:

| 0.125 0.000 |
| 0.000 0.125 |
| 2048.0002048.000 |
The gradient is scaled to one-eighth of its original size (32768 / 4096 = 8), and translated to
(2048, 2048).
Gradient control points

The position of a control point in the gradient is determined by a ratio value between 0 and
255. For a linear gradient, a ratio of zero maps to the left side of the gradient square, and a
ratio of 255 maps to the right side. For a radial gradient, a ratio of zero maps to the center
point of the gradient square, and a ratio of 255 maps to the largest circle that fits inside the
gradient square.
The color of a control point is determined by an RGBA value. An alpha value of zero means
the gradient is completely transparent at this point. An alpha value of 255 means the gradient
is completely opaque at this point.
Control points are sorted by ratio, with the smallest ratio first.
144 Gradients
Gradient structures
The gradient structures are part of the FILLSTYLE structure.
GRADIENT
SWF 8 and later supports up to 15 gradient control points, spread modes and a new
interpolation type.
Note that for the DefineShape, DefineShape2 or DefineShape3 tags, the SpreadMode and
InterpolationMode fields must be 0, and the NumGradients field can not exceed 8.
GRADIENT
Field Type Comment
SpreadMode UB[2] 0 = Pad mode
1 = Reflect mode
2 = Repeat mode
3 = Reserved
InterpolationMode UB[2] 0 = Normal RGB mode

interpolation
1 = Linear RGB mode
interpolation
2 and 3 = Reserved
NumGradients UB[4] 1 to 15
GradientRecords GRADRECORD[nGrads] Gradient records (see

following)
Gradient structures 145

FOCALGRADIENT
A FOCALGRADIENT must be declared in DefineShape4—not DefineShape, DefineShape2
or DefineShape3.
The value range is from -1.0 to 1.0, where -1.0 means the focal point is close to the left border
of the radial gradient circle, 0.0 means that the focal point is in the center of the radial
gradient circle, and 1.0 means that the focal point is close to the right border of the radial
gradient circle.
FOCALGRADIENT
Field Type Comment
SpreadMode UB[2] 0 = Pad mode
1 = Reflect mode
2 = Repeat mode
3 = Reserved
InterpolationMode UB[2] 0 = Normal RGB mode

interpolation
1 = Linear RGB mode
interpolation
2 and 3 = Reserved
NumGradients UB[4] 1 to 15
GradientRecords GRADRECORD[nGrads] Gradient records (see

following)
FocalPoint FIXED8 Focal point location
GRADRECORD
The GRADRECORD defines a gradient control point:
GRADRECORD
Field Type Comment
Ratio UI8 Ratio value
Color RGB (Shape1 or Shape2) Color of gradient

RGBA (Shape3)
146 Gradients
CHAPTER 8
Bitmaps 8
The SWF file format specification supports a variety of bitmap formats. All bitmaps are
compressed to reduce file size. Lossy compression, best for imprecise images such as
photographs, is provided by JPEG bitmaps; lossless compression, best for precise images such
as diagrams, icons, or screen captures, is provided by ZLIB bitmaps. Both types of bitmaps
can optionally contain alpha channel (opacity) information.
The JPEG format, officially defined as ITU T.81 or ISO/IEC 10918-1, is an open standard
developed by the Independent Joint Photographic Experts Group. The JPEG format is not
described in this document. For general information on the JPEG format, see JPEG at
www.jpeg.org/. For a specification of the JPEG format, see the International
Telecommunication Union at www.itu.int/ and search for recommendation T.81. The JPEG
data in SWF files is encoded using the JPEG Interchange Format specified in Annex B. Flash
Player also understands the popular JFIF format, an extension of the JPEG Interchange
Format.
In all cases where arrays of non-JPEG pixel data are stored in bitmap tags, the pixels appear
in row-major order, reading like English text, proceeding left to right within rows and top to
bottom overall.
DefineBits
This tag defines a bitmap character with JPEG compression. It contains only the JPEG
compressed image data (from the Frame Header onward). A separate JPEGTables tag contains
the JPEG encoding data used to encode this image (the Tables/Misc segment).
N OT E
Only one JPEGTables tag is allowed in a SWF file, and thus all bitmaps defined with
DefineBits must share common encoding tables.
The data in this tag begins with the JPEG SOI marker 0xFF, 0xD8 and ends with the EOI
marker 0xFF, 0xD9. Before version 8 of the SWF file format, SWF files could contain an
erroneous header of 0xFF, 0xD9, 0xFF, 0xD8 before the JPEG SOI marker.
147
The minimum file format version for this tag is SWF 1.
DefineBits
Field Type Comment
Header RECORDHEADER (long) Tag type = 6
CharacterID UI16 ID for this character
JPEGData UI8[image data size] JPEG compressed image
JPEGTables
This tag defines the JPEG encoding table (the Tables/Misc segment) for all JPEG images
defined using the DefineBits tag. There may only be one JPEGTables tag in a SWF file.
JPEGTables
Field Type Comment
JPEGData UI8[encoding data size] JPEG encoding table
DefineBitsJPEG2
This tag defines a bitmap character with JPEG compression. It differs from DefineBits in that
it contains both the JPEG encoding table and the JPEG image data. This tag allows multiple
JPEG images with differing encoding tables to be defined within a single SWF file.
In addition to specifying JPEG data, DefineBitsJPEG2 can also contain PNG image data and
non-animated GIF89a image data.
■ If ImageData begins with the eight bytes 0x89 0x50 0x4E 0x47 0x0D 0x0A 0x1A 0x0A, the
ImageData contains PNG data.
148 Bitmaps
■ If ImageData begins with the six bytes 0x47 0x49 0x46 0x38 0x39 0x61, the ImageData
contains GIF89a data.
The minimum file format version for this tag is SWF 2. The minimum file format version for
embedding PNG of GIF89a data is SWF 8.
DefineBitsJPEG2
Field Type Comment
ImageData UI8[data size] Compressed image data in

either JPEG, PNG, or GIF89a
format
DefineBitsJPEG3
This tag defines a bitmap character with JPEG compression. This tag extends
DefineBitsJPEG2, adding alpha channel (opacity) data. Opacity/transparency information is
not a standard feature in JPEG images, so the alpha channel information is encoded separately
from the JPEG data, and compressed using the ZLIB standard for compression. The data
format used by the ZLIB library is described by Request for Comments (RFCs) documents
1950 to 1952.
In addition to specifying JPEG data, DefineBitsJPEG2 can also contain PNG image data and
non-animated GIF89a image data.
■ If ImageData begins with the eight bytes 0x89 0x50 0x4E 0x47 0x0D 0x0A 0x1A 0x0A, the
ImageData contains PNG data.
■ If ImageData begins with the six bytes 0x47 0x49 0x46 0x38 0x39 0x61, the ImageData
contains GIF89a data.
If ImageData contains PNG or GIF89a data, the optional BitmapAlphaData is not
supported.
DefineBitsJPEG3 149
The minimum file format version for this tag is SWF 3. The minimum file format version for
embedding PNG of GIF89a data is SWF 8.
DefineBitsJPEG3
Field Type Comment
Header RECORDHEADER (long) Tag type = 35.
CharacterID UI16 ID for this character.
AlphaDataOffset UI32 Count of bytes in ImageData.

format
BitmapAlphaData UI8[alpha data size] ZLIB compressed array of

alpha data. Only supported
when tag contains JPEG data.
One byte per pixel. Total size
after decompression must
equal (width * height) of JPEG
image.
DefineBitsLossless
Defines a lossless bitmap character that contains RGB bitmap data compressed with ZLIB.
The data format used by the ZLIB library is described by Request for Comments (RFCs)
documents 1950 to 1952.
Two kinds of bitmaps are supported. Colormapped images define a colormap of up to 256
colors, each represented by a 24-bit RGB value, and then use 8-bit pixel values to index into
the colormap. Direct images store actual pixel color values using 15 bits (32,768 colors) or 24
bits (about 17 million colors).
DefineBitsLossless
Field Type Comment
150 Bitmaps
DefineBitsLossless
Field Type Comment
BitmapFormat UI8 Format of compressed data
3 = 8-bit colormapped image
4 = 15-bit RGB image
5 = 24-bit RGB image
BitmapWidth UI16 Width of bitmap image
BitmapHeight UI16 Height of bitmap image
BitmapColorTableSize If BitmapFormat = 3, UI8 This value is one less than the

Otherwise absent actual number of colors in the
color table, allowing for up to
256 colors.
ZlibBitmapData If BitmapFormat = 3, ZLIB compressed bitmap data

COLORMAPDATA
If BitmapFormat = 4 or 5,
BITMAPDATA
DefineBitsLossless 151
The COLORMAPDATA and BITMAPDATA structures contain image data. These
structures are each compressed as a single block of data. Their layouts before compression
follow.
NOTE
Row widths in the pixel data fields of these structures must be rounded up to the next
32-bit word boundary. For example, an 8-bit image that is 253 pixels wide must be
padded out to 256 bytes per line. To determine the appropriate padding, make sure to
take into account the actual size of the individual pixel structures; 15-bit pixels occupy 2
bytes and 24-bit pixels occupy 4 bytes (see PIX15 and PIX24).
COLORMAPDATA
Field Type Comment
ColorTableRGB RGB[color table size] Defines the mapping from color
indices to RGB values. Number
of RGB values is
BitmapColorTableSize + 1.
ColormapPixelData UI8[image data size] Array of color indices. Number

of entries is BitmapWidth *
BitmapHeight, subject to
padding (see note preceding
this table).
BITMAPDATA
Field Type Comment
BitmapPixelData If BitmapFormat = 4, Array of pixel colors. Number of
PIX15[image data size] entries is BitmapWidth *
If BitmapFormat = 5, BitmapHeight, subject to
PIX24[image data size] padding (see note above).
PIX15
Field Type Comment
Pix15Reserved UB[1] Always 0
Pix15Red UB[5] Red value
Pix15Green UB[5] Green value
Pix15Blue UB[5] Blue value
152 Bitmaps
PIX24
Field Type Comment
Pix24Reserved UI8 Always 0
Pix24Red UI8 Red value

Pix24Green UI8 Green value
Pix24Blue UI8 Blue value
DefineBitsLossless2
DefineBitsLossless2 extends DefineBitsLossless with support for opacity (alpha values). The
colormap colors in colormapped images are defined using RGBA values, and direct images
store 32-bit ARGB colors for each pixel. The intermediate 15-bit color depth is not available
in DefineBitsLossless2.
DefineBitsLossless2
Field Type Comment
BitmapFormat UI8 Format of compressed data

3 = 8-bit colormapped image
5 = 32-bit ARGB image
BitmapWidth UI16 Width of bitmap image

BitmapHeight UI16 Height of bitmap image
BitmapColorTableSize If BitmapFormat = 3, UI8 This value is one less than the

Otherwise absent actual number of colors in the
color table, allowing for up to
256 colors.
ZlibBitmapData If BitmapFormat = 3, ZLIB compressed bitmap data

ALPHACOLORMAPDATA
If BitmapFormat = 4 or 5,
ALPHABITMAPDATA
DefineBitsLossless2 153
The COLORMAPDATA and BITMAPDATA structures contain image data. These
structures are each compressed as a single block of data. Their layouts before compression
follow.
NOTE
Row widths in the pixel data field of ALPHACOLORMAPDATA must be rounded up to

the next 32-bit word boundary. For example, an 8-bit image that is 253 pixels wide must
be padded out to 256 bytes per line. Row widths in ALPHABITMAPDATA are always
32-bit aligned because the ARGB structure is 4 bytes.
ALPHACOLORMAPDATA
Field Type Comment
ColorTableRGB RGBA[color table size] Defines the mapping from color
indices to RGBA values.
Number of RGBA values is
BitmapColorTableSize + 1.
ColormapPixelData UI8[image data size] Array of color indices. Number

of entries is BitmapWidth *
BitmapHeight, subject to
padding (see note preceding
this table).
ALPHABITMAPDATA
Field Type Comment
BitmapPixelData ARGB[image data size] Array of pixel colors. Number of
entries is BitmapWidth *
BitmapHeight. The RGB data
must already be multiplied by
the alpha channel value.
DefineBitsJPEG4
This tag defines a bitmap character with JPEG compression. This tag extends
DefineBitsJPEG3, adding a deblocking parameter. While this tag also supports PNG and
GIF89a data, the deblocking filter is not applied to such data.
154 Bitmaps
DefineBitsJPEG4
Field Type Comment
CharacterID UI16 ID for this character.
AlphaDataOffset UI32 Count of bytes in ImageData.
DeblockParam UI16 Parameter to be fed into the

deblocking filter. The parameter
describes a relative strength of
the deblocking filter from 0-
100% expressed in a
normalized 8.8 fixed point
format.

format.
BitmapAlphaData UI8[alpha data size] ZLIB compressed array of

alpha data. Only supported
when tag contains JPEG data.
One byte per pixel. Total size
after decompression must
equal (width * height) of JPEG
image.
DefineBitsJPEG4 155
156 Bitmaps
CHAPTER 9
Shape Morphing 9
Shape morphing is the metamorphosis of one shape into another over time. The SWF file
format specification supports a flexible morphing model, which allows a number of shape
attributes to vary during the morph. The SWF file format defines only the start and end states
of the morph. Adobe Flash Player is responsible for interpolating between the endpoints and
generating the ‘in-between’ states.
The following shape attributes can be varied during the morph:
■ The position of each edge in the shape.
■ The color and thickness of the outline.
■ The fill color of the shape (if filled with a color).
■ The bitmap transform (if filled with a bitmap).
■ The gradient transform (if filled with a gradient).
■ The color and position of each point in the gradient (if filled with a gradient).
The following restrictions apply to morphing:
■ The start and end shapes must have the same number of edges.
■ The start and end shapes must have the same type of fill (that is, solid, gradient or bitmap).
■ The style change records must be the same for the start and end shapes.
■ If filled with a bitmap, both shapes must be filled with the same bitmap.
■ If filled with a gradient, both gradients must have the same number of color points.
157
The following illustration shows a morph from a blue rectangle to a red quadrilateral over five
frames. The green outlines represent the ‘in-between’ shapes of the morph sequence. Both
shapes have the same number of points, and the same type of fill, namely a solid fill. Besides
changing shape, the shape also gradually changes color from blue to red.
There are two tags involved in defining and playing a morph sequence:
■ DefineMorphShape
■ PlaceObject2
DefineMorphShape defines the start and end states of the morph. A morph object does not
use previously defined shapes; it is considered a special type of shape with only one character
ID. DefineMorphShape contains a list of edges for both the start and end shapes. It also
defines the fill and line styles, as they are at the start and end of the morph sequence.
The PlaceObject 2 tag displays the morph object at some point in time during the morph
sequence. The ratio field controls how far the morph has progressed. A ratio of zero produces
a shape identical to the start condition. A ratio of 65535 produces a shape identical to the end
condition.
158 Shape Morphing

DefineMorphShape
The DefineMorphShape tag defines the start and end states of a morph sequence. A morph
object should be displayed with the PlaceObject2 tag, where the ratio field specifies how far
the morph has progressed.
DefineMorphShape
Field Type Comment
CharacterId UI16 ID for this character
StartBounds RECT Bounds of the start shape
EndBounds RECT Bounds of the end shape
Offset UI32 Indicates offset to EndEdges
MorphFillStyles MORPHFILLSTYLEARRAY Fill style information is stored in

the same manner as for a
standard shape; however, each
fill consists of interleaved
information based on a single
style type to accommodate
morphing.
MorphLineStyles MORPHLINESTYLEARRAY Line style information is stored

in the same manner as for a
line consists of interleaved
morphing.
DefineMorphShape 159
DefineMorphShape
Field Type Comment
StartEdges SHAPE Contains the set of edges and
the style bits that indicate style
changes (for example, MoveTo,
FillStyle, and LineStyle).
Number of edges must equal
the number of edges in
EndEdges.
EndEdges SHAPE Contains only the set of edges,

with no style information.
StartEdges.
StartBounds This defines the bounding-box of the shape at the start of the morph.
EndBounds This defines the bounding-box at the end of the morph.
MorphFillStyles This contains an array of interleaved fill styles for the start and end shapes.
The fill style for the start shape is followed by the corresponding fill style for the end shape.
MorphLineStyles This contains an array of interleaved line styles.
StartEdges This array specifies the edges for the start shape, and the style change records
for both shapes. Because the StyleChangeRecords must be the same for the start and end
shapes, they are defined only in the StartEdges array.
EndEdges This array specifies the edges for the end shape, and contains no style change
records. The number of edges specified in StartEdges must equal the number of edges in
EndEdges.
NOT E
Strictly speaking, MoveTo records fall into the category of StyleChangeRecords;

however, they should be included in both the StartEdges and EndEdges arrays.
It is possible for an edge to change type over the course of a morph sequence. A straight edge
can become a curved edge and vice versa. In this case, think of both edges as curved. A straight
edge can be easily represented as a curve, by placing the off-curve (control) point at the
midpoint of the straight edge, and the on-curve (anchor) point at the end of the straight edge.
The calculation is as follows:
CurveControlDelta.x = StraightDelta.x / 2;
CurveControlDelta.y = StraightDelta.y / 2;
CurveAnchorDelta.x = StraightDelta.x / 2;
CurveAnchorDelta.y = StraightDelta.y / 2;
160 Shape Morphing

DefineMorphShape2
The DefineMorphShape2 tag extends the capabilities of DefineMorphShape by using a new
morph line style record in the morph shape. MORPHLINESTYLE2 allows the use of new
types of joins and caps as well as scaling options and the ability to fill the strokes of the morph
shape.
DefineMorphShape2 specifies not only the shape bounds but also the edge bounds of the
shape. While the shape bounds are calculated along the outside of the strokes, the edge
bounds are taken from the outside of the edges. For an example of shape bounds versus edge
bounds, see the diagram in DefineShape4. The new StartEdgeBounds and EndEdgeBounds
fields assist Flash Player in accurately determining certain layouts.
In addition, DefineMorphShape2 includes new hinting information, UsesNonScalingStrokes
and UsesScalingStrokes. These flags assist Flash Player in creating the best possible area for
invalidation.
DefineMorphShape2
Field Type Comment
CharacterId UI16 ID for this character
StartBounds RECT Bounds of the start shape
EndBounds RECT Bounds of the end shape
StartEdgeBounds RECT Bounds of the start shape,

excluding strokes
EndEdgeBounds RECT Bounds of the end shape,
excluding strokes
UsesNonScalingStrokes UB[1] If 1, the shape contains at least

one non-scaling stroke.
UsesScalingStrokes UB[1] If 1, the shape contains at least

one scaling stroke.
Offset UI32 Indicates offset to EndEdges
DefineMorphShape2 161
DefineMorphShape2
Field Type Comment
MorphFillStyles MORPHFILLSTYLEARRAY Fill style information is stored in
the same manner as for a
fill consists of interleaved
morphing.
MorphLineStyles MORPHLINESTYLEARRAY Line style information is stored

in the same manner as for a
line consists of interleaved
morphing.
StartEdges SHAPE Contains the set of edges and
the style bits that indicate style
changes (for example, MoveTo,
FillStyle, and LineStyle).
EndEdges.
EndEdges SHAPE Contains only the set of edges,

with no style information.
StartEdges.
162 Shape Morphing

Morph fill styles
MORPHFILLSTYLEARRAY
A morph fill style array enumerates a number of fill styles.
MORPHFILLSTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
FillStyleCount Count = UI8 Count of fill styles.
FillStyleCountExtended If Count = 0xFF Extended count of fill styles.

