The file format SWF (originally standing for "Shockwave Flash", later changed to "Small Web Format" by Macromedia when the company chose to have the phrase "Shockwave" only refer to Director, pronounced swiff or "swoof") a partially open repository for multimedia and especially for vector graphics, originated with FutureWave Software and has come under the control of Adobe. Intended to be small enough for publication on the web, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.

SWF currently functions as the dominant format for displaying "animated" vector graphics on the Web, far exceeding the use of the W3C open-standard SVG, which has met with problems over competing implementations.

SWF files can be generated from within several Adobe products: Flash, Flex Builder (an IDE), as well as through MXMLC, a command line application compiler which is part of the freely available Flex SDK. Other than Adobe products, SWFs can be built with open source Motion-Twin ActionScript 2 Compiler (MTASC) and the proprietary SWiSH Max2.