webdings

**aridzone** · 13 January 2007, 07:03 PM

Using webdings as buttons?
Still don't know if this is safe!

**Anders 205** · 13 January 2007, 09:35 PM

Safe and sound! Both. Drag your Webdings font out of your Win Fonts folder and drop it temporarily in any other folder on your HD. Close open windows and go back to your post (above) and see the result for yourself with Webdings uninstalled. When done re-install your Webdings into your Win Fonts folder from the folder where you temporarily had it saved.

Cheers, Anders

**amoore** · 15 January 2007, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

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.

In SWiSHmax and Xtreme Pro both, the fonts are embedded in some way. SWiSH gives you the option of exporting text as text or shapes. I've never used the shapes option since I've never noticed a problem with non-standard fonts. If the attached example from Xtreme Pro displays on other people's machines the way it does on mine, then there's no issue in XPro either.

The difference between text and shapes in SWiSH has to do with editability. If you import a swf with 'text' into SWiSH, you can edit the text. You will lose the font assignment if the font is not present on your machine. OTOH, as long as you're merely viewing the swf in your browser or a player, the font is retained.

For the attached example, I used a highly ornate font that's not likely to be on anyone else's machine. BTW, when I import this XPro swf into SWiSH, the text is still a text object.

**aridzone** · 15 January 2007, 04:17 PM

Hi Amoore

Looks fine to me.

Thanks guys
I'm not going to worry about it anymore!

**Egg Bramhill** · 16 January 2007, 12:05 AM

Amoore, here's the Flash8 help file content:

Embedding fonts

When you embed fonts, Flash stores all of the font information in the SWF file so the font is displayed properly even if it's not installed on the user's computer. If you use a font in your FLA file that isn't installed on a user's system, and you don't embed the font in the SWF file, Flash Player automatically selects a substitute font to use instead.

This is the point I'm trying to make. Unless you convert your font to shapes you can't rely on the viewer having that font on their system and a substitute will be used.

In your example above it appears that you used "Flemish Script BT" (I saved the swf and imported into Flash8.) I don't have "Flemish Script BT" on my system so I assume the swf player selected an alternative font.

I attach a screen grab. It uses a script font but I don't know how close it resembles your font. Perhaps you could attach a screen grab of the swf on your system.

**Egg Bramhill** · 16 January 2007, 02:55 AM

Ah! I've finally found something that makes sense. If it's a static text field then the font is embeded. If it's a dynamic or input text field it's not unless specifically embeded. See HERE

After doing the above post (#25) I did a search on Flemish Script BT and found that it was exactly as it rendered on my machine. This seemed to fly in the face of the help file above. I tend to use a predominance of Dynamic text feilds and have gotten into the habit of automatically using Embed, as I have seen some of my early sites not render as required/expected.

It also goes to explain that when I import the above swf into Flash I get the screen grab below, but I can still select the text and it tells me it's Flemish Script MT.

So the short answer is as amoore (Andy?) states in his post, any font entered into XXPro will be rendered as it appears on the creators computer regardless of whether the visitor has that font, as XXPro can only handle Static fonts.

**Anders 205** · 16 January 2007, 08:33 AM

XXP, Swish, and Flash auto-magically embed the static text font for you when exporting to .swf. They don't embed the entire font with all the characters by default, that would take up far too much space and movieclip load. Only glyphs of the characters used in the static textfield will be embedded. The Flash/SWF system for embedding fonts in static text is 'foolproof' and the text viewable, as intended, by end users without having the font installed on their computer.

Static vs dynamic textfields in .swf

Anders

**Egg Bramhill** · 16 January 2007, 01:27 PM

Thanks for the link Anders. I use dynamic text fields most of the time and had completely forgotten about this static text feature.

**amoore** · 16 January 2007, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

If it's a static text field then the font is embeded. If it's a dynamic or input text field it's not unless specifically embeded.

Sounds reasonable. I've never needed dynamic or input text in a flash file, so I've never needed to think about embedding fonts.

...I did a search on Flemish Script BT and found that it was exactly as it rendered on my machine...It also goes to explain that when I import the above swf into Flash I get the screen grab below, but I can still select the text and it tells me it's Flemish Script MT.

Exactly. That's my experience in using SWiSH.

...as amoore (Andy?) states in his post...

"...as Allison states in her post..."