UI16
FillStyles MORPHFILLSTYLE[count] Array of fill styles.
MORPHFILLSTYLE
A fill style represents how a closed shape is filled in.
MORPHFILLSTYLE
Field Type Comment
FillStyleType UI8 Type of fill style
0x00 = solid fill
0x10 = linear gradient fill
0x12 = radial gradient fill
0x40 = repeating bitmap
0x41 = clipped bitmap fill
0x42 = non-smoothed
repeating bitmap
0x43 = non-smoothed
clipped bitmap
StartColor If type = 0x00, RGBA Solid fill color with opacity

information for start
shape.
EndColor If type = 0x00, RGBA Solid fill color with opacity
information for end shape.
StartGradientMatrix If type = 0x10 or 0x12, MATRIX Matrix for gradient fill for
start shape.
EndGradientMatrix If type = 0x10 or 0x12, MATRIX Matrix for gradient fill for
end shape.
Morph fill styles 163

MORPHFILLSTYLE
Field Type Comment
Gradient If type = 0x10 or 0x12, Gradient fill.
MORPHGRADIENT
BitmapId If type = 0x40, 0x41, 0x42 or 0x43, ID of bitmap character for

UI16 fill.
StartBitmapMatrix If type = 0x40, 0x41, 0x42 or 0x43, Matrix for bitmap fill for
MATRIX start shape.
EndBitmapMatrix If type = 0x40, 0x41, 0x42 or 0x43, Matrix for bitmap fill for
MATRIX end shape.
Morph gradient values

Morph gradient values control gradient information for a fill style.
MORPHGRADIENT
The format of gradient information is described in the following table:
MORPHGRADIENT
Field Type Comment
NumGradients UI8 1 to 8.
GradientRecords MORPHGRADRECORD Gradient records (see

[NumGradients] following).
MORPHGRADRECORD
The gradient record format is described in the following table:
MORPHGRADRECORD
Field Type Comment
StartRatio UI8 Ratio value for start shape.
StartColor RGBA Color of gradient for start

shape.
EndRatio UI8 Ratio value for end shape.
EndColor RGBA Color of gradient for end shape.
164 Shape Morphing

Morph line styles
A morph line style array enumerates a number of fill styles.
MORPHLINESTYLEARRAY
The format of a line style array is described in the following table.
MORPHLINESTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
LineStyleCount UI8 Count of line styles.
LineStyleCountExtended If count = 0xFF Extended count of

UI16 line styles.
LineStyles MORPHLINESTYLE[count], Array of line styles.

(if MorphShape1)
MORPHLINESTYLE2[count],
(if MorphShape2)
A line style represents a width and color of a line.
MORPHLINESTYLE
The format of a line style value within the file is described in the following table.
MORPHLINESTYLE
Field Type Comment
StartWidth UI16 Width of line in start shape in
twips.
EndWidth UI16 Width of line in end shape in

twips.
StartColor RGBA Color value including alpha

channel information for start
shape.
EndColor RGBA Color value including alpha
channel information for end
shape.
Morph line styles 165

MORPHLINESTYLE2
MORPHLINESTYLE2 builds upon the capabilities of the MORPHLINESTYLE record by
allowing the use of new types of joins and caps as well as scaling options and the ability to fill
morph strokes. In order to use MORPHLINESTYLE2, the shape must be defined with
DefineMorphShape2—not DefineMorphShape.
While the MORPHLINESTYLE record permits only rounded joins and round caps,
MORPHLINESTYLE2 also supports miter and bevel joins, and square caps and no caps. For
an illustration of the available joins and caps, see the diagram in the LINESTYLE2
description.
When using MORPHLINESTYLE for a miter join, a MiterLimitFactor must be specified
and is used along with StartWidth or EndWidth to calculate the maximum miter length:
Max miter length = MORPHLINESTYLE2 MiterLimitFactor * MORPHLINESTYLE2
Width
If the miter join exceeds the maximum miter length, Flash Player will cut off the miter. Note
that MiterLimitFactor is an 8.8 fixed-point value.
MORPHLINESTYLE2 also includes the option for pixel hinting in order to correct blurry
vertical or horizontal lines.
MORPHLINESTYLE2
Field Type Comment
StartWidth UI16 Width of line in start shape in
twips.
EndWidth UI16 Width of line in end shape in

twips.
StartCapStyle UB[2] Start-cap style:

0 = Round cap
1 = No cap
2 = Square cap
JoinStyle UB[2] Join style:

0 = Round join
1 = Bevel join
2 = Miter join
HasFillFlag UB[1] If 1, fill is defined in FillType.

If 0, uses StartColor and
EndColor fields.
166 Shape Morphing

MORPHLINESTYLE2
Field Type Comment
NoHScaleFlag UB[1] If 1, stroke thickness will not
horizontally.
NoVScaleFlag UB[1] If 1, stroke thickness will not

vertically.
PixelHintingFlag UB[1] If 1, all anchors will be aligned to
full pixels.
NoClose UB[1] If 1, stroke will not be closed if

the stroke’s last point matches
its first point. Flash Player will
apply caps instead of a join.
EndCapStyle UB[2] End-cap style:

0 = Round cap
1 = No cap
2 = Square cap
MiterLimitFactor If JoinStyle = 2, UI16 Miter limit factor as an 8.8

fixed-point value.
StartColor If HasFillFlag = 0, RGBA Color value including alpha

channel information for start
shape.
EndColor If HasFillFlag = 0, RGBA Color value including alpha

channel information for end
shape.
FillType If HasFillFlag = 1, Fill style.
MORPHFILLSTYLE
Morph line styles 167

168 Shape Morphing
CHAPTER 10
Fonts and Text 10

The SWF file format specification supports a variety of text-drawing primitives. In SWF 6 or
later files, all text is represented using Unicode encodings, eliminating dependencies on
playback locale for text and strings. As of version 10, the Flash Player also supports right-to-
left scripts and support for Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, and other complex scripts.
Glyph text and device text

The SWF file format supports two kinds of text: glyph text and device text. Glyph text works
by embedding character shapes in the SWF file, while device text uses the text rendering
capabilities of the playback platform.
Glyph text looks identical on all playback platforms. It can be drawn with either the standard
anti-aliasing used by all shapes on a Flash Player Stage, or, in SWF 8 file format and later,
rendered with the advanced text rendering engine. The usage of glyph text creates larger SWF
files than for device text, especially in files that use many different characters from a large
character set.
Device text is anti-aliased by the operating system that hosts Flash Player, and its appearance
varies depending on the playback platform. Fonts for device text can be specified in two ways:
directly, as a font name that will be sought verbatim on the playback platform; or indirectly,
using one of a small number of special font names that are mapped to highly available fonts
that differ in name from platform to platform, but are chosen to be as similar in appearance as
possible across platforms.
169
Glyph text characters are defined using the DefineFont, DefineFont2, or DefineFont3 tag.
Device text fonts are defined using the DefineFont and DefineFontInfo tags together, or the
DefineFont2 tag. DefineFont2 tags for device text fonts do not need to include any character
glyphs if they will only be used for dynamic text (see next section), although it is a good idea
to include them if there is any doubt about the specified font being available at playback time
on any platform. It is possible to use a given DefineFont or DefineFont2 tag as a glyph font
for certain text blocks, and as a device font for others, as long as both glyphs and character
codes are provided.
Static text and dynamic text

Text can be defined as static text or, in SWF 4 file format or later, dynamic text. Dynamic text
can be changed programmatically at runtime, and, optionally, can be made editable for Adobe
Flash Player users as well.
Dynamic text can emulate almost all features of static text; exact positioning of individual
characters is the only advantage of static text, aside from implementation effort and version
compatibility. Dynamic text also has many formatting capabilities that static text does not
have. These rich formatting capabilities are expressed as a subset of HTML text-markup tags.
Static text is defined using the DefineText tag. Dynamic text is defined using the
DefineEditText tag. Both of these tags make reference to DefineFont or DefineFont2 tags to
obtain their character sources. DefineEditText tags require DefineFont2 tags rather than
DefineFont tags; DefineText tags can use either DefineFont or DefineFont2 tags.
The DefineEditText tag provides a flag that indicates whether to use glyph text or device text.
However, the DefineText tag does not. This means that, for static text, SWF file format
provides no means to indicate whether to use glyph text or device text. This situation is
resolved by runtime flags. Normally, all static text is rendered as glyph text. When a Flash
Player plug-in is embedded in an HTML page, an HTML tag option called devicefont will
cause Flash Player to render all static text as device text, if possible; as usual, glyph text is used
as a fallback. The ability of the DefineEditText tag to specify glyph text or device text is
another reason to consider dynamic text superior to static text.
170 Fonts and Text

Glyph text
Glyph definitions
Glyphs are defined once in a standard coordinate space called the EM square. The same set of
glyphs are used for every point size of a given font. To render a glyph at different point sizes,
Flash Player scales the glyph from EM coordinates to point-size coordinates.
Glyph fonts—without using the advanced text rendering engine —do not include any
hinting information for improving the quality of small font sizes. However, anti-aliasing
dramatically improves the legibility of scaled-down text. Glyph text remains legible down to
about 12 points (viewed at 100%). At 12 points and lower, advanced anti-aliasing is
recommended for readable glyph text. This gives superior text quality at small point sizes and
includes extra font meta-information for improved rendering.
TrueType fonts can be readily converted to SWF glyphs. A simple algorithm can replace the
Quadratic B-splines (used by TrueType fonts) with Quadratic Bezier curves (used by SWF
glyphs).
Example:
To the left is the glyph for the TrueType letter 'b' of Monotype Arial. It is made up of curved
and straight edges. Squares indicate on-curve points, and crosses indicate off-curve points.
The black circle is the reference point for the glyph. The blue outline indicates the bounding
box of the glyph.
Glyph text 171

The EM square
The EM square is an imaginary square that is used to size and align glyphs. The EM square is
generally large enough to completely contain all glyphs, including accented glyphs. It includes
the font’s ascent, descent, and some extra spacing to prevent lines of text from colliding.
SWF glyphs are always defined on an EM square of 1024 by 1024 units. Glyphs from other
sources (such as TrueType fonts) may be defined on a different EM square. To use these
glyphs in SWF file format, they should be scaled to fit an EM square of 1024.
Converting TrueType fonts to SWF glyphs

TrueType glyphs are defined using Quadratic B-Splines, which can be easily converted to the
Quadratic Bezier curves used by SWF glyphs.
A TrueType B-spline is composed of one on-curve point, followed by many off-curve points,
followed by another on-curve point. The midpoint between any two off-curve points is
guaranteed to be on the curve. A SWF Bezier curve is composed of one on-curve point,
followed by one off-curve point, followed by another on-curve point.
The conversion from TrueType to SWF curves involves inserting a new on-curve point at the
midpoint of two successive off-curve points.
Example:
Following is a four point B-Spline. P0 and P3 are on-curve points. P1 and P2 are successive
off-curve points.
This curve can be represented as two Quadratic Bezier curves by inserting a new point M, at
the midpoint of P1,P2. The result is two Quadratic Bezier curves; P0,P1,M and M,P2,P3.
172 Fonts and Text

The complete procedure for converting TrueType glyphs to SWF glyphs is as follows:
1. Negate the y-coordinate. (In TrueType glyphs, the y-axis points up; in SWF glyphs, the y-
axis points down.)
2. Scale the x and y co-ordinates from the EM square of the TrueType font, to the EM square
of the SWF glyph (always 1024).
3. Insert an on-curve (anchor) point at the midpoint of each pair of off-curve points.
Kerning and advance values

Kerning defines the horizontal distance between two glyphs. Some font systems store kerning
information along with each font definition. SWF file format, in contrast, stores kerning
information with every glyph instance (every character in a glyph text block). This is referred
to as an advance value.
In the preceding example, the A glyph overlaps the V glyph. In this case, the advance is
narrower than the width of the A glyph.
Advanced text rendering engine

Glyph text can be rendered using the normal Flash Player renderer or, in SWF 8 and later,
with the advanced text rendering engine.
The advanced text rendering engine is a high-quality text renderer supported inside the Flash
Player renderer. The advanced system has the following advantages over using the normal
renderer for text:
■ Readable, even at small point sizes.
■ Maintains the aesthetic look and feel of a font, even at small point sizes.
■ Supports pixel snapping for ultra-clear text (when left-aligned dynamic text is used).
■ Improved performance over glyph text, typically.
■ LCD sub-pixel rendering when Flash Player detects an LCD screen.
Glyph text 173

A limitation of the advanced text rendering engine, however, is that it does not animate well as
compared to glyph text.
The advanced text rendering engine uses Continuous Stroke Modulation (CSM) parameters
to tune its performance. CSM is the continuous modulation of both stroke weight and edge
sharpness. CSM uses two rendering parameters: inside and outside cutoff. Optimal values for
these parameters are highly subjective and can depend on user preferences, lighting
conditions, display properties, typeface, foreground and background colors, and point size.
However, under most circumstances, high-quality type can be achieved with a small set of
interpolated values.
The function that creates the edges for advanced anti-aliasing has an outside cutoff (below
which the edge isn’t drawn) and an inside cutoff (above which the edge is opaque). Between
these two cutoff values is a linear function ranging from zero at the outside cutoff to the
maximum value at the inside cutoff.
Adjusting the outside and inside cutoff values affects stroke weight and edge sharpness. The
spacing between these two parameters is comparable to twice the filter radius of classic
anti-aliasing methods: a narrow spacing provides a sharper edge while a wider spacing
provides a softer, more filtered edge. When the spacing is zero, the resulting density image is a
bi-level bitmap. When the spacing is very wide, the resulting density image has a watercolor-
like edge. Typically, users prefer sharp, high-contrast edges at small point sizes and softer edges
for animated text and larger point sizes.
The outside cutoff typically has a negative value, the inside cutoff typically has a positive
value, and their midpoint typically lies near zero. Adjusting these parameters to shift the
midpoint towards negative infinity will increase the stroke weight; shifting the midpoint
towards positive infinity will decrease the stroke weight. Note that the outside cutoff should
always be less than or equal to the inside cutoff.
Flash Player creates a table of CSM parameters as a function of text size and text color for each
advanced anti-aliased font in use. This default table typically provides a suitable set of CSM
settings across a wide range of point sizes. However, you can specify a user-defined table to
replace the default table by using the ActionScript function
setAdvancedAntialiasingTable().
NOT E
The CSM parameters are intended to make fonts more readable and not to create
effects. Extreme values of CSM result in rendering artifacts. To apply effects to text, it is
much better to use reasonable CSM values and then apply filters or blend effects.
174 Fonts and Text

DefineFont and DefineText
Of the four text types supported in SWF file format (static glyph, static device, dynamic
glyph, and dynamic device), the most complex is static glyph text. The other types use simpler
variations on the rules used for defining static glyph text.
Static glyph text is defined using two tags:
■ The DefineFont tag defines a set of glyphs.
■ The DefineText tag defines the text string that is displayed in the font.
The DefineFont tag defines all the glyphs used by subsequent DefineText tags. DefineFont
includes an array of SHAPERECORDs, which describe the outlines of the glyphs. These
shape records are the same records used by DefineShape to define non-text shapes. To keep
file size to a minimum, only the glyphs actually used are included in the DefineFont tag.
The DefineText tag stores the actual text string(s) to be displayed, represented as a series of
glyph indices. It also includes the bounding box of the text object, a transformation matrix,
and style attributes such as color and size.
DefineText contains an array of TEXTRECORDs. A TEXTRECORD selects the current
font, color, and point size, as well as the x and y position of the next character in the text.
These styles apply to all characters that follow, until another TEXTRECORD changes the
styles. A TEXTRECORD also contains an array of indices into the glyph table of the current
font. Characters are not referred to by their character codes, as in traditional programming,
but rather by an index into the glyph table. The glyph data also includes the advance value for
each character in the text string.
N OTE
A DefineFont tag must always come before any DefineText tags that refer to it.
Static glyph text example

Consider the example of displaying the static glyph text bob in the Arial font, with a point size
of 24.
First, define the glyphs with a DefineFont tag. The glyph table, of type SHAPE, has two
SHAPERECORDs. At index 0 is the shape of a lowercase b (see diagram). At index 1 is the
shape of a lowercase o. (The second b in bob is a duplicate, and is not required). DefineFont
also includes a unique ID so it can be selected by the DefineText tag.
Glyph text 175

Next, define the text itself with a DefineText tag. The TEXTRECORD sets the position of
the first character, selects the Arial font (using the font’s character ID), and sets the point size
to 24, so the font is scaled to the correct size. (Remember that glyphs are defined in EM
coordinates—the actual point size is part of the DefineText tag). It also contains an array of
GLYPHENTRYs. Each glyph entry contains an index into the font’s shape array. In this
example, the first glyph entry has index 0 (which corresponds to the b shape), the second
entry has index 1 (the o), and the third entry has index 0 (b again). Each GLYPHENTRY also
includes an advance value for accurately positioning the glyph.
The following diagram illustrates how the DefineText tag interacts with the DefineFont tag:
DefineFont DefineText
SHAPE Array: TEXTRECORD
Glyph 'b' Glyph index to 'b'
Glyph 'o' Glyph index to 'o'
Glyph index to 'b'
Font tags
DefineFont
The DefineFont tag defines the shape outlines of each glyph used in a particular font. Only
the glyphs that are used by subsequent DefineText tags are actually defined.
DefineFont tags cannot be used for dynamic text. Dynamic text requires the DefineFont2 tag.
DefineFont
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 ID for this font character
OffsetTable UI16[nGlyphs] Array of shape offsets
GlyphShapeTable SHAPE[nGlyphs] Array of shapes
176 Fonts and Text

The font ID uniquely identifies the font. It can be used by subsequent DefineText tags to
select the font. Like all SWF character IDs, font IDs must be unique among all character IDs
in a SWF file.
If you provide a DefineFontInfo tag to go along with a DefineFont tag, be aware that the
order of the glyphs in the DefineFont tag must match the order of the character codes in the
DefineFontInfo tag, which must be sorted by code point order.
The OffsetTable and GlyphShapeTable are used together. These tables have the same number
of entries, and there is a one-to-one ordering match between the order of the offsets and the
order of the shapes. The OffsetTable points to locations in the GlyphShapeTable. Each offset
entry stores the difference (in bytes) between the start of the offset table and the location of
the corresponding shape. Because the GlyphShapeTable immediately follows the OffsetTable,
the number of entries in each table (the number of glyphs in the font) can be inferred by
dividing the first entry in the OffsetTable by two.
The first STYLECHANGERECORD of each SHAPE in the GlyphShapeTable does not use
the LineStyle and LineStyles fields. In addition, the first STYLECHANGERECORD of each
shape must have both fields StateFillStyle0 and FillStyle0 set to 1.
DefineFontInfo
The DefineFontInfo tag defines a mapping from a glyph font (defined with DefineFont) to a
device font. It provides a font name and style to pass to the playback platform’s text engine,
and a table of character codes that identifies the character represented by each glyph in the
corresponding DefineFont tag, allowing the glyph indices of a DefineText tag to be converted
to character strings.
The presence of a DefineFontInfo tag does not force a glyph font to become a device font; it
merely makes the option available. The actual choice between glyph and device usage is made
according to the value of devicefont (see the introduction) or the value of UseOutlines in a
DefineEditText tag. If a device font is unavailable on a playback platform, Flash Player will
fall back to glyph text.
Font tags 177

