User Guide

162 Display Programming
Core display classes
The ActionScript 3.0 flash.display package includes classes for visual objects that can appear
in Flash Player. The following illustration shows the subclass relationships of these core
display object classes.
The illustration shows the class inheritance of display object classes. Note that some of these
classes, specifically StaticText, TextField, and Video, are not in the flash.display package, but
they still inherit from the DisplayObject class.
All classes that extend the DisplayObject class inherit its methods and properties. For more
information, see “Properties and methods of the DisplayObject class” on page 167.
You can instantiate objects of the following classes contained in the flash.display package:
■ Bitmap—You use the Bitmap class to define bitmap objects, either loaded from external
files or rendered through ActionScript. You can load bitmaps from external files through
the Loader class. You can load GIF, JPG, or PNG files. You can also create a BitmapData
object with custom data and then create a Bitmap object that uses that data. You can use
the methods of the BitmapData class to alter bitmaps, whether they are loaded or created
in ActionScript. For more information, see “The Loader class” on page 179 and “Creating
and manipulating bitmaps” on page 184.
■ Loader—You use the Loader class to load external assets (either SWF files or graphics).
For more information, see “Loading content dynamically” on page 179.
■ Shape—You use the Shape class to create vector graphics, such as rectangles, lines, circles,
and so on. For more information, see “Drawing vector graphics” on page 176.
■ SimpleButton—A SimpleButton object has three button states: up, down, and over. For
more information, see “Working with SimpleButton objects” on page 184.
MorphShapeAVM1Movie Shape StaticText
DisplayObjectContainer
TextField
Bitmap InteractiveObject
SimpleButton
StageLoader
MovieClip
Sprite