- New Drawing Tools
- Importing Adobe Illustrator AI Files
- Importing Encapsulated PostScript EPS Files
- Importing Adobe Acrobat PDF Files
- Importing PhotoShop PSD Files
- Timeline Effects
- Leveraging Flash MX 2004 Extensions
- Summary
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Importing Encapsulated PostScript EPS Files
As you might expect, importing an EPS file is almost exactly the same as importing an Illustrator file. The similarities come into play largely because both formats are Vector illustration formats. The technical roots for both formats lie with the same company.
You import an EPS file in exactly the same way as you import an Illustrator file. Select File --> Import--> Import to Stage, and the Windows Explorer dialog window opens. Choose All PostScript Formats and locate an EPS file to import. You can download the flower.EPS file here.
The difference between the Illustrator and EPS files now becomes apparent when you import the files. A new Import Options dialog box appears (see Figure 3).
)
Figure
3 EPS files have more features that can be modified during the import
process.
Notice that there are four regions that can be modified: Convert pages to, Convert layers to, Which pages to import, and Options.
The first option, Convert pages to, asks if you want to import each page in an EPS file (EPS files can have multiple pages like a PDF file) to a new scene or a new Keyframe. I recommend that you choose Keyframe because you can mistakenly end up with a lot of scenes if your EPS files are comprised of a lot of pages. Scenes can be confusing to manage in Flash, whereas it is a lot easier to manage Keyframes.
The Convert layers to option window is exactly the same as the Illustrator Import options.
Because an EPS file can have two or more pages in its file format, in Flash you can select which pages you want to import with the Which pages to import option.
Finally, the Options section allows you to separate text blocks and invisible layers, and gives you the option to convert any Vector graphics to Raster bitmap graphics.
Overall, you will find the EPS Import options very useful for older files you have on your computer when EPS was a prevalent file format.