DefineFontInfo
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 Font ID this information is for.
FontNameLen UI8 Length of font name.
FontName UI8[FontNameLen] Name of the font (see

following).
FontFlagsReserved UB[2] Reserved bit fields.
FontFlagsSmallText UB[1] SWF 7 file format or later:

Font is small. Character glyphs
are aligned on pixel boundaries
for dynamic and input text.
FontFlagsShiftJIS UB[1] ShiftJIS character codes.
FontFlagsANSI UB[1] ANSI character codes.
FontFlagsItalic UB[1] Font is italic.
FontFlagsBold UB[1] Font is bold.
FontFlagsWideCodes UB[1] If 1, CodeTable is UI16 array;

otherwise, CodeTable is UI8
array.
CodeTable If FontFlagsWideCodes, Glyph to code table, sorted in

UI16[nGlyphs] ascending order.
Otherwise, UI8[nGlyphs]
The entries in the CodeTable must be sorted in ascending order by code point, by the value
they provide. The order of the entries in the CodeTable must also match the order of the
glyphs in the DefineFont tag to which this DefineFontInfo tag applies. This places a
requirement on the ordering of glyphs in the corresponding DefineFont tag.
178 Fonts and Text

SWF 6 or later files require Unicode text encoding. One aspect of this requirement is that all
character code tables are specified using UCS-2 (UCS-2 is generally the first 64k code points
of UTF-16). This encoding uses a fixed 2 bytes for each character. This means that when a
DefineFontInfo tag appears in a SWF 6 or later file, FontFlagsWideCodes must be set,
FontFlagsShiftJIS and FontFlagsANSI must be cleared, and CodeTable must consist of UI16
entries (as always, in little-endian byte order) encoded in UCS-2.
Another Unicode requirement that applies to SWF 6 or later files is that font names must
always be encoded using UTF-8. In SWF 5 or earlier files, font names are encoded in a
platform-specific way, in the codepage of the system on which they were authored. The
playback platform will interpret them using its current codepage, with potentially inconsistent
results. If the playback platform is an ANSI system, font names will be interpreted as ANSI
strings. If the playback platform is a Japanese shift-JIS system, font names will be interpreted
as shift-JIS strings. Many other values for the playback platform’s codepage, which governs this
decision, are possible. This playback locale dependency is undesirable, which is why SWF 6
file format moved toward a standard encoding for font names. Note that font name strings in
the DefineFontInfo tag are not null-terminated; instead their length is specified by the
FontNameLen field. FontNameLen specifies the number of bytes in FontName, which is not
necessarily equal to the number of characters, since some encodings may use more than one
byte per character.
Font names are normally used verbatim, passed directly to the playback platform’s font system
in order to locate a font. However, there are several special indirect font names that are mapped
to different actual font names depending on the playback platform. These indirect mappings
are hard-coded into each platform-specific port of Flash Player, and the fonts for each
platform are chosen from among system default fonts or other fonts that are very likely to be
available. As a secondary consideration, the indirect mappings are chosen so as to maximize
the similarity of indirect fonts across platforms.
Font tags 179

The following tables describe the indirect font names that are supported.
Western indirect fonts

Font name Example
_sans Hello world
_serif Hello world
_typewriter Hello world
Japanese indirect fonts

Font name:
English Name: Gothic
UTF-8 Byte String (hex): 5F E3 82 B4 E3 82 B7 E3 83 83 E3 82 AF

Example appearance:
Font name:
English Name: Tohaba (Gothic Mono)
UTF-8 Byte String (hex): 5F E7 AD 89 E5 B9 85
Example appearance:
Font name:
English Name: Mincho
UTF-8 Byte String (hex): 5F E6 98 8E E6 9C 9D
Example appearance:
DefineFontInfo2
When generating SWF 6 or later, it is recommended that you use the new DefineFontInfo2
tag rather than DefineFontInfo. DefineFontInfo2 is identical to DefineFontInfo, except that
it adds a field for a language code. If you use the older DefineFontInfo, the language code will
be assumed to be zero, which results in behavior that is dependent on the locale in which
Flash Player is running.
180 Fonts and Text

DefineFontInfo2
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 Font ID this information is for.
FontNameLen UI8 Length of font name.
FontName UI8[FontNameLen] Name of the font.

FontFlagsSmallText UB[1] SWF 7 or later:

FontFlagsShiftJIS UB[1] Always 0.
FontFlagsANSI UB[1] Always 0.

FontFlagsItalic UB[1] Font is italic.
FontFlagsBold UB[1] Font is bold.
FontFlagsWideCodes UB[1] Always 1.
LanguageCode LANGCODE Language ID.
CodeTable UI16[nGlyphs] Glyph to code table in UCS-2,

sorted in ascending order.
DefineFont2
The DefineFont2 tag extends the functionality of DefineFont. Enhancements include
the following:
■ 32-bit entries in the OffsetTable, for fonts with more than 64K glyphs.
■ Mapping to device fonts, by incorporating all the functionality of DefineFontInfo.
■ Font metrics for improved layout of dynamic glyph text.
DefineFont2 tags are the only font definitions that can be used for dynamic text.
Font tags 181

DefineFont2
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 ID for this font character.
FontFlagsHasLayout UB[1] Has font metrics/layout

information.
FontFlagsShiftJIS UB[1] ShiftJIS encoding.

FontFlagsANSI UB[1] ANSI encoding.
FontFlagsWideOffsets UB[1] If 1, uses 32 bit offsets.
FontFlagsWideCodes UB[1] If 1, font uses 16-bit codes;

otherwise font uses 8 bit codes.
FontFlagsItalic UB[1] Italic Font.
FontFlagsBold UB[1] Bold Font.
LanguageCode LANGCODE SWF 5 or earlier:

always 0
SWF 6 or later:
language code
FontNameLen UI8 Length of name.
FontName UI8[FontNameLen] Name of font (see

DefineFontInfo).
NumGlyphs UI16 Count of glyphs in font.

May be zero for device fonts.
OffsetTable If FontFlagsWideOffsets, Same as in DefineFont.

UI32[NumGlyphs]
Otherwise UI16[NumGlyphs]
CodeTableOffset If FontFlagsWideOffsets, Byte count from start of

UI32 OffsetTable to start of
Otherwise UI16 CodeTable.
GlyphShapeTable SHAPE[NumGlyphs] Same as in DefineFont.
182 Fonts and Text

DefineFont2
Field Type Comment
CodeTable If FontFlagsWideCodes, Sorted in ascending order.
UI16[NumGlyphs] Always UCS-2 in SWF 6 or later.
FontAscent If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font ascender height.
FontDescent If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font descender height.
FontLeading If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font leading height (see

following).
FontAdvanceTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Advance value to be used for
SI16[NumGlyphs] each glyph in dynamic glyph text.
FontBoundsTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Not used in Flash Player through
RECT[NumGlyphs] version 7 (but must be present).
KerningCount If FontFlagsHasLayout, UI16 Not used in Flash Player through

version 7 (always set to 0 to save
space).
FontKerningTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Not used in Flash Player through

KERNINGRECORD version 7 (omit with
[KerningCount] KerningCount of 0).
In SWF 6 or later files, DefineFont2 has the same Unicode requirements as DefineFontInfo.
Similarly to the DefineFontInfo tag, the CodeTable (and thus also the OffsetTable,
GlyphShapeTable, and FontAdvanceTable) must be sorted in code point order.
If a DefineFont2 tag will be used only for dynamic device text, and no glyph-rendering
fallback is desired, set NumGlyphs to zero, and omit all tables having NumGlyphs entries.
This will substantially reduce the size of the DefineFont2 tag. DefineFont2 tags without
glyphs cannot support static text, which uses glyph indices to select characters, and also
cannot support glyph text, which requires glyph shape definitions.
Layout information (ascent, descent, leading, advance table, bounds table, kerning table) is
useful only for dynamic glyph text. This information takes the place of the per-character
placement information that is used in static glyph text. The layout information in the
DefineFont2 tag is fairly standard font-metrics information that can typically be extracted
directly from a standard font definition, such as a TrueType font.
NOT E
Leading is a vertical line-spacing metric. It is the distance (in EM-square coordinates)

between the bottom of the descender of one line and the top of the ascender of the next
line.
Font tags 183

As with DefineFont, in DefineFont2 the first STYLECHANGERECORD of each SHAPE in
the GlyphShapeTable does not use the LineStyle and LineStyles fields. In addition, the first
STYLECHANGERECORD of each shape must have both fields StateFillStyle0 and
FillStyle0 set to 1.
The DefineFont2 tag reserves space for a font bounds table and kerning table. This
information is not used in Flash Player through version 7. However, this information must be
present in order to constitute a well-formed DefineFont2 tag. Supply minimal (low-bit)
RECTs for FontBoundsTable, and always set KerningCount to zero, which allows
FontKerningTable to be omitted.
DefineFont3
The DefineFont3 tag is introduced along with the DefineFontAlignZones tag in SWF 8. The
DefineFontAlignZones tag is optional but recommended for SWF files using advanced anti-
aliasing, and it modifies the DefineFont3 tag.
The DefineFont3 tag extends the functionality of DefineFont2 by expressing the SHAPE
coordinates in the GlyphShapeTable at 20 times the resolution. All the EMSquare coordinates
are multiplied by 20 at export, allowing fractional resolution to 1/20 of a unit. This allows for
more precisely defined glyphs and results in better visual quality.
DefineFont3
Field Type Comment
FontFlagsHasLayout UB[1] Has font metrics/layout

information.
FontFlagsShiftJIS UB[1] ShiftJIS encoding.

FontFlagsANSI UB[1] ANSI encoding.
FontFlagsWideOffsets UB[1] If 1, uses 32 bit offsets.
FontFlagsWideCodes UB[1] Must be 1.
FontFlagsItalic UB[1] Italic Font.
184 Fonts and Text

DefineFont3
Field Type Comment
FontFlagsBold UB[1] Bold Font.
LanguageCode LANGCODE SWF 5 or earlier:

always 0
SWF 6 or later:
language code
FontNameLen UI8 Length of name.
FontName UI8[FontNameLen] Name of font (see

DefineFontInfo).
NumGlyphs UI16 Count of glyphs in font.

May be zero for device fonts.
OffsetTable If FontFlagsWideOffsets, Same as in DefineFont.

UI32[NumGlyphs]
CodeTableOffset If FontFlagsWideOffsets, Byte count from start of

UI32 OffsetTable to start of
Otherwise UI16 CodeTable.
GlyphShapeTable SHAPE[NumGlyphs] Same as in DefineFont.

CodeTable UI16[NumGlyphs] Sorted in ascending order.
Always UCS-2 in SWF 6 or
later.
FontAscent If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font ascender height.

FontDescent If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font descender height.
FontLeading If FontFlagsHasLayout, SI16 Font leading height (see

following).
FontAdvanceTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Advance value to be used for

SI16[NumGlyphs] each glyph in dynamic glyph
text.
FontBoundsTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Not used in Flash Player

RECT[NumGlyphs] through version 7 (but must be
present).
Font tags 185

DefineFont3
Field Type Comment
KerningCount If FontFlagsHasLayout, UI16 Not used in Flash Player
through version 7 (always set to
0 to save space).
FontKerningTable If FontFlagsHasLayout, Not used in Flash Player

KERNINGRECORD through version 7 (omit with
[KerningCount] KerningCount of 0).
DefineFontAlignZones
The DefineFont3 tag can be modified by a DefineFontAlignZones tag. The advanced text
rendering engine uses alignment zones to establish the borders of a glyph for pixel snapping.
Alignment zones are critical for high-quality display of fonts.
The alignment zone defines a bounding box for strong vertical and horizontal components of
a glyph. The box is described by a left coordinate, thickness, baseline coordinate, and height.
Small thicknesses or heights are often set to 0.
For example, consider the letter I. The letter I has a strong horizontal at its baseline and the
top of the letter. The letter I also has strong verticals that occur at the edges of the stem—not
the short top bar or serif. These strong verticals and horizontals of the center block of the
letter define the alignment zones.
186 Fonts and Text

DefineFontAlignZones
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 ID of font to use, specified by
DefineFont3.
CSMTableHint UB[2] Font thickness hint. Refers
to the thickness of the typical
stroke used in the font.
0 = thin
1 = medium
2 = thick
Flash Player maintains a
selection of CSM tables for
many fonts. However, if the
font is not found in Flash
Player's internal table, this
hint is used to choose an
appropriate table.
ZoneTable ZONERECORD[GlyphCount] Alignment zone information

for each glyph.
ZONERECORD
Field Type Comment
NumZoneData UI8 Number of ZoneData entries.
Always 2.
ZoneData ZONEDATA[NumZoneData] Compressed alignment zone

information.
ZoneMaskY UB[1] Set if there are Y alignment

zones.
ZoneMaskX UB[1] Set if there are X alignment

zones.
Font tags 187

ZONEDATA
Field Type Comment
AlignmentCoordinate FLOAT16 X (left) or Y (baseline)
coordinate of the alignment
zone.
Range FLOAT16 Width or height of the

alignment zone.
Kerning record
A Kerning Record defines the distance between two glyphs in EM square coordinates. Certain
pairs of glyphs appear more aesthetically pleasing if they are moved closer together, or farther
apart. The FontKerningCode1 and FontKerningCode2 fields are the character codes for the
left and right characters. The FontKerningAdjustment field is a signed integer that defines a
value to be added to the advance value of the left character.
KERNINGRECORD
Field Type Comment
FontKerningCode1 If FontFlagsWideCodes, Character code of the left
UI16 character.
Otherwise UI8
FontKerningCode2 If FontFlagsWideCodes, Character code of the right
UI16 character.
Otherwise UI8
FontKerningAdjustment SI16 Adjustment relative to left

character’s advance value.
DefineFontName
The DefineFontName tag contains the name and copyright information for a font embedded
in the SWF file.
188 Fonts and Text

DefineFontName
Field Type Comment
FontID UI16 ID for this font to which this
refers
FontName STRING Name of the font. For fonts
starting as Type 1, this is the
PostScript FullName. For fonts
starting in sfnt formats such as
TrueType and OpenType, this
is name ID 4, platform ID 1,
language ID 0 (Full name, Mac
OS, English).
FontCopyright STRING Arbitrary string of copyright

information
Static text tags
DefineText
The DefineText tag defines a block of static text. It describes the font, size, color, and exact
position of every character in the text object.
DefineText
Field Type Comment
CharacterID UI16 ID for this text character.
TextBounds RECT Bounds of the text.
TextMatrix MATRIX Transformation matrix for the

text.
GlyphBits UI8 Bits in each glyph index.
AdvanceBits UI8 Bits in each advance value.
Static text tags 189

DefineText
Field Type Comment
TextRecords TEXTRECORD[zero or more] Text records.
EndOfRecordsFlag UI8 Must be 0.
The TextBounds field is the rectangle that completely encloses all the characters in this text
block.
The GlyphBits and AdvanceBits fields define the number of bits used for the GlyphIndex and
GlyphAdvance fields, respectively, in each GLYPHENTRY record.
Text records
A TEXTRECORD sets text styles for subsequent characters. It can be used to select a font,
change the text color, change the point size, insert a line break, or set the x and y position of
the next character in the text. The new text styles apply until another TEXTRECORD
changes the styles.
190 Fonts and Text

The TEXTRECORD also defines the actual characters in a text object. Characters are
referred to by an index into the current font’s glyph table, not by a character code. Each
TEXTRECORD contains a group of characters that all share the same text style, and are on
the same line of text.
TEXTRECORD
Field Type Comment
TextRecordType UB[1] Always 1.
StyleFlagsReserved UB[3] Always 0.
StyleFlagsHasFont UB[1] 1 if text font specified.
StyleFlagsHasColor UB[1] 1 if text color specified.

StyleFlagsHasYOffset UB[1] 1 if y offset specified.
StyleFlagsHasXOffset UB[1] 1 if x offset specified.
FontID If StyleFlagsHasFont, UI16 Font ID for following text.
TextColor If StyleFlagsHasColor, RGB Font color for following text.

If this record is part of a
DefineText2 tag, RGBA
XOffset If StyleFlagsHasXOffset, SI16 x offset for following text.
YOffset If StyleFlagsHasYOffset, SI16 y offset for following text.

TextHeight If hasFont, UI16 Font height for following text.
GlyphCount UI8 Number of glyphs in record.
GlyphEntries GLYPHENTRY[GlyphCount] Glyph entry (see following).
The FontID field is used to select a previously defined font. This ID uniquely identifies a
DefineFont or DefineFont2 tag from earlier in the SWF file.
The TextHeight field defines the height of the font in twips. For example, a pixel height of 50
is equivalent to a TextHeight of 1000. (50 * 20 = 1000).
The XOffset field defines the offset from the left of the TextBounds rectangle to the reference
point of the glyph (the point within the EM square from which the first curve segment
departs). Typically, the reference point is on the baseline, near the left side of the glyph (see
the example for Glyph text). The XOffset is generally used to create indented text or non-left-
justified text. If there is no XOffset specified, the offset is assumed to be zero.
The YOffset field defines the offset from the top of the TextBounds rectangle to the reference
point of the glyph. The TextYOffset is generally used to insert line breaks, moving the text
position to the start of a new line.
Static text tags 191

The GlyphCount field defines the number of characters in this string, and the size of the
GLYPHENTRY table.
Glyph entry
The GLYPHENTRY structure describes a single character in a line of text. It is composed of
an index into the current font’s glyph table, and an advance value. The advance value is the
horizontal distance between the reference point of this character and the reference point of the
following character.
GLYPHENTRY
Field Type Comment
GlyphIndex UB[GlyphBits] Glyph index into current font.
GlyphAdvance SB[AdvanceBits] x advance value for glyph.
DefineText2
The DefineText2 tag is almost identical to the DefineText tag. The only difference is that
Type 1 text records contained within a DefineText2 tag use an RGBA value (rather than an
RGB value) to define TextColor. This allows partially or completely transparent characters.
Text defined with DefineText2 is always rendered with glyphs. Device text can never
include transparency.
DefineText2
Field Type Comment
CharacterID UI16 ID for this text character.
TextBounds RECT Bounds of the text.
TextMatrix MATRIX Transformation matrix.
GlyphBits UI8 Bits in each glyph index.
AdvanceBits UI8 Bits in each advance value.

TextRecords TEXTRECORD[zero or more] Text records.
EndOfRecordsFlag UI8 Must be 0.
192 Fonts and Text

Dynamic text tags
DefineEditText
The DefineEditText tag defines a dynamic text object, or text field.
A text field is associated with an ActionScript variable name where the contents of the text
field are stored. The SWF file can read and write the contents of the variable, which is always
kept in sync with the text being displayed. If the ReadOnly flag is not set, users may change
the value of a text field interactively.
Fonts used by DefineEditText must be defined using DefineFont2, not DefineFont.
DefineEditText
Field Type Comment
CharacterID UI16 ID for this dynamic text

character.
Bounds RECT Rectangle that completely

encloses the text field.
HasText UB[1] 0 = text field has no default text.

1 = text field initially displays the
string specified by InitialText.
WordWrap UB[1] 0 = text will not wrap and will

scroll sideways.
1 = text will wrap automatically
when the end of line is reached.
Multiline UB[1] 0 = text field is one line only.

1 = text field is multi-line and
scrollable.
Password UB[1] 0 = characters are displayed as

typed.
1 = all characters are displayed
as an asterisk.
ReadOnly UB[1] 0 = text editing is enabled.

