There are very good reasons why limiting the use of Flash is important:

1. Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to search engines

Most Internet navigators begin a web session with a search engine. Information hidden in graphics formats, such as Flash, is difficult, if not impossible, to find and process. While search engines such as Google try their best to extract links and textual content buried in Flash objects, the process is far from perfect. Sites constructed completely in Flash often offer very little textual information – consequently what information a search engine does find ranks poorly. Even sites partially constructed using Flash often “hide” their internal site links using Flash based site navigation.

2. Website reporting on Flash navigation is problematic and cumbersome

Web analytics systems help marketing professionals evaluate website visitor behavior in and around a website, providing actionable information valuable in improving a website’s business performance.

Web analytics tagging is often an after thought. Flash Action Script coding adds extra implementation cost and complexity. Flash designer(s) are often unfamiliar with web analytics requirements and thus don’t consider Flash events tagging requirements during site design. Implemented tag verification is a tedious process as it requires waiting for data to appear in the reporting system – hours or days later. Flash does not provide referrer information, making it very difficult to track navigation paths.

Check out ProjectCenter’s services at www.makepapereasy.com.

Flash is a wonderful tool to make a website more attractive, but clients need to be aware that there is a cost associated to such a feature. Flash is an animated component that is usually used as intro to a website, but can be implemented within web pages as well. Here is an example of a website with Flash: http://www.cavancommercial.com/.

It is hard to say how much more Flash can cost, but it can add anywhere from 10% to 30%, depending on how much is being created.

Check out ProjectCenter’s website at www.makepapereasy.com.

If you are new to Design and the print industry, you may already know how frustrating it is to find the right software to keep up with the industry standards and know what each program is designed for since definitions tend to be very vague.

Adobe has long been the industry standard and become synonymous with print. While there are many programs available that offer similar features, sticking with Adobe products will ensure consistency with most print shops. That being said, knowing the differences between the programs and what they are designed for can save a lot of wasted time in preparing artwork. Below is a list of the 3 most commonly used Adobe programs as well as a brief description of each.

Adobe Illustrator:
Adobe Illustrator is a vector based program meaning it is designed to create line art graphics and drawings. It is great for creating logos, graphs, and intricate artwork with higher precision and execution than other programs. As long as the artwork was created in Illustrator (as opposed to being imported) it can be reduced/enlarged to any size without quality loss and the file will remain small. While it has some of the features that other programs have, it does not support them as well . For instance, it has effects and filters but they are much harder to manage and tend to make the file much larger than necessary. It also has type features but doesn’t support multiple pages so it is more complicated to create layouts.

Adobe Photoshop:
Adobe Photoshop is a raster based program. It is designed to apply effects and filters to existing artwork and photography. It is a very powerful program for creating realistic textures, artwork and effects and is equally as good for creating web graphics. Like Illustrator, it combines some of the features that the other programs have, but also like Illustrator, it does not support them as well. In order to achieve the quality and resolution of a vector image, the file could end up being 20x the size of a vector file, so it essential to know what the file will be used for before creating (ie; print or web). Once it has been created at a certain size, it cannot be enlarged without the quality suffering. It also does not support multiple page documents, simply because of the file size constraints.

Adobe InDesign:
Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing program which basically compiles and links artwork, graphics and text into one file. It is designed to layout single and multiple page documents for print. It has a preflight feature which diagnoses any issues you might have before sending to a printer. It also has a collect for output feature which collect all linked artwork and photos along with the file itself and fonts used into one folder. It supports style sheets, rules, page numbering, etc. As with the others, it has several outside features but does not support them as well.

In a nutshell, each program has similar features to the other programs, but is individually designed with one core function that works in tandem with the other programs. If used to their full potential, they will compliment each other rather than compete.

Check out ProjectCenter’s website at www.makepapereasy.com