The FLM file extension is primarily associated with the Adobe Creative Suite. It was initially introduced with Adobe Premiere, a timeline-based program which serves as the video editing component of the suite. The first version was released in 1991 with over 10 iterations following until version 7 when Adobe rewrote the source code of the entire program and changed its name to Adobe Premiere Pro.

FLM (Filmstrip) files are graphic files that contain multiple images of the same dimension which form an animation sequence. Each frame of the sequence contains an uncompressed true-color 32-bit image and an additional fixed sized area also called the "leading area".

The default Adobe Premiere leading area is a 16 pixels, grey bar that displays the frame number and a time code. This makes finding frames and reading them very easy but also makes FLM files larger.