1 = text editing is disabled.
Dynamic text tags 193

DefineEditText
Field Type Comment
HasTextColor UB[1] 0 = use default color.
1 = use specified color
(TextColor).
HasMaxLength UB[1] 0 = length of text is unlimited.

1 = maximum length of string is
specified by MaxLength.
HasFont UB[1] 0 = use default font.
1 = use specified font (FontID)
and height (FontHeight). (Can’t
be true if HasFontClass is true).
HasFontClass UB[1] 0 = no fontClass, 1 = fontClass

and Height specified for this
text. (can't be true if HasFont is
true). Supported in Flash Player
9.0.45.0 and later.
AutoSize UB[1] 0 = fixed size.
1 = sizes to content (SWF 6 or
later only).
HasLayout UB[1] Layout information provided.

NoSelect UB[1] Enables or disables interactive
text selection.
Border UB[1] Causes a border to be drawn

around the text field.
WasStatic UB[1] 0 = Authored as dynamic text
1 = Authored as static text
HTML UB[1] 0 = plaintext content.

1 = HTML content (see
following).
UseOutlines UB[1] 0 = use device font.

1 = use glyph font.
FontID If HasFont, UI16 ID of font to use.

FontClass If HasFontClass, STRING Class name of font to be loaded
from another SWF and used for
this text.
FontHeight If HasFont, UI16 Height of font in twips.
194 Fonts and Text

DefineEditText
Field Type Comment
TextColor If HasTextColor, RGBA Color of text.
MaxLength If HasMaxLength, UI16 Text is restricted to this length.
Align If HasLayout, UI8 0 = Left

1 = Right
2 = Center
3 = Justify
LeftMargin If HasLayout, UI16 Left margin in twips.

RightMargin If HasLayout, UI16 Right margin in twips.
Indent If HasLayout, UI16 Indent in twips.
Leading If HasLayout, SI16 Leading in twips (vertical

distance between bottom of
descender of one line and top of
ascender of the next).
VariableName STRING Name of the variable where the

contents of the text field are
stored. May be qualified with
dot syntax or slash syntax for
non-global variables.
InitialText If HasText STRING Text that is initially displayed.
If the HTML flag is set, the contents of InitialText are interpreted as a limited subset of the
HTML tag language, with a few additions not normally present in HTML. The following
tags are supported:
Tag Description
 ... Defines a paragraph. The attribute align may be present, with
value left, right, or center.
 Inserts a line break.
<a> ... </a> Defines a hyperlink. The attribute href must be present. The
attribute target is optional, and specifies a window name.

Tag Description
 ... Defines a span of text that uses a given font. The following
attributes are available:
• face, which specifies a font name that must match a font
name supplied in a DefineFont2 tag
• size, which is specified in twips, and may include a leading
‘+’ or ‘-’ for relative sizes
• color, which is specified as a #RRGGBB hex triplet
 ... Defines a span of bold text.
 ... Defines a span of italic text.
 ... Defines a span of underlined text.
<li> ... </li> Defines a bulleted paragraph. The <ul> tag is not necessary and
is not supported. Numbered lists are not supported.
<textformat> ... </ Defines a span of text with certain formatting options. The
textformat>
following attributes are available:
• leftmargin, which specifies the left margin in twips
• rightmargin, which specifies the right margin in twips
• indent, which specifies the left indent in twips
• blockindent, which specifies a block indent in twips
• leading, which specifies the leading in twips
• tabstops, which specifies a comma-separated list of tab
stops, each specified in twips
<tab> Inserts a tab character, which advances to the next tab stop as
defined with the <textformat> tag.
CSMTextSettings
In addition to the advanced text rendering tags discussed earlier in this chapter, the rendering
engine also supports a tag for modifying text fields. The CSMTextSettings tag modifies a
previously streamed DefineText, DefineText2, or DefineEditText tag. The CSMTextSettings
tag turns advanced anti-aliasing on or off for a text field, and can also be used to define quality
and options.
196 Fonts and Text

CSMTextSettings
Field Type Comment
TextID UI16 ID for the DefineText,
DefineText2, or
DefineEditText to which this
tag applies.
UseFlashType UB[2] 0 = use normal renderer.

1 = use advanced text
rendering engine.
GridFit UB[3] 0 = Do not use grid fitting.

AlignmentZones and LCD
sub-pixel information will not
be used.
1 = Pixel grid fit. Only
supported for left-aligned
dynamic text. This setting
provides the ultimate in
advanced anti-aliased text
readability, with crisp letters
aligned to pixels.
2 = Sub-pixel grid fit. Align
letters to the 1/3 pixel used
by LCD monitors. Can also
improve quality for CRT
output.
Thickness F32 The thickness attribute for

the associated text field. Set
to 0.0 to use the default
(anti-aliasing table) value.
Sharpness F32 The sharpness attribute for

the associated text field. Set
to 0.0 to use the default
(anti-aliasing table) value.
Reserved UI8 Must be 0.

The Thickness and Sharpness fields are interpretations of the CSM parameters, applied to a
particular text field. The thickness and sharpness setting will override the default CSM setting
for that text field.
The CSM parameters, at render time, are computed from the thickness and sharpness:
outsideCutoff = (0.5f * sharpness - thickness) * fontSize;
insideCutoff = (-0.5f * sharpness - thickness) * fontSize;
Using the font size in the cutoff calculations results in linear scaling of CSM parameters, and
linear scaling tends to be a poor approximation when significant scaling is applied. When a
text field will scale, it is usually better to use the default table or provide your own anti-
aliasing table.
DefineFont4
DefineFont4 supports only the new Flash Text Engine. The storage of font data for embedded
fonts is in CFF format.
DefineFont4
Field Type Comment
FontFlagsHasFontData UB[1] Font is embedded. Font tag includes

SFNT font data block.
FontFlagsItalic UB[1] Italic font
FontFlagsBold UB[1] Bold font
198 Fonts and Text

DefineFont4
Field Type Comment
FontName STRING Name of the font.
FontData FONTDATA[0 or 1] When present, this is an OpenType

CFF font, as defined in the OpenType
specification at www.microsoft.com/
typography/otspec. The following
tables must be present: ‘CFF ’, ‘cmap’,
‘head’, ‘maxp’, ‘OS/2’, ‘post’, and
either (a) ‘hhea’ and ‘hmtx’, or (b)
‘vhea’, ‘vmtx’, and ‘VORG’. The ‘cmap’
table must include one of the following
kinds of Unicode ‘cmap’ subtables: (0,
4), (0, 3), (3, 10), (3, 1), or (3, 0)
[notation: (platform ID, platform-
specific encoding ID)]. Tables such as
‘GSUB’, ‘GPOS’, ‘GDEF’, and ‘BASE’
may also be present.
Only present for embedded fonts.

200 Fonts and Text
CHAPTER 11
Sounds 11
The SWF file format specification defines a small and efficient sound model. SWF supports
several audio coding formats and can store the audio using a range of sample rates in both
stereo and mono. Adobe Flash Player supports rate conversion and multichannel mixing of
these sounds. The number of simultaneous channels supported depends on the CPU
resources available to the Flash Player, but is typically three to eight channels.
There are two types of sounds in SWF file format:
■ Event sounds
■ Streaming sounds
Event sounds are played in response to some event such as a mouse click, or when Flash Player
reaches a certain frame. Event sounds must be defined (downloaded) before they are used.
They can be reused for multiple events if desired. Event sounds may also have a sound “style”
that modifies how the basic sound is played.
Streaming sounds are downloaded and played in tight synchronization with the timeline. In
this mode, sound packets are stored with each frame.
NOTE
The exact sample rates used are as follows. These are standard sample rates based on
CD audio, which is sampled at 44100 Hz. The four sample rates are one-eighth, one-
quarter, one-half, and exactly the 44100 Hz sampling rate.
"5.5 kHz" = 5512 Hz

"11 kHz" = 11025 Hz
"22 kHz" = 22050 Hz
"44 kHz" = 44100 Hz
Audio coding formats

The Flash Player can store audio using a variety of coding formats. Each of these will be
described more thoroughly in later sections of these chapters. This section lists the coding
formats supported, the format number that the Flash Player uses to reference that format, and
the first SWF version that recognizes the format number.
201
Coding format Audio format number Minimum SWF version
Uncompressed, native-endian 0 1
ADPCM 1 1
MP3 2 4
Uncompressed, little-endian 3 4
Nellymoser 16 kHz 4 10
Nellymoser 8 kHz 5 10
Nellymoser 6 6
Speex 11 10
Event sounds
There are several control tags and records required to play an event sound:
■ The DefineSound tag provides the audio samples that make up an event sound.
■ The SOUNDINFO record defines the styles that are applied to the event sound. Styles
include fade-in, fade-out, synchronization and looping flags, and envelope control.
■ The StartSound tag instructs the Flash Player to begin playing the sound.
■ The StartSound2 tag instructs the Flash Player to begin playing a sound class from
another SWF.
DefineSound
The DefineSound tag defines an event sound. It includes the audio coding format, sampling
rate, size of each sample (8 or 16 bit), a stereo/mono flag, and an array of audio samples. Note
that not all of these parameters will be honored depending on the audio coding format.
Define Sound
Field Type Comment
SoundId UI16 ID for this sound.
202 Sounds
Define Sound
Field Type Comment
SoundFormat UB[4] Format of SoundData. See
“Audio coding formats”
on page 201.
SoundRate UB[2] The sampling rate. This is

ignored for Nellymoser and
Speex codecs.
5.5kHz is not allowed for MP3.
0 = 5.5 kHz
1 = 11 kHz
2 = 22 kHz
3 = 44 kHz
SoundSize UB[1] Size of each sample. This

parameter only pertains to
uncompressed formats. This is
ignored for compressed
formats which always decode
to 16 bits internally.
0 = snd8Bit
1 = snd16Bit
SoundType UB[1] Mono or stereo sound

This is ignored for Nellymoser
and Speex.
0 = sndMono
1 = sndStereo
SoundSampleCount UI32 Number of samples. Not
affected by mono/stereo
setting; for stereo sounds this is
the number of sample pairs.
SoundData UI8[size of sound data] The sound data; varies by

format.
The SoundId field uniquely identifies the sound so it can be played by StartSound.
Event sounds 203

Format 0 (uncompressed) and Format 3 (uncompressed little-endian) are similar. Both
encode uncompressed audio samples. For 8-bit samples, the two formats are identical. For 16-
bit samples, the two formats differ in byte ordering. Using format 0, 16-bit samples are
encoded and decoded according to the native byte ordering of the platform on which the
encoder and Flash Player, respectively, are running. Using format 3, 16-bit samples are always
encoded in little-endian order (least significant byte first), and are byte-swapped if necessary
in Flash Player before playback. Format 0 is clearly disadvantageous because it introduces a
playback platform dependency. For 16-bit samples, format 3 is highly preferable to format 0
for SWF 4 or later.
The contents of SoundData vary depending on the value of the SoundFormat field in the
SoundStreamHead tag:
■ If SoundFormat is 0 or 3, SoundData contains raw, uncompressed samples.
■ If SoundFormat is 1, SoundData contains an ADPCM sound data record.
■ If SoundFormat is 2, SoundData contains an MP3 sound data record.
■ If SoundFormat is 4, 5, or 6, SoundData contains Nellymoser data (see “Nellymoser
compression” on page 219).
■ If SoundFormat is 11, SoundData contains Speex data (see “Speex compression”
on page 220).
StartSound
StartSound is a control tag that either starts (or stops) playing a sound defined by
DefineSound. The SoundId field identifies which sound is to be played. The SoundInfo field
defines how the sound is played. Stop a sound by setting the SyncStop flag in the
SOUNDINFO record.
StartSound
Field Type Comment
SoundId UI16 ID of sound character to play.
SoundInfo SOUNDINFO Sound style information.
204 Sounds
StartSound2
StartSound is a control tag that either starts (or stops) playing a sound defined by
DefineSound. The SoundId field identifies which sound is to be played. The SoundInfo field
defines how the sound is played. Stop a sound by setting the SyncStop flag in the
SOUNDINFO record.
The minimum file format version is SWF 9. Supported in Flash Player 9.0.45.0 and later.
StartSound
Field Type Comment
SoundClassName STRING Name of the sound class to

play.
SoundInfo SOUNDINFO Sound style information.
Sound styles
SOUNDINFO
The SOUNDINFO record modifies how an event sound is played. An event sound is defined
with the DefineSound tag. Sound characteristics that can be modified include:
■ Whether the sound loops (repeats) and how many times it loops.
■ Where sound playback begins and ends.
■ A sound envelope for time-based volume control.
SOUNDINFO
Field Type Comment
Reserved UB[2] Always 0.
SyncStop UB[1] Stop the sound now.
SyncNoMultiple UB[1] Don’t start the sound if already

playing.
HasEnvelope UB[1] Has envelope information.
HasLoops UB[1] Has loop information.
HasOutPoint UB[1] Has out-point information.
HasInPoint UB[1] Has in-point information.
Event sounds 205

SOUNDINFO
Field Type Comment
InPoint If HasInPoint, UI32 Number of samples to skip at
beginning of sound.
OutPoint If HasOutPoint, UI32 Position in samples of last

sample to play.
LoopCount If HasLoops, UI16 Sound loop count.
EnvPoints If HasEnvelope, UI8 Sound Envelope point count.
EnvelopeRecords If HasEnvelope, Sound Envelope records.

SOUNDENVELOPE[EnvPoints]
SOUNDENVELOPE
The SOUNDENVELOPE structure is defined as follows:
SOUNDENVELOPE
Field Type Comment
Pos44 UI32 Position of envelope point
as a number of 44 kHz
samples. Multiply
accordingly if using a
sampling rate less than 44
kHz.
LeftLevel UI16 Volume level for left

channel. Minimum is 0,
maximum is 32768.
RightLevel UI16 Volume level for right

channel. Minimum is 0,
maximum is 32768.
For mono sounds, set the LeftLevel and RightLevel fields to the same value. If the values
differ, they will be averaged.
206 Sounds
Streaming sound
The SWF file format supports a streaming sound mode where sound data is played and
downloaded in tight synchronization with the timeline. In this mode, sound packets are
stored with each frame.
When streaming sound is present, and the playback CPU is too slow to maintain the desired
SWF frame rate, Flash Player skips frames of animation in order to maintain sound
synchronization and avoid dropping sound samples. (Actions from the skipped frames are
still executed.)
The main timeline of a SWF file can only have a single streaming sound playing at a time, but
each sprite can have its own streaming sound (see Sprites and Movie Clips).
SoundStreamHead
If a timeline contains streaming sound data, there must be a SoundStreamHead or
SoundStreamHead2 tag before the first sound data block (see “SoundStreamBlock”
on page 210). The SoundStreamHead tag defines the data format of the sound data, the
recommended playback format, and the average number of samples per SoundStreamBlock.
SoundStreamHead
Field Type Comment
Reserved UB[4] Always zero.
PlaybackSoundRate UB[2] Playback sampling rate

0 = 5.5 kHz
1 = 11 kHz
2 = 22 kHz
3 = 44 kHz
PlaybackSoundSize UB[1] Playback sample size.

Always 1 (16 bit).
PlaybackSoundType UB[1] Number of playback channels:

mono or stereo.
0 = sndMono
1 = sndStereo
Streaming sound 207

SoundStreamHead
Field Type Comment
StreamSoundCompression UB[4] Format of streaming sound
data.
1 = ADPCM
SWF 4 and later only:
2 = MP3
StreamSoundRate UB[2] The sampling rate of the

streaming sound data.
0 = 5.5 kHz
1 = 11 kHz
2 = 22 kHz
3 = 44 kHz
StreamSoundSize UB[1] The sample size of the

Always 1 (16 bit).
StreamSoundType UB[1] Number of channels in the

0 = sndMono
1 = sndStereo
StreamSoundSampleCount UI16 Average number of samples in

each SoundStreamBlock. Not
LatencySeek If StreamSoundCompression See “MP3 sound data”
= 2, SI16 on page 216. The value here
Otherwise absent should match the
SeekSamples field in the first
SoundStreamBlock for this
stream.
The PlaybackSoundRate, PlaybackSoundSize, and PlaybackSoundType fields are advisory

only; Flash Player may ignore them.
208 Sounds
SoundStreamHead2
The SoundStreamHead2 tag is identical to the SoundStreamHead tag, except it allows
different values for StreamSoundCompression and StreamSoundSize (SWF 3 file format).
SoundStreamHead2
Field Type Comment
Reserved UB[4] Always zero.
PlaybackSoundRate UB[2] Playback sampling rate.

0 = 5.5 kHz
1 = 11 kHz
2 = 22 kHz
3 = 44 kHz
PlaybackSoundSize UB[1] Playback sample size.

