Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Editing Bitmaps

Depending on the graphics file format you import into Flash, you may be able to edit the image using Flash's tools, or you may not. If Flash recognizes the image as a vector image, with distinct strokes and fills, you're good to go. Just open the Tools panel, choose a selection, drawing, or painting tool, and then get to work.

But if the image comes through as a bitmap, you need to do a bit of finagling, because Flash treats bitmaps as big blobs of undifferentiated pixels. (See the box on Vector vs. Bitmap Images for more details.)

With bitmaps, Flash's selection tools don't work as you might expect. Say, for instance, you import a scanned-in photo of the Seattle skyline. Flash treats the entire photo as a single entity. When you click the Space Needle, Flash selects the entire scanned-in image. When you try to use the Lasso tool to select the half of the image that contains Mount Rainier, Flash selects the entire image. When you try to repaint the sky a lighter shade of gray, Flash paints around or behind the imported bitmap, but not the sky.

Fortunately, Flash gives you a few options when it comes to working with bitmaps: You can break them apart, you can turn them into vector graphics, or you can turn them into symbols. The following sections describe each option.

Turning bitmaps into fills

Turning bitmaps into fills

Breaking apart a bitmap image transforms the image from a homogenous group of pixels into an editable fill. You still can't click the Space Needle and ...