Flash Paper
Posted on February 16, 2006 | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks
I was having a conversation with a colleague the other day and mentioned Macromedia Flash Paper. My colleague stared at me blankly. I asked another colleague if he's ever heard of Flash Paper. Another blank stare.
So what exactly is Flash Paper and why has no one ever heard of it? In a nutshell, Flash Paper was designed to compete with Adobe PDF as a universal document format. It uses the regular Flash player, which currently has an adoption rate higher than 97%. They're small, fast-loading, easily printable and open directly in the browser. They're also compatible with assistive technologies like JAWS and Window Eyes for users with vision impairments.
To demonstrate what Flash Paper looks like, I've converted the Website Launch Checklist from my previous blog post. Check it out..
Website Launch Checklist 
- 63K
So if this is so great, why has no one ever heard of it? Mostly, it's because Flash Paper only comes bundled with Macromedia Contribute which so far not that many people use.
What's to become of Flash Paper now that Adobe has acquired Macromedia? It's hard to be sure but for now, if you need a great alternative to putting PDFs on your site, consider using Flash Paper.
I have heard of flash paper but wasn't exactly sure what it did. I now know what it is all about and hope to use it sometime. Another great article for codescene.