0 = 8-bit
1 = 16-bit
PlaybackSoundType UB[1] Number of playback channels.
0 = sndMono
1 = sndStereo
StreamSoundCompression UB[4] Format of SoundData. See

“Audio coding formats”
on page 201.
StreamSoundRate UB[2] The sampling rate of the

5.5 kHz is not allowed for MP3.
0 = 5.5 kHz
1 = 11 kHz
2 = 22 kHz
3 = 44 kHz
StreamSoundSize UB[1] Size of each sample. Always 16

bit for compressed formats.
May be 8 or 16 bit for
uncompressed formats.
0 = 8-bit
1 = 16-bit
StreamSoundType UB[1] Number of channels in the

0 = sndMono
1 = sndStereo
Streaming sound 209

SoundStreamHead2
Field Type Comment
StreamSoundSampleCount UI16 Average number of samples in
each SoundStreamBlock. Not
LatencySeek If StreamSoundCompression See MP3 sound data. The value

= 2, SI16 here should match the
Otherwise absent SeekSamples field in the first
SoundStreamBlock for this
stream.
The PlaybackSoundRate, PlaybackSoundSize, and PlaybackSoundType fields are advisory

only; Flash Player may ignore them.
SoundStreamBlock
The SoundStreamBlock tag defines sound data that is interleaved with frame data so that
sounds can be played as the SWF file is streamed over a network connection. The
SoundStreamBlock tag must be preceded by a SoundStreamHead or SoundStreamHead2 tag.
There may only be one SoundStreamBlock tag per SWF frame.
SoundStreamBlock
Field Type Comment
StreamSoundData UI8[size of compressed data] Compressed sound data.
The contents of StreamSoundData vary depending on the value of the

StreamSoundCompression field in the SoundStreamHead tag:
■ If StreamSoundCompression is 0 or 3, StreamSoundData contains raw, uncompressed
samples.
■ If StreamSoundCompression is 1, StreamSoundData contains an ADPCM sound data
record.
■ If StreamSoundCompression is 2, StreamSoundData contains an MP3 sound data record.
210 Sounds
■ If StreamSoundCompression is 6, StreamSoundData contains a NELLYMOSERDATA
record.
MP3STREAMSOUNDDATA
Field Type Comment
SampleCount UI16 Number of samples
represented by this block. Not
setting; for stereo sounds this
is the number of sample pairs.
Mp3SoundData MP3SOUNDDATA MP3 frames with

SeekSamples values.
Frame subdivision for streaming sound

The best streaming sound playback is obtained by providing a SoundStreamBlock tag in every
SWF frame, and including the same number of sound samples in each SoundStreamBlock.
The ideal number of samples per SWF frame is easily determined: divide the sampling rate by
the SWF frame rate. If this results in a non-integer number, write an occasional
SoundStreamBlock with one more or one fewer samples, so that the average number of
samples per frame remains as close as possible to the ideal number.
For uncompressed audio, it is possible to include an arbitrary number of samples in a
SoundStreamBlock, so an ideal number of samples can be included in each SWF frame. For
MP3 sound, the situation is different. MP3 data is itself organized into frames, and an MP3
frame contains a fixed number of samples (576 or 1152, depending on the sampling rate).
SoundStreamBlocks containing MP3 data must contain whole MP3 frames rather than
fragments, so a SoundStreamBlock with MP3 data always contains a number of samples that
is a multiple of 576 or 1152.
There are two requirements for keeping MP3 streaming sound in sync with SWF playback:
■ Distribute MP3 frames appropriately among SWF frames.
■ Provide appropriate SeekSamples values in SoundStreamBlock tags.
These techniques are described in the rest of this section.
For streaming ADPCM sound, the logic for distributing ADPCM packets among SWF
frames is identical to distributing MP3 frames among SWF frames. However, for ADPCM
sound, there is no concept of SeekSamples or latency. For this and other reasons, MP3 is a
preferable format for SWF 4 or later files.
Streaming sound 211

To determine the ideal number of MP3 frames for each SWF frame, divide the ideal number
of samples per SWF frame by the number of samples per MP3 frame. This will usually result
in a non-integer number. Achieve the ideal average by interleaving SoundStreamBlocks with
different numbers of MP3 frames. For example, at a SWF frame rate of 12 and a sampling
rate of 11 kHz, there are 576 samples per MP3 frame; the ideal number of MP3 frames per
SWF frame is (11025 / 12) / 576, roughly 1.6; this can be achieved by writing
SoundStreamBlocks with one or two MP3 frames. While writing SoundStreamBlocks, keep
track of the difference between the ideal number of total samples and the total number of
samples written so far. Put as many MP3 frames in each SoundStreamBlock as is possible
without exceeding the ideal number. Then, in each SoundStreamBlock, use the difference
between the ideal and actual numbers of samples as of the end of the prior SWF frame as the
value of SeekSamples. This will enable Flash Player to begin sound playback at exactly the
right point after a seek occurs. Here is an illustration of this example:
The SoundStreamBlock in SWF Frame 1 contains one MP3 frame and has SeekSamples set
to zero. Frame 2 contains two MP3 frames and has SeekSamples set to 919 - 576 = 343.
Frame 3 contains one MP3 frame and has SeekSamples set to 1838 - 1728 = 110.
In continuous playback, Flash Player will string all of the MP3 frames together and play them
at their natural sample rate, reading ahead in the SWF bitstream to build up a buffer of sound
data (this is why it is acceptable to include less than the ideal number of samples in a SWF
frame). After a seek to a particular frame, such as is prompted by an ActionGotoFrame, Flash
Player will skip the number of samples indicated by SeekSamples. For example, after a seek to
Frame 2, it will skip 343 samples of the SoundStreamBlock data from Frame 2, which will
cause sound playback to begin at sample 919, the ideal value.
If the ideal number of MP3 frames per SWF frame is less than one, there will be SWF frames
whose SoundStreamBlocks cannot accommodate any MP3 frames without exceeding the
ideal number of samples. In this case, write a SoundStreamBlock with SampleCount = 0,
SeekSamples = 0, and no MP3 data.
212 Sounds
Some MP3 encoders have an initial latency, generating a number of silent or meaningless
samples before the desired sound data begins. This can help the Flash Player MP3 decoder as
well, providing some ramp-up data before the samples that are needed. In this situation,
determine how many samples the initial latency occupies, and supply that number for
SeekSamples in the first SoundStreamBlock. Flash Player will add this number to the
SeekSamples for any other frame when performing a seek. Latency also affects the decision as
to how many MP3 frames to put into a SoundStreamBlock. Here is a modification of the
above example with a latency of 940 samples:
The SoundStreamBlock in SWF Frame 1 contains three MP3 frames, the maximum that can
be accommodated without exceeding the ideal number of samples after adjusting for latency
(represented by the leftward shift of the MP3 timeline above). The value of SeekSamples in
Frame 1 is special; it represents the latency. Frame 2 contains one MP3 frame and has
SeekSamples set to 919 - (1728 - 940) = 131.
ADPCM compression
ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation) is a family of audio compression
and decompression algorithms. It is a simple but efficient compression scheme that avoids any
licensing or patent issues that arise with more sophisticated sound compression schemes, and
helps to keep player implementations small.
For SWF 4 or later files, MP3 compression is a preferable format (see “MP3 compression”
on page 216). MP3 produces substantially better sound for a given bitrate.
ADPCM uses a modified Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM) sampling technique
where the encoding of a each sample is derived by calculating a “difference” (DPCM) value,
and applying to this a complex formula which includes the previous quantization value. The
result is a compressed code, which can recreate almost the same subjective audio quality.
A common implementation takes 16-bit linear PCM samples and converts them to 4-bit
codes, yielding a compression rate of 4:1. Public domain C code written by Jack Jansen is
available at www.cwi.nl/ftp/audio/adpcm.zip.
ADPCM compression 213

The SWF file format extends Jansen’s implementation to support 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-bit
ADPCM codes. When choosing a code size, there is the usual trade-off between file size and
audio quality. The code tables used in SWF file format are as follows (note that each structure
here provides only the unique lower half of the range, the upper half being an exact duplicate):
int indexTable2[2] = {-1, 2};
int indexTable3[4] = {-1, -1, 2, 4};
int indexTable4[8] = {-1, -1, -1, -1, 2, 4, 6, 8};
int indexTable5[16] = {-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10,
13, 16};
ADPCM sound data

The ADPCMSOUNDATA record defines the size of the ADPCM codes used, and an array
of ADPCMPACKETs which contain the ADPCM data.
ADPCMSOUNDDATA
Field Type Comment
AdpcmCodeSize UB[2] Bits per ADPCM code less 2.
0 = 2 bits/sample The actual size of each code is
1 = 3 bits/sample AdpcmCodeSize + 2.
2 = 4 bits/sample
3 = 5 bits/sample
AdpcmPackets If SoundType = mono, Array of ADPCMPACKETs.

ADPCMMONOPACKET
[one or more]
If SoundType = stereo,
ADPCMSTEREOPACKET
[one or more]
214 Sounds
ADPCMPACKETs vary in structure depending on whether the sound is mono or stereo.
ADPCMMONOPACKET
Field Type Comment
InitialSample SI16 First sample. Identical to
first sample in
uncompressed sound.
InitialIndex UB[6] Initial index into the

ADPCM StepSizeTable.*
AdpcmCodeData UB[4095 * 4095 ADPCM codes.

(AdpcmCodeSize+2)] Each sample is
(AdpcmCodeSize + 2) bits.
ADPCMSTEREOPACKET
Field Type Comment
InitialSampleLeft SI16 First sample for left
channel. Identical to first
sample in uncompressed
sound.
InitialIndexLeft UB[6] Initial index into the

ADPCM StepSizeTable*
for left channel.
InitialSampleRight SI16 First sample for right

channel. Identical to first
sample in uncompressed
sound.
InitialIndexRight UB[6] Initial index into the

ADPCM StepSizeTable*
for right channel
AdpcmCodeData UB[8190 * (AdpcmCodeSize+2)] 4095 ADPCM codes per

channel, total 8190. Each
sample is
(AdpcmCodeSize + 2) bits.
Channel data is interleaved
left, then right.
* For an explanation of StepSizeTable, see the Jansen source code.
ADPCM compression 215

MP3 compression
MP3 is a sophisticated and complex audio compression algorithm supported in SWF 4 and
later. It produces superior audio quality at better compression ratios than ADPCM. Generally
speaking, MP3 refers to MPEG1 Layer 3; however, the SWF file format supports later
versions of MPEG (V2 and 2.5) that were designed to support lower bitrates. Flash Player
supports both CBR (constant bitrate) and VBR (variable bitrate) MP3 encoding.
For more information on MP3, see www.mp3-tech.org/ and www.iis.fhg.de/amm/techinf/
layer3/index.html. Writing an MP3 encoder is quite difficult, but public-domain MP3
encoding libraries may be available.
NOT E
Be aware that software and hardware MP3 encoders and decoders might have their
own licensing requirements.
MP3 sound data

MP3 sound data is described in the following table:
MP3SOUNDDATA
Field Type Comment
SeekSamples SI16 Number of samples to skip.
Mp3Frames MP3FRAME[zero or more] Array of MP3 frames.
For an explanation of the the SeekSamples field, see “Frame subdivision for streaming sound”
on page 211.
N OT E
For event sounds, SeekSamples is limited to specifying initial latency.
216 Sounds
MP3 frame
The MP3FRAME record corresponds exactly to an MPEG audio frame that you would find
in an MP3 music file. The first 32 bits of the frame contain header information, followed by
an array of bytes, which are the encoded audio samples.
MP3FRAME
Field Type Comment
Syncword UB[11] Frame sync.
All bits must be set.
MpegVersion UB[2] MPEG2.5 is an extension to

MPEG2 that handles very low
bitrates, allowing the use of
lower sampling frequencies.
0 = MPEG Version 2.5
1 = reserved
2 = MPEG Version 2
3 = MPEG Version 1
Layer UB[2] Layer is always equal to 1 for

MP3 headers in SWF files. The
“3” in MP3 refers to the Layer,
not the MpegVersion.
0 = reserved
1 = Layer III
2 = Layer II
3 = Layer I
ProtectionBit UB[1] If ProtectionBit == 0, a 16-bit

CRC follows the header
0 = Protected by CRC
1 = Not protected
MP3 compression 217

MP3FRAME
Field Type Comment
Bitrate UB[4] Bitrates are in thousands of bits
per second. For example, 128
means 128000 bps.
Value MPEG1 MPEG2.x

---------------------
0 free free
1 32 8
2 40 16
3 48 24
4 56 32
5 64 40
6 80 48
7 96 56
8 112 64
9 128 80
10 160 96
11 192 112
12 224 128
13 256 144
14 320 160
15 bad bad
SamplingRate UB[2] Sampling rate in Hz.

Value MPEG1 MPEG2
MPEG2.5
-------------------------
0 44100 22050 11025
1 48000 24000 12000
2 32000 16000 8000
-- -- --
PaddingBit UB[1] Padding is used to fit the bitrate

exactly.
0 = frame is not padded
1 = frame is padded with one
extra slot
Reserved UB[1]
218 Sounds
MP3FRAME
Field Type Comment
ChannelMode UB[2] Dual-channel files are made of
two independent mono
channels. Each one uses
exactly half the bitrate of the
file.
0 = Stereo
1 = Joint stereo (Stereo)
2 = Dual channel
2 = Single channel (Mono)
ModeExtension UB[2]
Copyright UB[1] 0 = Audio is not copyrighted

1 = Audio is copyrighted
Original UB[1] 0 = Copy of original media

1 = Original media
Emphasis UB[2] 0 = none

1 = 50/15 ms
2 = reserved
3 = CCIT J.17
SampleData UB[size of sample data*] The encoded audio samples.
* The size of the sample data is calculated like this (using integer arithmetic):
Size = (((MpegVersion == MPEG1 ? 144 : 72) * Bitrate) / SamplingRate) +
PaddingBit - 4
For example: The size of the sample data for an MPEG1 frame with a Bitrate of 128000, a
SamplingRate of 44100, and PaddingBit of 1 is:
Size = (144 * 128000) / 44100 + 1 – 4 = 414 bytes
Nellymoser compression
Starting with SWF 6, a compressed sound format called Nellymoser Asao is available. This is a
single-channel (mono) format optimized for low-bitrate transmission of speech. The format
was developed by Nellymoser Inc. at www.nellymoser.com.
A summary of the Nellymoser Asao encoding process is provided here. For full details of the
Asao format, contact Nellymoser.
Nellymoser compression 219

Asao uses frequency-domain characteristics of sound for compression. Sound data is grouped
into frames of 256 samples. Each frame is converted into the frequency domain and the most
significant (highest-amplitude) frequencies are identified. A number of frequency bands are
selected for encoding; the rest are discarded. The bitstream for each frame then encodes which
frequency bands are in use and what their amplitudes are.
Speex compression
Starting with SWF 10, a SWF file can store audio samples that have been compressed using
the free, open source Speex voice codec (see speex.org). Speex audio is stored as format 11 in a
DefineSound tag. While Speex supports a range of sample rates, Speex audio encoded in SWF
is always encoded at 16 kHz; the SoundRate field of the DefineSound tag is disregarded. The
SoundType and SoundSize fields are also ingored in the case of Speex. Speex in SWF is always
mono and always decodes to 16-bit audio samples internally.
Speex 1.2 beta 3 is compiled into the Flash Player as of version 10 (10.0.12).
220 Sounds
CHAPTER 12
Buttons 12
Button characters in the SWF file format serve as interactive elements. They can react
programmatically to events that occur. The most common event to handle is a simple click
from the mouse, but more complex events can be trapped as well.
Button states
A button object can be displayed in one of three states: up, over, or down.
The up state is the default appearance of the button. The up state is displayed when the SWF
file starts playing, and whenever the mouse is outside the button. The over state is displayed
when the mouse is moved inside the button. This allows rollover or hover buttons in a SWF
file. The down state is the clicked appearance of the button. It is displayed when the mouse is
clicked inside the button.
A fourth state—the hit state—defines the active area of the button. This is an invisible state
and is never displayed. It defines the area of the button that reacts to mouse clicks. This hit
area is not necessarily rectangular and need not reflect the visible shape of the button.
Each state is made up of a collection of instances of characters from the dictionary. Each such
instance is defined using a Button record, which, within a button definition, acts like a
PlaceObject tag. For the up, over, and down states, these characters are placed on the display
list when the button enters that state. For the hit-area state, these characters define the active
area of the button.
The following is an example of a typical button and its four states. The button is initially blue.
When the mouse is moved over the button, it changes to a purple color. When the mouse is
pressed inside the button, the shading changes to simulate a depressed button. The fourth
state—the hit area—is a simple rectangle. Anything outside this shape is outside the button,
and anything inside this shape is inside the button.
221
The SWF file format has no native support for radio buttons or check boxes. There is no
“checked” (selected) state, and buttons cannot “stick” down after the mouse is released. In
addition, there is no way to group buttons into mutually exclusive choices. However, both of
these behaviors can be simulated by using button actions.
Button tracking
Button tracking refers to how a button behaves as it tracks the movement of the mouse. A
button object can track the mouse in one of two modes, as a push button or as a menu
button.
If a push button is clicked, all mouse movement events are directed to the push button until
the mouse button is released. This is called capturing the mouse. For example, if you click a
push button and drag outside the button (without releasing), the button changes to the over
state, and the pointer remains a pointing hand.
Menu buttons do not capture the mouse. If you click a menu button and drag outside, the
button changes to the up state, and the pointer reverts to an arrow.
Events, state transitions, and actions

A button object can perform an action whenever a state transition occurs (that is, when the
button changes from one state to another). A state transition occurs in response to some event,
such as a mouse click, or mouse entering the button. In the SWF file format, events are
described as state transitions. The following table shows possible state transitions and
corresponding Flash Player events:
State Transition Event Description Visual Effect

IdleToOverUp Roll Over Mouse enters the hit Button changes from up
area while the mouse to over state.
button is up.
OverUpToIdle Roll Out Mouse leaves the hit Button changes from
area while the mouse over to up state.
button is up.
222 Buttons
OverUpToOverDown Press Mouse button is pressed Button changes from
while the mouse is inside over to down state.
the hit area.
OverDownToOverUp Release Mouse button is Button changes from

released while the down to over state.
mouse is inside the hit
area.
The following transitions only apply when tracking Push buttons:

OutDownToOverDown Drag Over Mouse is dragged inside Button changes from
the hit area while the over to down state.
mouse button is down.
OverDownToOutDown Drag Out Mouse is dragged Button changes from

outside the hit area while down to over state.
the mouse button is
down.
OutDownToIdle Release Mouse button is Button changes from
Outside released outside the hit over to up state.
area while the mouse is
captured.
The following transitions apply only when tracking Menu buttons:

IdleToOverDown Drag Over Mouse is dragged inside Button changes from up
the hit area while the to down state.
mouse button is down.
OverDownToIdle Drag Out Mouse is dragged Button changes from

outside the hit area while down to up state.
the mouse button is
down.
Often button actions are performed only on OverDownToOverUp (when the mouse button
is released), but DefineButton2 allows actions to be triggered by any state transition.
A button object can perform any action supported by the SWF 3 actions (see “SWF 3
actions” on page 68).
Events, state transitions, and actions 223

Button tags
Button record
A button record defines a character to be displayed in one or more button states. The
ButtonState flags indicate which state (or states) the character belongs to.
A one-to-one relationship does not exist between button records and button states. A single
button record can apply to more than one button state (by setting multiple ButtonState flags),
and multiple button records can be present for any button state.
Each button record also includes a transformation matrix and depth (stacking-order)
information. These apply just as in a PlaceObject tag, except that both pieces of information
are relative to the button character itself.
SWF 8 and later supports the new ButtonHasBlendMode and ButtonHasFilterList fields to
support blend modes and bitmap filters on buttons. Flash Player 7 and earlier ignores these
two fields.
BUTTONRECORD
Field Type Comment
ButtonReserved UB[2] Reserved bits; always 0
ButtonHasBlendMode UB[1] 0 = No blend mode

1 = Has blend mode (SWF 8
and later only)
ButtonHasFilterList UB[1] 0 = No filter list

1 = Has filter list (SWF 8 and
later only)
ButtonStateHitTest UB[1] Present in hit test state
ButtonStateDown UB[1] Present in down state

ButtonStateOver UB[1] Present in over state
ButtonStateUp UB[1] Present in up state
CharacterID UI16 ID of character to place

PlaceDepth UI16 Depth at which to place
character
PlaceMatrix MATRIX Transformation matrix for
character placement
ColorTransform If within DefineButton2, Character color transform
CXFORMWITHALPHA
224 Buttons
BUTTONRECORD
Field Type Comment
FilterList If within DefineButton2 and List of filters on this button
ButtonHasFilterList = 1,
FILTERLIST
BlendMode If within DefineButton2 and 0 or 1 = normal

ButtonHasBlendMode = 1, 2 = layer
UI8 3 = multiply
4 = screen
5 = lighten
6 = darken
7 = difference
8 = add
9 = subtract
10 = invert
11 = alpha
12 = erase
13 = overlay
14 = hardlight
Values 15 to 255 are reserved.
DefineButton
The DefineButton tag defines a button character for later use by control tags such as
PlaceObject.
DefineButton includes an array of Button records that represent the four button shapes: an up
character, a mouse-over character, a down character, and a hit-area character. It is not
necessary to define all four states, but at least one button record must be present. For example,
if the same button record defines both the up and over states, only three button records are
required to describe the button.
More than one button record per state is allowed. If two button records refer to the same state,
both are displayed for that state.
DefineButton also includes an array of ACTIONRECORDs, which are performed when the
button is clicked and released (see “SWF 3 actions” on page 68).
Button tags 225

