webdings

**aridzone** · 12 January 2007, 04:44 PM

Thanks guys

So it should be ok to use any font in a flash file.

But only webdings in html and I assume PDF

**Soquili** · 12 January 2007, 04:54 PM

For Flash and PDF you can always convert text to editable shapes if there may be an issue or question about fonts on another computer.

**aridzone** · 12 January 2007, 05:05 PM

Hi Bill

Do you have to convert to editabe if it is going to be converted
to a graphics file (.swf) ?

**Soquili** · 12 January 2007, 05:28 PM

I think the flash export may already do that conversion so it you wouldn't need to make the conversion.

**jedfrechette** · 12 January 2007, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by aridzone

But only webdings in html and I assume PDF

Any decent PDF exporter, including Xara's, should provide the option for embedding and or subsetting fonts when creating a PDF.

If you are unsure if this is happening open your PDF in Acrobat Reader and go to File>Document Properties. Look under the fonts tab to see if the fonts are embedded or not. Another useful Acrobat tip is to turn off "Use local fonts" in the Document menu. That way you will see the same thing that someone who doesn't have your fonts installed will see.

That should help prevent most of the basic font snafus. However, if you are really worried about reliable output you should probably limit yourself to high quality fonts, which ussually means whipping out the checkbook.

**amoore** · 12 January 2007, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by Soquili

I compared the list of Windows XP fonts from the link in Anders' post to a fresh install direct from the factory and all the fonts are on the machine.

Ok, it may be an OEM issue, and as I said before, it may be a language/region option issue. The Thai and Hebrew fonts, for example, are not and have never been on any of my Velocity machines. And I just checked with our net admin who never fools with his Windows/Fonts folder, and those fonts aren't there either.

My assistant Mike did find another Fonts page on Microsoft's site with a list of fonts distributed with XP SP2 (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/....aspx?PID=145). It includes the foreign language fonts such as Angsana and David with a note at the bottom saying that the fonts may vary according to options you select. Two of my Velocity machines have never had anything but SP2 on them, and yet the fonts aren't there.

Mike also found this page http://www.ascendercorp.com/mscorefonts.html, which purports to be from the horse's mouth, as it were.

Ascender Corp says that it develops and licenses MS's fonts. It identifies the core fonts as those that shipped with IE6.

**Anders 205** · 12 January 2007, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by aridzone

So it should be ok to use any font in a flash file.

Yes, you are home free when saving/exporting your project, or separate content of your project, to .swf -- including webdings, wingdings, or any character set. Your distribution will be cross-browser optimized. (Off topic: If not using javascript solution for embedding your Flash elements [Adobe new vocabulary: SWFObject] in HTML, IE6+ end-users are exposed to the "grey box of death" and asked to "Click to activate and use this control".)

There are (more time consuming) ways to be able to render web fonts, complete character set or selected characters, not installed on the client side. The Windows Web Embedding Fonts Tool (WEFT) transforms fonts to Embedded OpenType, file ending .eot, and WebFont Maker and HexWeb Typograph (both Windows and Mac) to TrueDoc embedded fonts, file ending .pfr, to be rendered in any set font-size in an HTML page.

Cheers, Anders

**Egg Bramhill** · 13 January 2007, 03:46 AM

This is a test. As far as I am aware Fonts in flash files aren't embeded, but depend on the viewers system having that font. To actually embed the font you need to choose that option and this then draws up a vector type copy of all the fonts so they can be seen as intended.

I attach 2 swf files. One has no embeding, the second one has the fonts embeded. I won't be able to see any difference of course, but can anyone else?

EDIT: 1 thing I can see is that the top text is far larger than the embeded text at the bottom. They are both exactly the same size in Flash. I'll do a screen grab.

Can someone else do a screen grab if they see the swf's differently.

**gwpriester** · 13 January 2007, 02:43 PM

Bouton and Geotype are symbol fonts created by Gary David Bouton (a big Xara fan and Photoshop and 3D applications expert) and are not in wide use.

To be safe, if you are using these fonts, or webdings in a file to be exported in EPS or PDF with fonts embedded, convert the fonts to editable shapes first. Then they become vector objects and not fonts and will not cause a problem if the user at the other end does not have these particular fonts installed.

Gary