DefineButton
Field Type Comment
ButtonId UI16 ID for this character
Characters BUTTONRECORD[one or Characters that make up the

more] button
CharacterEndFlag UI8 Must be 0
Actions ACTIONRECORD[zero or Actions to perform

more]
ActionEndFlag UI8 Must be 0
DefineButton2
DefineButton2 extends the capabilities of DefineButton by allowing any state transition to
trigger actions.
The minimum file format version is SWF 3:
Starting with SWF 9, if the ActionScript3 field of the FileAttributes tag is 1, there must be no
BUTTONCONDACTION fields in the DefineButton2 tag. ActionOffset must be 0. This
structure is not supported because it is not permitted to mix ActionScript 1/2 and
ActionScript 3.0 code within the same SWF file.
DefineButton2
Field Type Comment
ButtonId UI16 ID for this character
ReservedFlags UB[7] Always 0
TrackAsMenu UB[1] 0 = track as normal button

1 = track as menu button
ActionOffset UI16 Offset in bytes from start of this

field to the first
BUTTONCONDACTION, or 0
if no actions occur
Characters BUTTONRECORD Characters that make up the

[one or more] button
226 Buttons
DefineButton2
Field Type Comment
CharacterEndFlag UI8 Must be 0
Actions BUTTONCONDACTION Actions to execute at particular
[zero or more] button events
The actions associated with DefineButton2 are specified as follows:
BUTTONCONDACTION
Field Type Comment
CondActionSize UI16 Offset in bytes from start of this
field to next
BUTTONCONDACTION, or 0
if last action
CondIdleToOverDown UB[1] Idle to OverDown
CondOutDownToIdle UB[1] OutDown to Idle
CondOutDownToOverDown UB[1] OutDown to OverDown
CondOverDownToOutDown UB[1] OverDown to OutDown
CondOverDownToOverUp UB[1] OverDown to OverUp
CondOverUpToOverDown UB[1] OverUp to OverDown
CondOverUpToIdle UB[1] OverUp to Idle
CondIdleToOverUp UB[1] Idle to OverUp
Button tags 227

BUTTONCONDACTION
Field Type Comment
CondKeyPress UB[7] SWF 4 or later: key code
Otherwise: always 0
Valid key codes:
1 = left arrow
2 = right arrow
3 = home
4 = end
5 = insert
6 = delete
8 = backspace
13 = enter
14 = up arrow
15 = down arrow
16 = page up
17 = page down
18 = tab
19 = escape
32 to 126: follows ASCII
CondOverDownToIdle UB[1] OverDown to Idle
Actions ACTIONRECORD Actions to perform. See

[zero or more] DoAction.
ActionEndFlag UI8 Must be 0
For each event handler (each BUTTONCONDACTION), one or more of the Cond bit
fields should be filled in. This specifies when the event handler should be executed.
CondKeyPress specifies a particular key to trap. A CondKeyPress event handler is executed
even if the button that it applies to does not have input focus. For the 32 to 126 ASCII key
codes, the key event that is trapped is composite—it takes into account the effect of the Shift
key. To trap raw key events, corresponding directly to keys on the keyboard (including the
modifier keys themselves), use clip event handlers instead.
DefineButtonCxform
DefineButtonCxform defines the color transform for each shape and text character in a
button. This is not used for DefineButton2, which includes its own CXFORM.
228 Buttons
DefineButtonCxform
Field Type Comment
ButtonId UI16 Button ID for this information
ButtonColorTransform CXFORM Character color transform
DefineButtonSound
The DefineButtonSound tag defines which sounds (if any) are played on state transitions.
DefineButtonSound
Field Type Comment
ButtonId UI16 The ID of the button these

sounds apply to.
ButtonSoundChar0 UI16 Sound ID for OverUpToIdle
ButtonSoundInfo0 SOUNDINFO (if Sound style for OverUpToIdle

ButtonSoundChar0 is
nonzero)
ButtonSoundChar1 UI16 Sound ID for IdleToOverUp
ButtonSoundInfo1 SOUNDINFO (if Sound style for IdleToOverUp

ButtonSoundChar1 is
nonzero)
ButtonSoundChar2 UI16 Sound ID for
OverUpToOverDown
ButtonSoundInfo2 SOUNDINFO (if Sound style for
ButtonSoundChar2 is OverUpToOverDown
nonzero)
ButtonSoundChar3 UI16 Sound ID for

OverDownToOverUp
ButtonSoundInfo3 SOUNDINFO (if Sound style for

ButtonSoundChar3 is OverDownToOverUp
nonzero)
Button tags 229

230 Buttons
CHAPTER 13
Sprites and Movie Clips 13

A sprite corresponds to a movie clip in the Adobe Flash authoring application. It is a SWF file
contained within another SWF file, and supports many of the features of a regular SWF file,
such as the following:
■ Most of the control tags that can be used in the main file.
■ A timeline that can stop, start, and play independently of the main file.
■ A streaming sound track that is automatically mixed with the main sound track.
A sprite object is defined with a DefineSprite tag. It consists of a character ID, a frame count,
and a series of control tags. Definition tags (such as DefineShape) are not allowed in the
DefineSprite tag. All of the characters that control tags refer to in the sprite must be defined
outside the sprite, and before the DefineSprite tag.
Once defined, a sprite is displayed with a PlaceObject2 tag in the main file. The transform
(specified in PlaceObject) is concatenated with the transforms of objects placed inside the
sprite. These objects behave like children of the sprite, so when the sprite is moved, the
objects inside the sprite move too. Similarly, when the sprite is scaled or rotated, the child
objects are also scaled or rotated. A sprite object stops playing automatically when it is
removed from the display list.
231
Sprite names
When a sprite is placed on the display list, it can be given a name with the PlaceObject2 tag.
This name is used to identify the sprite so that the main file (or other sprites) can perform
actions inside the sprite. This is achieved with the SetTarget action (see ActionSetTarget).
For example, say a sprite object is placed in the main file with the name "spinner". The main
file can send this sprite to the first frame in its timeline with the following action sequence:
1. SetTarget "spinner"
2. GotoFrame zero
3. SetTarget "" (empty string)
4. End of actions.
(Action code = 0)
NOT E
All actions following SetTarget “spinner” apply to the spinner object until SetTarget
“”, which sets the action context back to the main file.
The SWF file format supports placing sprites within sprites, which can lead to complex
hierarchies of objects. To handle this complexity, the SWF file format uses a naming
convention similar to that used by file systems to identify sprites.
For example, the following outline shows four sprites defined within the main file:
MainMovie.swf
SpriteA (name: Jack)
SpriteA1 (name: Bert)
SpriteA2 (name: Ernie)
SpriteB (name: Jill)
The following SetTarget paths identify the preceding sprites:

■ /Jack targets SpriteA from the main file.
■ ../ targets the main file from SpriteA.
■ /Jack/Bert targets SpriteA1 from any other sprite or the main file.
■ Bert targets SpriteA1 from SpriteA.
■ ../Ernie targets SpriteA2 from SpriteA1.
■ ../../Jill targets SpriteB from SpriteA1.
232 Sprites and Movie Clips

DefineSprite
The DefineSprite tag defines a sprite character. It consists of a character ID and a frame count,
followed by a series of control tags. The sprite is terminated with an End tag.
The length specified in the Header reflects the length of the entire DefineSprite tag, including
the ControlTags field.
Definition tags (such as DefineShape) are not allowed in the DefineSprite tag. All of the
characters that control tags refer to in the sprite must be defined in the main body of the file
before the sprite is defined.
DefineSprite
Field Type Comment
Sprite ID UI16 Character ID of sprite
FrameCount UI16 Number of frames in sprite
ControlTags TAG[one or more] A series of tags
The following tags are valid within a DefineSprite tag:
• ShowFrame • StartSound
• PlaceObject • FrameLabel
• PlaceObject2 • SoundStreamHead
• RemoveObject • SoundStreamHead2
• RemoveObject2 • SoundStreamBlock
• All Actions (see Actions) • End
DefineSprite 233
234 Sprites and Movie Clips
CHAPTER 14
Video 14
The Adobe Flash Player 6 and later supports video playback. Video can be provided to Flash
Player in the following ways:
■ Embed video within a SWF file by using the SWF video tags.
■ Deliver a video stream over RTMP through the Adobe Flash Media Server, which, as one
option, can obtain the video data from an FLV file format file.
■ Load an FLV file directly into Flash Player by using the NetStream.play ActionScript
method. This method is only available in Flash Player 7 and later. The SWF and FLV file
formats share a common video encoding format.
For complete information about the FLV file format, please refer to the FLV File Format
Specification at www.adobe.com/go/video_file_format.
Sorenson H.263 Bitstream Format

As of SWF 6, a single video format, called Sorenson H.263, is available. This format is based
on H.263, an open video encoding standard that is maintained by the ITU. Copies of the
H.263 standard can be obtained at www.itu.int/.
All references to the H.263 standard in this document refer to the draft version of H.263,
dated May 1996, sometimes referred to as H.263v1. This is distinct from the revised version
of H.263, dated February 1998, sometimes referred to as H.263v2 or H.263+, and currently
the in-force version of H.263 according to the ITU.
The Sorenson H.263 video format differs slightly from H.263. For the most part, it is a subset
of H.263, with some advanced features removed and a few additions. These changes are
described in this section.
The Sorenson H.263 video format was developed by Sorenson Media (www.sorenson.com).
Existing products that can produce video for playback in Flash Player are the Adobe Flash
authoring application, and Sorenson Squeeze for Adobe Flash 8, a professional video
compression application. You can license the Sorenson Spark codec to perform video
encoding for Flash Player; contact Sorenson Media for details.
235
Summary of differences from H.263
The following H.263 features are removed from the Sorenson H.263 video format:
■ GOB (group of blocks) layer
■ Split-screen indicator
■ Document camera indicator
■ Picture freeze release
■ Syntax-based arithmetic coding
■ PB frames
■ Continuous-presence multipoint
■ Overlapped block-motion compensation
The following non-H.263 features are added to the Sorenson H.263 video format:
■ Disposable frames (difference frames with no future dependencies)
■ Arbitrary picture width and height up to 65535 pixels
■ Unrestricted motion vector support is always on
■ A deblocking flag is available to suggest the use of a deblocking filter
To support these differences, the Sorenson H.263 video format uses different headers than
H.263 at both the picture layer and the Macroblock layer. The GOB layer is absent.
Two versions of the Sorenson H.263 video format are defined. In version 0, the block layer is
identical to H.263. In version 1, escape codes in transform coefficients are encoded differently
than in H.263. Version 0 and version 1 have no other differences
Video packet
The video packet is the top-level structural element in a Sorenson H.263 video packet. It
corresponds to the picture layer in H.263 section 5.1. This structure is included within the
VideoFrame tag in the SWF file format, and also within the VIDEODATA structure in the
FLV file format.
H263VIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
PictureStartCode UB[17] Similar to H.263 5.1.1
0000 0000 0000 0000 1
Version UB[5] Video format version
Flash Player 6 supports 0 and 1
TemporalReference UB[8] See H.263 5.1.2
236 Video
H263VIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
PictureSize UB[3] 000: custom, 1 byte
001: custom, 2 bytes
010: CIF (352x288)
011: QCIF (176x144)
100: SQCIF (128x96)
101: 320x240
110: 160x120
111: reserved
CustomWidth If PictureSize = 000, UB[8] Width in pixels

If PictureSize = 001, UB[16]
Otherwise absent
Note: UB[16] is not the same
as UI16; there is no byte
swapping.
CustomHeight If PictureSize = 000, UB[8] Height in pixels

If PictureSize = 001, UB[16]
Otherwise absent
Note: UB[16] is not the same
as UI16; there is no byte
swapping.
PictureType UB[2] 00: intra frame

01: inter frame
10: disposable inter frame
11: reserved
DeblockingFlag UB[1] Requests use of deblocking

filter (advisory only, Flash
Player may ignore)
Quantizer UB[5] See H.263 5.1.4

ExtraInformationFlag UB[1] See H.263 5.1.9
ExtraInformation If ExtraInformationFlag = 1, See H.263 5.1.10

UB[8]
Otherwise absent
... The ExtraInformationFlag-
ExtraInformation sequence
repeats until an
ExtraInformationFlag of 0 is
encountered
Sorenson H.263 Bitstream Format 237

H263VIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
Macroblock MACROBLOCK See following
PictureStuffing varies See H.263 5.1.13
Macro block
The macro block is the next layer down in the video structure. It corresponds to the macro
block layer in H.263 section 5.3.
MACROBLOCK
Field Type Comment
CodedMacroblockFlag UB[1] See H.263 5.3.1
If 1, macro block ends here
MacroblockType varies See H.263 5.3.2

Can cause various fields (see
following) to be absent
BlockPattern varies See H.263 5.3.5
QuantizerInformation UB[2] See H.263 5.3.6

00: -1
01: -2
10: +1
11: +2
MotionVectorData varies[2] See H.263 5.3.7

A horizontal code followed by a
vertical code
ExtraMotionVectorData varies[6] See H.263 5.3.8
Three more MotionVectorData
code pairs are included when
MacroblockType is INTER4V
BlockData BLOCKDATA[6] See H.263 5.4

Four luminance blocks followed
by two chrominance blocks
238 Video
Block data
Block data is the lowest layer in the video structure. In version 0 of the Sorenson H.263 video
format, this layer follows H.263 section 5.4 exactly.
In version 1 of the Sorenson H.263 video format, escape codes in transform coefficients (see
H.263 section 5.4.2) are encoded differently. When the ESCAPE code 0000 011 appears, the
next bit is a format bit that indicates the subsequent bit layout for LAST, RUN, and LEVEL.
In both cases, one bit is used for LAST and six bits are used for RUN. If the format bit is 0,
seven bits are used for LEVEL; if the format bit is 1, eleven bits are used for LEVEL. The
7-bit and 11-bit LEVEL tables, which replace table 14 in H.263, as the following table shows:
7-bit LEVELs 11-bit LEVELs

Index Level Code Index Level Code
- -64 FORBIDDEN - -1024 FORBIDDEN
0 -63 1000 001 0 -1023 1000 0000
001
. . . . . .
61 -2 1111 110 1021 -2 1111 1111 110
62 -1 1111 111 1022 -1 1111 1111 111
- 0 FORBIDDEN - 0 FORBIDDEN
63 1 0000 001 1023 1 0000 0000

001
64 2 0000 010 1024 2 0000 0000

010
. . . . . .
125 63 0111 111 2045 1023 0111 1111 111
Screen Video bitstream format

As of SWF 7, an additional video format, called screen video, is available. Screen video is a
simple lossless sequential-bitmap format with blocked interframing. It is designed for sending
captures of computer screens in action.
Pixel data in the screen video format is compressed by using the ZLIB open standard.
Screen Video bitstream format 239

Block format
Each frame in a screen video sequence is formatted as a series of blocks. These blocks form a
grid over the image. In a keyframe, information for every block is sent. In an interframe, there
might be blocks that are unchanged from the previous frame and special information can be
sent to indicate this.
Blocks have width and height that range from 16 to 256 in multiples of 16. Block height is
not required to match block width. The block size must not change except at a keyframe.
Blocks are ordered from the bottom left of the image to the top right, in rows. A fixed layout
of blocks exists for any given combination of block size and image size. To determine the
number of blocks in a row of the grid, divide the image width by the block width. If the result
is not an integer, the end of each row has one partial block, which contains only the number
of pixels necessary to fill the remaining width of the image. The same logic applies to the
image height, block height, number of rows in the grid, and partial blocks in the final row. It
is important to understand the partial-block algorithm to create correct blocks, since the
pixels within a partial block are extracted with implicit knowledge of the width and height of
the block.
The following is an example of blocking. The image in this example is 120 x 80 pixels, and
the block size is 32 x 32.
Video packet
The video packet is the top-level structural element in a screen video packet. This structure is
included within the VideoFrame tag in the SWF file format, and also within the
VIDEODATA structure in the FLV file format.
240 Video
The data consists of information about the image sub-block dimensions and grid size,
followed by the data for each block.
SCREENVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
BlockWidth UB[4] Pixel width of each block in
the grid. This value is stored
as
(actualWidth / 16) - 1, so
possible block sizes are a
multiple of 16 and not more
than 256.
ImageWidth UB[12] Pixel width of the full image.
BlockHeight UB[4] Pixel height of each block in

as (actualHeight / 16) - 1, so
than 256.
ImageHeight UB[12] Pixel height of the full image.
ImageBlocks IMAGEBLOCK[n] Blocks of image data. See

preceding for details of how
to calculate n. Blocks are
ordered from bottom left to
top right, in rows.
Screen Video bitstream format 241

Image block
The image block represents one block in a frame.
IMAGEBLOCK
Field Type Comment
DataSize UB[16] Size of the compressed block
Note: UB[16] is not the same data that follows. If this is an
as UI16; no byte swapping interframe, and this block is not
occurs. changed since the last
keyframe, DataSize is 0 and
the Data field is absent.
Data If DataSize > 0, Pixel data compressed using

UI8[DataSize] ZLIB. Pixels are ordered from
bottom left to top right in rows.
Each pixel is three bytes: B,
G, R.
Screen Video V2 bitstream format

SWF also supports a new screen video format, Screen Video Version 2, which is an extension
of the Screen Video bitstream format and is supported in Flash Player 8 and later. Screen
Video v2 uses several techniques to reduce the amount of data for each screen block.
In the initial Screen Video version, each block of screen data is a complete buffer of
compressed data that can be decompressed to a full 24-bit color image for that block. In the
Screen Video v2 format, the screen data blocks can be incomplete updates of the image area,
similar to the concept of keyframes and interframes. Further, the v2 format introduces a
hybrid 15/7-bit hybrid colorspace in addition to the usual 24-bit RGB colorspace. The 15/7-
bit hybrid colorspace is useful for encoding images with a small number of unique colors (less
than 256).In the Screen Video v2 format, block data comes in two types:
Keyblock contains complete information for the block. The contents can be decompressed to
obtain the complete block image.
Interblock requires additional data, either from a previous image or the current image, to
construct the full block image.
242 Video
V2 Colorspace
The Screen Video v2 can encode video data using either a 24-bit RGB colorspace, as in v1, or
using a 15/7-bit hybrid colorspace. Using the latter colorspace, an image has a corresponding
128-entry palette. Each pixel in a decoded image is represented by either 1 or 2 bytes.
Generally, a decoder will want to convert a 15/7-bit hybrid colorspace to a 24-bit RGB
colorspace. The process for doing so is:
■ fetch next byte from decoded image
■ if next byte has its high bit set, clear high bit and fetch next byte from decoded image;
form a 15-bit color by placing the low 7 bits of the current byte in bits 14-8 of the color,
and place the 8 bits from the next byte in bits 7-0 of the color; convert the 15-bit RGB
color to 24-bit RGB
■ if next byte has its high bit clear, use the lower 7 bits as an index into the 128-entry palette
and retrieve the corresponding 24-bit RGB color
A v2 video packet is free to define a new palette at any time, which is transmitted as a v1
IMAGEBLOCK. In the absence of a stream-defined palette, the v2 decoder will fall back to a
default palette. For the default palette, see Appendix C, “Screen Video v2 Palette.”
V2 Video Packet
Video Packet v2 is the top-level structural element in a screen video packet for Screen Video
Version 2. This structure is included within the VideoFrame tag in SWF file format, and also
within the VIDEODATA structure in FLV file format.
The data consists of information about the image sub-block dimensions and grid size,
followed by the data for each block.
SCREENV2VIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
BlockWidth UB[4] Pixel width of each block in
as
(actualWidth / 16) - 1, so
than 256.
ImageWidth UB[12] Pixel width of the full image.
Screen Video V2 bitstream format 243

SCREENV2VIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
BlockHeight UB[4] Pixel height of each block in
as (actualHeight / 16) - 1, so
than 256.
ImageHeight UB[12] Pixel height of the full image.
HasIFrameImage UB[1] If 1, has IFrameImage
HasPaletteInfo UB[1] If 1, has PaletteInfo
PaletteInfo If HasPaletteInfo, One block of data to describe

IMAGEBLOCK the palette.
ImageBlocks IMAGEBLOCKV2[n] Blocks of image data. See

Block format for details of
how to calculate n. Blocks
are ordered from bottom left
to top right in rows and can
be a combination of
keyblocks and interblocks.
IFrameImage If HasIFrameImage, Blocks of image data

IMAGEBLOCKV2[n] representing interblocks that
must be combined with the
previous keyblocks to
produce the image. See
Block format for details of
how to calculate n. Blocks
are ordered from bottom left
to top right in rows.
244 Video
Image Block V2
The Image Block v2 structure represents one block in a frame.
IMAGEBLOCKV2
Field Type Comment
DataSize UB[16] Size of the compressed
Note: UB[16] is not the same as block data that follows,
UI16; there is no byte swapping. including the ImageFormat,
ImageBlockHeader and Data
fields. If this is an interframe,
and this block has not
changed since the last
keyframe, DataSize is 0 and
the Data field is absent.
Format IMAGEFORMAT Compression format of block

data.
ImageBlockHeader If Format’s HasDiffBlock = 1, Describes the format and
IMAGEDIFFPOSITION compression of Data
If Format’s
ZlibPrimeCompressCurrent = 1,
IMAGEPRIMEPOSITION
Data If DataSize > 0, UI8[DataSize] Pixel data compressed using
ZLIB. Pixels are ordered
from bottom left to top right
in rows. Each pixel is three
bytes: B, G, R.
Image format
The IMAGEFORMAT byte describes the color depth and compression of the
IMAGEBLOCKV2 structure.
IMAGEFORMAT
Field Type Comment
ColorDepth UB[2] 00: 24-bit RGB image

10: 15/7-bit hybrid color
image
Screen Video V2 bitstream format 245

IMAGEFORMAT
Field Type Comment
HasDiffBlocks UB[1] If 1, the data starts and stops
on specific rows within the
block and does not represent
the entire block.
ZlibPrimeCompressCurrent UB[1] If 1, the current data block

was produced with the ZLIB
priming technique of
compression.
ZlibPrimeCompressPrevious UB[1] If 1, the previous data block

was produced with the ZLIB
priming technique of
compression.
Image block diff position

The image block diff position can be included in the IMAGEBLOCKV2 ImageBlockHeader
field. This structure describes the location and size of the diff block image data.
IMAGEDIFFPOSITION
Field Type Comment
RowStart UI8 Indicates the first scan line of
the block that contains the
image data.
Height UI8 Indicates the height, in

contiguous scan lines, of the
image data.
246 Video
Image block prime position
The image block prime position is included in the IMAGEBLOCKV2 ImageBlockHeader
field if the IMAGEFORMAT structure indicates ZLIB priming is used. This structure
specifies which image is used as the priming source.
IMAGEPRIMEPOSITION
Field Type Comment
Block column Ui8 Indicates the position of the
source block.
Block row Ui8 Indicates the position of the

source block.
On2 Truemotion VP6 bitstream format

SWF 6 or later supports the On2 Truemotion VP6 video format, which can be played in
Flash Player 8 and later. VP6 is a leading-edge video compression algorithm that combines
traditional motion compensated prediction and pseudo discrete cosine transform (DCT)
coding and context-dependent entropy-coding techniques (based on Huffman and arithmetic
principles) along with novel approaches to surpass the quality of other codecs. VP6 applies
extensive context modeling, in and out of loop filtering, and novel quantization methods to
achieve a high level of quality. Further information on this video format can be obtained from
On2: www.on2.com.
Like the Sorenson H.263 video format, the On2 Truemotion VP6 video format uses color
information encoded in the YCbCr color space described in the ITU-R BT.601 standard.
This color information is stored as YUV 4:2:2 using unsigned 8-bit values for each color
component. The following algorithm can be used to convert forward from RGB color space
pixel data to YUV color space:
FUNCTION SATURATE(A) = MIN(255,MAX(0,A))
Y = SATURATE(+ (0.257 * R) + (0.504 * G) + (0.098 * B) + 16)
U = SATURATE(- (0.148 * R) - (0.291 * G) + (0.439 * B) + 128)
V = SATURATE(+ (0.439 * R) - (0.368 * G) - (0.071 * B) + 128)
This algorithm can be used to convert YUV color space pixel data back to RGB color space:
B = SATURATE(1.164(Y - 16) + 2.018(U - 128))
G = SATURATE(1.164(Y - 16) - 0.813(V - 128) - 0.391(U - 128))
R = SATURATE(1.164(Y - 16) + 1.596(V - 128))
On2 Truemotion VP6 bitstream format 247

In addition to supporting standard On2 Truemotion VP6 video streams, Flash Player 8 adds
support for an extra alpha channel that is used to simulate transparency. The alpha channel is
encoded by using a second On2 Truemotion VP6 stream that contains the alpha channel
information. To encode this type of video stream, the preceding RGB-to-YUV algorithm
should be used on the RGB color channels of the premultiplied ARGB color space pixel data.
With the resulting YUV color space data, the video data can be encoded as the first video
stream.
For the second video stream, the following algorithm can be used to obtain the YUV video
data from the alpha channel of the premultiplied ARGB color space pixel data:
Y = A
U = 0
V = 0
NOT E
At encode time, the second video stream must contain at least as many key frames as
the first video stream. Each key frame occurring in the first video stream must force a key
frame in the second video stream at encode time so that the combined video stream
stays seekable.
To decode alpha channel video streams, assume that the first video stream returns YUV-
encoded color channels for a screen pixel in the form of three channels named Y1, U1, and
V1. The second video stream returns this data as Y2, U2, and V2. The resulting alpha
premultiplied ARGB pixel values are obtained by using the following algorithm:
B = MIN(Y2,SATURATE(1.164(Y1 - 16) + 2.018(U1 - 128)))
G = MIN(Y2,SATURATE(1.164(Y1 - 16) - 0.813(V1 - 128) - 0.391(U1 - 128)))
R = MIN(Y2,SATURATE(1.164(Y1 - 16) + 1.596(V1 - 128)))
A = Y2
The U2 and V2 channels are not currently used at decode time.
248 Video
VP6 FLV video packet
The VP6 FLV video packet represents a VP6 video frame within an FLV file.
VP6FLVVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
HorizontalAdjustment UB[4] Number of pixels to subtract
from the total width. The
resulting width is used on the
stage, and the rightmost pixels
of the video is cropped.
VerticalAdjustment UB[4] Number of pixels to subtract

from the total height. The
resulting height is used on the
Data UI8[n] Raw VP6 video stream data
VP6 FLV Alpha video packet

The VP6 FLV Alpha video packet represents a VP6 video frame with alpha channel
information within FLV files.
VP6FLVALPHAVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
HorizontalAdjustment UB[4] Number of pixels to subtract
from the total width. The
resulting width is used on the
VerticalAdjustment UB[4] Number of pixels to subtract
from the from the total height.
The resulting height is used on
the stage, and the rightmost
pixels of the video is cropped.
OffsetToAlpha UI24 Offset in bytes to the alpha
channel video data
On2 Truemotion VP6 bitstream format 249

VP6FLVALPHAVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
Data UI8[OffsetToAlpha] Raw VP6 video stream data
representing the color channels
AlphaData UI8[n] Raw VP6 video stream data

representing the alpha channel
VP6 SWF video packet

The VP6 SWF video packet represents a VP6 video frame within SWF files.
VP6SWFVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
Data UI8[n] Raw VP6 video stream data
VP6 SWF Alpha video packet

The VP6 SWF Alpha video packet represents a VP6 video frame with alpha channel
information within SWF files.
VP6SWFALPHAVIDEOPACKET
Field Type Comment
OffsetToAlpha UI24 Offset in bytes to the alpha
channel video data
Data UI8[OffsetToAlpha] Raw VP6 video stream data
representing the color channels
AlphaData UI8[n] Raw VP6 video stream data
representing the alpha channel
SWF video tags

The following tags define embedded video data within a SWF file. These tags are permissible
only in SWF 6 or later.
Video embedded in a SWF file is always streamed: video frames are located in the SWF
frames with which they are temporally associated, and video playback can begin before an
entire video stream is downloaded. This process is comparable to the way that streaming
sounds are defined (see Streaming sound).
250 Video
DefineVideoStream
DefineVideoStream defines a video character that can later be placed on the display list (see
The Display List).
DefineVideoStream
Field Type Comment
CharacterID UI16 ID for this video character
NumFrames UI16 Number of VideoFrame tags

that makes up this stream
Width UI16 Width in pixels
Height UI16 Height in pixels
VideoFlagsReserved UB[4] Must be 0
VideoFlagsDeblocking UB[3] 000 = use VIDEOPACKET

value
001 = off
010 = Level 1 (Fast deblocking
filter)
011 = Level 2 (VP6 only, better
deblocking filter)
deblocking plus fast deringing
filter)
deblocking plus better
deringing filter)
110 = Reserved
111 = Reserved
VideoFlagsSmoothing UB[1] 0 = smoothing off (faster)

1 = smoothing on (higher
quality)
CodecID UI8 2 = Sorenson H.263

3 = Screen video (SWF 7 and
later only)
4 = VP6 (SWF 8 and later only)
5 = VP6 video with alpha
channel (SWF 8 and later only)
SWF video tags 251

VideoFrame
VideoFrame provides a single frame of video data for a video character that is already defined
with DefineVideoStream.
In playback, the time sequencing of video frames depends on the SWF frame rate only. When
SWF playback reaches a particular SWF frame, the video images from any VideoFrame tags in
that SWF frame are rendered. Any timing mechanisms built into the video payload are
ignored.
A VideoFrame tag is not needed for every video character in every frame number specified. A
VideoFrame tag merely sets video data associated with a particular frame number; it does not
automatically display a video frame. To display a video frame, specify the frame number as the
Ratio field in PlaceObject2 or PlaceObject3.
VideoFrame
Field Type Comment
StreamID UI16 ID of video stream character of

which this frame is a part
FrameNum UI16 Sequence number of this frame

within its video stream
VideoData if CodecID = 2 Video frame payload

H263VIDEOPACKET
if CodecID = 3
SCREENVIDEOPACKET
if CodecID = 4
VP6SWFVIDEOPACKET
if CodecID = 5
VP6SWFALPHAVIDEOPACKET
if CodecID = 6
SCREENV2VIDEOPACKET
252 Video
CHAPTER 15
Binary data 15
Starting with version 9, the SWF file format specification supports the inclusion of arbitrary
blobs of binary data.
DefineBinaryData
The DefineBinaryData tag permits arbitrary binary data to be embedded in a SWF file.
DefineBinaryData is a definition tag, like DefineShape and DefineSprite. It associates a blob
of binary data with a standard SWF 16-bit character ID. The character ID is entered into the
SWF file's character dictionary.
DefineBinaryData is intended to be used in conjunction with the SymbolClass tag. The
SymbolClass tag can be used to associate a DefineBinaryData tag with an AS3 class definition.
The AS3 class must be a subclass of ByteArray. When the class is instantiated, it will be
populated automatically with the contents of the binary data resource.
DefineBinaryData
Field Type Comment
Tag UI16 16-bit character ID
Reserved U32 Reserved space; must be 0
Data BINARY A blob of binary data, up to the

end of the tag
253
254 Binary data
APPENDIX A
SWF Uncovered: A Simple SWF File

Dissected A
To write SWF files, you must be able to read and understand the raw bits and bytes. This
appendix examines a simple, one-frame SWF file that contains only a rectangle.
Here is a hex dump of the SWF file:
000000 46 57 53 03 4F 00 00 00 78 00 05 5F 00 00 0F A0
000010 00 00 0C 01 00 43 02 FF FF FF BF 00 23 00 00 00
000020 01 00 70 FB 49 97 0D 0C 7D 50 00 01 14 00 00 00
000030 00 01 25 C9 92 0D 21 ED 48 87 65 30 3B 6D E1 D8
000040 B4 00 00 86 06 06 01 00 01 00 00 40 00 00 00
A SWF file always begins with a header. It describes the file version, the length of the file in
bytes, the frame size in twips (twentieths of a pixel), frame rate in frames per second, and the
frame count.
The types are defined in Chapter 1, “Basic Data Types,” on page 11
SWF File Header

Field Type Comment
Signature UI8 Signature byte:
“F” indicated uncompressed
“C” indicates compressed (SWF 6 or later only)
Signature UI8 Signature byte always “W”
Signature UI8 Signature byte always “S”
Version UI8 Single byte file version (for example, 0x06 for SWF 6)
FileLength UI32 Length of entire file in bytes
FrameSize RECT Frame size in twips
FrameRate UI16 Frame delay in 8.8 fixed number of frames per second
FrameCount UI16 Total number of frames in file
255
The first three bytes are the standard signature for all SWF files. They are the ASCII values of
the characters ‘F’ (or ‘C’), ‘W’, and ‘S’ in that order. The fourth byte indicates the version of
the file.
0x46 ➜ ‘F’ 0x57 ➜ ‘W’ 0x53 ➜ ‘S’ 0x03 ➜ 3
The next four bytes represent an unsigned 32-bit integer indicating the file size. Here’s where
it starts getting tricky and machine architecture gets involved. The next four bytes are
0x4F000000 so that would imply that the file length is 1325400064 bytes, a very large
number which doesn’t make sense. What we failed to do is swap all the bytes.
In SWF files, bytes are swapped whenever reading words and dwords such that a 32-bit value
B1B2B3B4 is written as B4B3B2B1, and a 16-bit value B1B2 is written as B2B1. Single bytes
are written unchanged since there is no bit-swapping. The reason for this is the differences in
storage and retrieval between the Mac and PC processors.
Reversing the bytes we can read the four bytes correctly and see that file is 79 bytes long.
0x4F000000 ➜ 0x0000004F ➜ 79
The next nine bytes represent a data structure used in the SWF format called a Rectangle.
Here is the file description of a rectangle:
RECT
Field Type Comment
Nbits UB[5] Bits in each rect value field
Xmin SB[Nbits] x minimum position for rect
Xmax SB[Nbits] x maximum position for rect

Ymin SB[Nbits] y minimum position for rect
Ymax SB[Nbits] y maximum position for rect
To understand these bytes, we need to look at the individual bits.

78 00 05 5F 00 00 0F A0 00
0111 1000 0000 0000 0000 0101 0101 1111 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 1111 1010 0000 0000 0000
There are five fields in a rectangle structure: Nbits, Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, Ymax. The unsigned
Nbits field occupies the first five bits of the rectangle and indicates how long the next four
signed fields are.
256 SWF Uncovered: A Simple SWF File Dissected

Another subtle point about the SWF file representation is that reading and writing bits is
different from reading and writing words and dwords. When reading and writing bits, no
byte-swapping occurs. This is because when Flash Player is reading an n-bit field, it reads a
byte at a time until it has read all n bits. Therefore, the next five bits are read in order and
evaluate to 15.
01111 ➜ 15
What if Nbit has a value of sixteen? This is exactly the size of a word so do we read the
following fields as words and swap bytes? No. Fields described by bit size are always read a
byte at a time. No swapping, just read the next n bits in that order.
000000000000000 ‹ 0 = Xmin
010101011111000 ‹ 11000 = Xmax
000000000000000 ‹ 0 = Ymin
001111101000000 ‹ 8000 = Ymax
For the header, the rectangle is used to store the file dimensions with Xmax corresponding to
the file width and Ymax corresponding to the file height, both in twips. In SWF format, a
twip is a twentieth of a pixel, so if we convert to pixels, we see that our file is 550 x 400.
Now we have looked at all of the fields of the rectangle and evaluated them, but what about
those last seven bits which are all 0s? Those bits are filled with 0s so that the structure aligns to
a byte boundary.
0000000 = padding bits
After the end of any structure, if the structure does not completely fill up its last byte, then
that last byte is filled with 0s to keep the next item byte aligned. So if the next item is a word
or dword, you can read it as such and not worry about being in the middle of a byte. In this
case, only one bit in the last byte is used so the last seven bits are filled with 0s.
Next in the header is the frame rate. It is supposed to be stored as a 16-bit integer, but the first
byte (or last depending on how you look at it) is completely ignored. So the frame rate is
12 fps.
0x000C ➜ 0x0C00 ➜ 0x0C ➜ 12 = frame rate
Next is the frame count, which is also a 16-bit integer. So the frame count is 1.
0x0100 ➜ 0x0001(byte swapping) ➜ 1 = frame count
257
Now we are finished with the header. After the header is a series of tagged data blocks. Here is
a description of a tag (this is simplifying somewhat; byte swapping is necessary):
RECORDHEADER (short)
Field Type Comment
TagCodeAndLength UI16 Upper 10 bits: tag type
Lower 6 bits: tag length
RECORDHEADER (long)
Field Type Comment
TagCodeAndLength UI16 Tag type and length of 0x3F
Packed together as in short header
Length UI32 Length of tag
There are two types of tags: the short and long tag header. Regardless of which case you have,
you begin by looking at the first word.
0x4302 ➜ 0x0243 ➜ 0000 0010 0100 0011
The first 10 bits of the tag are the unsigned tag type. The tag type indicates what type of data
is to follow in the body of the data block to follow. In this case, the value of the tag type is 9,
which corresponds to a SetBackgroundColor block. The last six unsigned bits of the tag
header indicate the length of the data block to follow if it is 62 bytes or less. If the length of
the data block is more than 62 bytes, then this field has all 1s and the length is indicated in
the following dword. For the tag we are looking at, the field does not have all 1s, so it does
indicate the actual length which is 3 bytes.
0000001001 = 9 = SetBackgroundColor000011 = 3 = body length
Since we know that the length of the body is 3 bytes, let’s take a look at it. A
SetBackgroundColor tag only contains the 3-byte RGB color description so we evaluate it as
such. A color is its own 3-byte data type so there is no byte swapping.
0XFFFFFF = white

The next tag is a long tag and is a DefineShape tag.
0xBF00 0x00BF 0000 0000 1011 1111
0000000010 = 2 = DefineShape
111111 = 63 = body length (indicates that the body length value is in the next dword)
0x23000000 0x00000023 35 = body length
Here is the file description of DefineShape:
DefineShape
Field Type Comment
ShapeId UI16 ID for this character
ShapeBounds RECT Bounds of the shape
Shapes SHAPEWITHSTYLE Shape information
The body of a DefineShape is composed of an unsigned 16-bit character ID, a rectangle

defining the bounds for the shape, and a SHAPEWITHSTYLE structure which contains
shape information.
0x0100 ➜ 0x0001 ➜ 1 = shape ID
Now the Rect which defines the boundaries:

70 FB 49 97 0D 0C 7D 50
0111 0000 1111 1011 0100 1001 1001 0111 0000 1101 0000
1100 0111 1101 0101 0000
01110 = 14 = Nbits
00011111011010 = 2010 = Xmin /20 to covert to pixels from twips 100.5
01001100101110 = 4910 = Xmax 245.5
00011010000110 = 1670 = Ymin 83.5
00111110101010 = 4010 = Ymax 200.5
000 = fill bits
259
The following table describes the SHAPEWITHSTYLE structure:
SHAPEWITHSTYLE
Field Type Comment
FillStyles FILLSTYLEARRAY Array of fill styles
LineStyles LINESTYLEARRAY Array of line styles
NumFillBits UB[4] Number of fill index bits
NumLineBits UB[4] Number of line index bits
ShapeRecords SHAPERECORD[one or Shape records (see following)

more]
A fill style array itself has three fields. The first field is an 8-bit integer count which indicates
how many fill styles are in the array. This count works similar to the tag’s length field in that if
it is all 1s, you have to look at the next 16 bits to get the actual length. Here is the file
description:
FILLSTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
FillStyleCount UI8 Count of fill styles
FillStyleCountExtended If FillStyleCount = 0xFF UI16 Extended count of fill styles.

Supported only for Shape2 and
Shape3.
FillStyles FILLSTYLE[FillStyleCount] Array of fill styles
In this case, the 8-bit count is equal to 0 so there is nothing to follow it.
0x00 = 0 = FillStyleCount ➜ This is the end of the fill style array because it has no
elements
A line style array is exactly the same as a fill style array except it stores line styles. Here is the
file description:
LINESTYLEARRAY
Field Type Comment
LineStyleCount UI8 Count of line styles
LineStyleCountExtended If LineStyleCount = 0xFF Extended count of line styles

UI16
LineStyles LINESTYLE[count] Array of line styles

0x01 = 1 = LineStyleCount ➜ So there is one line style in the array.
A line style has two parts, an unsigned 16-bit integer indicating the width of a line in twips,
and a color. Here is the file description:
LINESTYLE
Field Type Comment
Width UI16 Width of line in twips
Color RGB (Shape1 or Shape2) Color value including alpha

RGBA (Shape3) channel information for Shape3
The color in this case is a 24-bit RGB, but if we were doing a DefineShape3, it would be a 32-
bit RGBA where alpha is the opacity of the color.
0x1400 ➜ 0x0014 = 20 = width = 1 pixel
0x000000 = RGB = black
Back to the ShapeWithStyle, the NumFillBits field is 4 bits, as is the NumLineBits.
0x0 = 0 = NumFillBits 0x1 = 1 = NumLineBits
261
Now for the array of shape records. The following four tables describe the four types of shape
records. Here are the file descriptions:
ENDSHAPERECORD
Field Type Comment
TypeFlag UB[1] Non-edge record flag
Always 0
EndOfShape UB[5] End of shape flag
Always 0
STYLECHANGERECORD
Field Type Comment
TypeFlag UB[1] Non-edge record flag
Always 0
StateNewStyles UB[1] New styles flag. Used by

DefineShape2 and
DefineShape3 only.
StateLineStyle UB[1] Line style change flag
StateFillStyle1 UB[1] Fill style 1 change flag
StateFillStyle0 UB[1] Fill style 0 change flag
StateMoveTo UB[1] Move to flag
MoveBits If StateMoveTo Move bit count

UB[5]
MoveDeltaX If StateMoveTo Delta X value

SB[MoveBits]
MoveDeltaY If StateMoveTo Delta Y value

SB[MoveBits]
FillStyle0 If StateFillStyle0 Fill 0 Style

UB[FillBits]
FillStyle1 If StateFillStyle1 Fill 1 Style

UB[FillBits]
LineStyle If StateLineStyle Line Style

UB[LineBits]
FillStyles If StateNewStyles Array of new fill styles

FILLSTYLEARRAY

STYLECHANGERECORD
Field Type Comment
LineStyles If StateNewStyles Array of new line styles
LINESTYLEARRAY
NumFillBits If StateNewStyles Number of fill index bits for new

UB[4] styles
NumLineBits If StateNewStyles Number of line index bits for

UB[4] new styles
263
STRAIGHTEDGERECORD
Field Type Comment
Always 1.
StraightFlag UB[1] Straight edge.

Always 1.

(two less than the actual
number).
GeneralLineFlag UB[1] General Line equals 1.
Vert/Horz Line equals 0.
DeltaX If GeneralLineFlag X delta
SB[NumBits+2]
DeltaY If GeneralLineFlag Y delta

SB[NumBits+2]
VertLineFlag If GeneralLineFlag Vertical Line equals 1.

SB[1] Horizontal Line equals 0.
DeltaX If VertLineFlag X delta

SB[NumBits+2]
DeltaY If VertLineFlag Y delta

SB[NumBits+2]
CURVEDEDGERECORD
Field Type Comment
Always 1.
StraightFlag UB[1] Curved edge.

Always 0.
NumBits UB[4] Number of bits per value.

(two less than the actual
number)
ControlDeltaX SB[NumBits+2] X control point change
ControlDeltaY SB[NumBits+2] Y control point change
AnchorDeltaX SB[NumBits+2] X anchor point change
AnchorDeltaY SB[NumBits+2] Y anchor point change

ENDSHAPERECORD defines the end of the shape record array.
STYLECHANGERECORD defines changes in line style, fill style, position, or a new set of
styles. STRAIGHTEDGERECORD and CURVEDEDGERECORD define a straight or
curved edge, respectively. The first bit in a shape record is a type flag. A 0 corresponds to a
non-edge record, and a 1 corresponds to an edge record. Looking at the first bit of our first
shape record, we see that it is not an edge record. Now we must look at the next five bits
which are all flags that tell us what is to follow. If all of the five bits are 0, then that is a type0
shape record and defines the end of the array of shape records.
25 C9 92 0D 21
0010 0101 1100 1001 1001 0010 0000 1101 0010 0001
0 = 0 = non edge record

01001 = 5 flags line style flag is true, and move to flag is true
Since the move to flag is true, the next five bits are the MoveBits field. This value is 14 so the
next two fields which are the MoveDeltaX, and the MoveDeltaY are of size 14. These are
unsigned numbers.
01110 = MoveBits
01001100100100 = 4900 (twips) = 245 pixels = MoveDeltaX
00011010010000 = 1680 = 84 pixels = MoveDeltaY
Since the line style flag is true, the next field is a NumLineBits = 1 bit field representing the
line style. This field is equal to 1. This means that the line style for the line to follow is the
first one in the line style array.
1 = 1 = line style
Now for the rest of the shape records:
ED 48 87 65 30 3B 6D E1 D8 B4 00 00
1110 1101 0100 1000 1000 0111 0110 0101 0011 0000 0011 1011 0110
1101 1110 0001 1101 1000 1011 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000
The next shape record begins with a 1, so it is an edge record.
265
The next bit indicates if it is a straight or curved edge. It is a 1, which stands for a straight
edge. The next four bits indicate the size of any delta fields which follow. The formula for the
NumBits value is 2 + whatever the value of that 4-bit field. In this case, the value of NumBits
is 13. Following the NumBits field is a 1-bit line flag. This indicates whether the line being
described is a general line or horizontal/vertical line. The value of 0 corresponds to a hor/vert
line, so the next bit is a VertLineFlag field and indicates whether the line is horizontal or
vertical. The value of the bit is 1 which corresponds to a vertical line. The next field for a
vertical line is the signed DeltaY field which is nbits = 13 bits long. The value corresponds to
116 pixels. That is the end of the shape record.
1 = 1 = edge record
1 = 1 = straight edge
1011 = 11 + 2 = 13 = NumBits
0 = 0 = hor/vert line
1 = 1 = vertical line
0100100010000 = 2320 twips = 116 pixels = DeltaY
The next three records are very similar to the last one:
1 = 1 = edge record
1011 = 11 + 2 = 13 = NumBits
0 = 0 = horizontal line
1010011000000 = -2880 twips (2’s complement number) = -144 pixels = DeltaX
1 = 1 = edge record
1011 = 11 + 2 = 13 = NumBits
1 = 1 = vertical line
1011011110000 = -2320 twips = -116 pixels = DeltaY
1 = 1 = edge record
1011 = 11 + 2 = 13 = NumBits
0 = 0 = horizontal line
0101101000000 = 2880 twips = 144 pixels = DeltaX

Finally, the last shape record begins with a 0 which means it is not an edge record.
Furthermore, all of its flag bits are equal to 0, which means that it is the last shape record and
we are through with our shape record array.
0 = 0 = non-edge record
000000 = flags (since they are all 0, this is the end of the shape record array
Since we are done with our structure, we must now fill our last byte with 0s to keep byte
alignment.
000000 = padding bits so that the record aligns on a byte boundary
We are also done with our shape with style since the shape record array is the last element of
the shape with style. Since we are already byte aligned, we can go on to our next tagged data
block.
The Tag type of the block is equal to 26 which corresponds to a PlaceObject2. The length
field has a value of 6 so the length of the data block is 6 bytes.
0x8606 ➜ 0x0686 ➜ 0000 0110 1000 0110
0000011010 = 26 = tag type = PlaceObject2

000110 = 6 = length
06 01 00 01 00 00
0000 0110 0000 0001 0000 0000 0000 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000
Here is the file description of the PlaceObject2 tag:
PlaceObject2
Field Type Comment
PlaceFlagHasClipActions UB[1] SWF 5 or later: has clip
actions (sprite characters
only).
Otherwise: always 0.
PlaceFlagHasClipDepth UB[1] Has clip depth.
PlaceFlagHasName UB[1] Has name.
PlaceFlagHasRatio UB[1] Has ratio.
PlaceFlagHasColorTransform UB[1] Has color transform.
PlaceFlagHasMatrix UB[1] Has matrix.
267
PlaceObject2
Field Type Comment
PlaceFlagHasCharacter UB[1] Places a character.
PlaceFlagMove UB[1] Defines a character to be
moved.
Depth UI16 Depth of character.
CharacterId If PlaceFlagHasCharacter ID of character to place.

UI16
Matrix If PlaceFlagHasMatrix Transform matrix data.

MATRIX
ColorTransform If Color transform data.

PlaceFlagHasColorTransform
CXFORMWITHALPHA
Ratio If PlaceFlagHasRatio UI16
Name If PlaceFlagHasName STRING Name of character.
ClipDepth If PlaceFlagHasClipDepth UI16 Clip depth

(see Clipping layers).
ClipActions If PlaceFlagHasClipActions SWF 5 or later:

CLIPACTIONS Clip Actions Data.
The first eight bits of the body are all flags indicating what is to follow. A 1 in the sixth bit
indicates that the body has a transform matrix, and the 1 in the seventh bit indicates that the
object to be placed has a character ID.
00000110 ➜ body has a transform matrix and object has a character ID
Following the flags is a 16-bit unsigned integer which indicates the depth of the character. In
this case, the depth is 1, which makes sense since the rectangle is the only object in the file.
0x0100 ➜ 0x0001 ➜ depth = 1
Since the object has a character ID, the next field in the body is the unsigned 16-bit ID. Since
the rectangle is the only object in the file, the ID of the rectangle is 1.
0x0100 ➜ 0x0001 ➜ character ID = 1

The final field for this PlaceObject2 is the transform matrix. Here is the file description:
MATRIX
Field Type Comment
HasScale UB[1] Has scale values if equal to 1.
NScaleBits If HasScale = 1, UB[5] Bits in each scale value field.
ScaleX If HasScale = 1, FB[NScaleBits] x scale value.
ScaleY If HasScale = 1, FB[NScaleBits] y scale value.
HasRotate UB[1] Has rotate and skew values if equal
to 1.
NRotateBits If HasRotate = 1, UB[5] Bits in each rotate value field.
RotateSkew0 If HasRotate = 1, FB[NRotateBits] First rotate and skew value.
RotateSkew1 If HasRotate = 1, FB[NRotateBits] Second rotate and skew value.
NTranslateBits UB[5] Bits in each translate value field.
TranslateX SB[NTranslateBits] x translate value in twips.
TranslateY SB[NTranslateBits] y translate value in twips.
Since this shape has no transform information, the matrix is empty. All of its flag bits have
values of zero. This is not super efficient but it is valid.
0x00 ➜ completely empty matrix with leftover bits filled
Since we are done with our PlaceObject2, let’s take a look at our next tag.
0x4000 ➜ 0x0040 ➜ 0000 0000 0100 0000
Tag type = 1 = ShowFrame

length = 0
We see that the tag is an instruction to show the frame. A ShowFrame has no body. Its length
is 0, so we move on to the next tag.
0x0000 0x0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
Tag type = 0 = end

length = 0
We have reached the end tag which signals the end of our SWF file.
269
APPENDIX B
Reverse index of tag values

B
This table provides a quick lookup, allowing any tag in the SWF specification to be found by
its tag value.
Tag value Tag name

0 End
1 ShowFrame
2 DefineShape
4 PlaceObject
5 RemoveObject
6 DefineBits
7 DefineButton
8 JPEGTables
9 SetBackgroundColor
10 DefineFont
11 DefineText
12 DoAction
13 DefineFontInfo
14 DefineSound
15 StartSound
17 DefineButtonSound
18 SoundStreamHead
19 SoundStreamBlock
20 DefineBitsLossless
21 DefineBitsJPEG2
22 DefineShape2
271
Tag value Tag name
23 DefineButtonCxform
24 Protect
26 PlaceObject2
28 RemoveObject2
32 DefineShape3
33 DefineText2
34 DefineButton2
35 DefineBitsJPEG3
36 DefineBitsLossless2
37 DefineEditText
39 DefineSprite
43 FrameLabel
45 SoundStreamHead2
46 DefineMorphShape
48 DefineFont2
56 ExportAssets
57 ImportAssets
58 EnableDebugger
59 DoInitAction
60 DefineVideoStream
61 VideoFrame
62 DefineFontInfo2
64 EnableDebugger2
65 ScriptLimits
66 SetTabIndex
69 FileAttributes
70 PlaceObject3
71 ImportAssets2
73 DefineFontAlignZones
74 CSMTextSettings
272 Reverse index of tag values

Tag value Tag name
75 DefineFont3
76 SymbolClass
77 Metadata
78 DefineScalingGrid
82 DoABC
83 DefineShape4
84 DefineMorphShape2
86 DefineSceneAndFrameLabelData
87 DefineBinaryData
88 DefineFontName
89 StartSound2
90 DefineBitsJPEG4
91 DefineFont4
273
274 Reverse index of tag values
APPENDIX C
Screen Video v2 Palette C

The Screen Video v2 codec (see Chapter 14, “Video,”) can use a 15/7-bit hybrid colorspace in
addition to a 24-bit colorspace. The codec allows the bitstream to encode a 128-entry color
palette. In the absence of a valid palette, the code will fall back on the following 128-entry
RGB palette.
Each of these 32-bit numbers is formatted as 0x00rrggbb.
unsigned int default_screen_video_v2_palette[128] = {
0x00000000,
0x00333333,
0x00666666,
0x00999999,
0x00CCCCCC,
0x00FFFFFF,
0x00330000,
0x00660000,
0x00990000,
0x00CC0000,
0x00FF0000,
0x00003300,
0x00006600,
0x00009900,
0x0000CC00,
0x0000FF00,
0x00000033,
0x00000066,
0x00000099,
0x000000CC,
0x000000FF,
0x00333300,
0x00666600,
0x00999900,
0x00CCCC00,
0x00FFFF00,
0x00003333,
0x00006666,
275
0x00009999,
0x0000CCCC,
0x0000FFFF,
0x00330033,
0x00660066,
0x00990099,
0x00CC00CC,
0x00FF00FF,
0x00FFFF33,
0x00FFFF66,
0x00FFFF99,
0x00FFFFCC,
0x00FF33FF,
0x00FF66FF,
0x00FF99FF,
0x00FFCCFF,
0x0033FFFF,
0x0066FFFF,
0x0099FFFF,
0x00CCFFFF,
0x00CCCC33,
0x00CCCC66,
0x00CCCC99,
0x00CCCCFF,
0x00CC33CC,
0x00CC66CC,
0x00CC99CC,
0x00CCFFCC,
0x0033CCCC,
0x0066CCCC,
0x0099CCCC,
0x00FFCCCC,
0x00999933,
0x00999966,
0x009999CC,
0x009999FF,
0x00993399,
0x00996699,
0x0099CC99,
0x0099FF99,
0x00339999,
0x00669999,
0x00CC9999,
0x00FF9999,
0x00666633,
276 Screen Video v2 Palette

0x00666699,
0x006666CC,
0x006666FF,
0x00663366,
0x00669966,
0x0066CC66,
0x0066FF66,
0x00336666,
0x00996666,
0x00CC6666,
0x00FF6666,
0x00333366,
0x00333399,
0x003333CC,
0x003333FF,
0x00336633,
0x00339933,
0x0033CC33,
0x0033FF33,
0x00663333,
0x00993333,
0x00CC3333,
0x00FF3333,
0x00003366,
0x00336600,
0x00660033,
0x00006633,
0x00330066,
0x00663300,
0x00336699,
0x00669933,
0x00993366,
0x00339966,
0x00663399,
0x00996633,
0x006699CC,
0x0099CC66,
0x00CC6699,
0x0066CC99,
0x009966CC,
0x00CC9966,
0x0099CCFF,
0x00CCFF99,
0x00FF99CC,
0x0099FFCC,
0x00CC99FF,
277
0x00FFCC99,
0x00111111,
0x00222222,
0x00444444,
0x00555555,
0x00AAAAAA,
0x00BBBBBB,
0x00DDDDDD,
0x00EEEEEE
};
278 Screen Video v2 Palette

SWF File Format Spec v10

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SWF File Format Specification

Adobe Systems Incorporated

Published November 2008

Chapter 1: Basic Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Chapter 2: SWF Structure Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 4: Control Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Chapter 6: Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Chapter 7: Gradients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 8: Bitmaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chapter 9: Shape Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Chapter 10: Fonts and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Chapter 11: Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201

Chapter 12: Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Chapter 13: Sprites and Movie Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Chapter 14: Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Chapter 15: Binary data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Appendix A: SWF Uncovered: A Simple SWF File Dissected. 255

Appendix B: Reverse index of tag values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Appendix C: Screen Video v2 Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

What’s new in SWF 10

Basic Data Types 1

Coordinates and twips

Integer types and byte order

SI16 Signed 16-bit integer value

SI32 Signed 32-bit integer value

SI8[n] Signed 8-bit array—n is the number of array elements

SI16[n] Signed 16-bit array—n is the is number of array elements

UI8 Unsigned 8-bit integer value

UI16 Unsigned 16-bit integer value

UI32 Unsigned 32-bit integer value

UI8[n] Unsigned 8-bit array—n is the number of array elements

UI16[n] Unsigned 16-bit array—n is the number of array elements

UI24[n] Unsigned 24-bit array—n is the number of array elements

UI32[n] Unsigned 32-bit array—n is the number of array elements

12 Basic Data Types

FIXED8 16-bit 8.8 fixed-point number

FLOAT Single-precision (32-bit) IEEE Standard 754 compatible

DOUBLE Double-precision (64-bit) IEEE Standard 754

14 Basic Data Types

Using bit values

Xmin SB[Nbits] x minimum position for rect

Xmax SB[Nbits] x maximum position for rect

Ymin SB[Nbits] y minimum position for rect

Ymax SB[Nbits] y maximum position for rect

16 Basic Data Types

Xmin SB[11] = 00001111111 x minimum in twips (127)

Xmax SB[11] = 00100000100 x maximum in twips (260)

Ymin SB[11] = 00000001111 y minimum in twips (15)

Ymax SB[11] = 01000000010 y maximum in twips (514)

StringEnd UI8 Marks end of string; always zero

RGB color record

Green UI8 Green color value

Blue UI8 Blue color value

18 Basic Data Types

Green UI8 Green color value

Blue UI8 Blue color value

Alpha UI8 alpha value defining opacity

ARGB color with alpha record

Red UI8 Red color value