Text in the skin editor

Pat Swovelin · Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:26 am

I know you can use basic HTML font attributes with text but is it possible to select the font and size or are we stuck with the default font and size?

Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:59 am

Hi Pat
you can use Scale element in the text box actions page.
Cheers Hopki

erik leeman · Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:54 pm

In this Adobe document on livedocs.adobe.com you can find a lot of info about the use of text in Flash:

http://tinyurl.com/Adobe-Flash-TextFieldinfo

That's where I found out about inserting those external images ; )

The <font> tag specifies a font or list of fonts to display the text.The font tag supports the following attributes:

* color: Only hexadecimal color (#FFFFFF) values are supported.
* face: Specifies the name of the font to use. As shown in the following example, you can specify a list of comma-delimited font names, in which case Flash Player selects the first available font. If the specified font is not installed on the user's computer system or isn't embedded in the SWF file, Flash Player selects a substitute font.
* size: Specifies the size of the font. You can use absolute pixel sizes, such as 16 or 18, or relative point sizes, such as +2 or -4.

Cheers!

Erik

Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:07 pm

Here’s a thread I started some time back which answered my questions on the subject.
Click Here.

Pat Swovelin · Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:51 pm

Thanks for the links, guys.

For some reason (I swear it was the dog's fault) I thought that the text was converted to graphics when the SWF is generated vs. it being live text and using a font on the user's machine. The point being that we can't use fancy fonts (for a header or whatever), rather we need to use the same font conventions that we already use for HTML (i.e., the pages will use whatever font(s) is installed on the user's system so you need to stipulate a range of fonts).

"If the specified font is not installed on the user's computer system or isn't embedded in the SWF file, Flash Player selects a substitute font." Is there a way to embed fonts in the SWF other than turning them into a graphic image and using that instead? Even if you can embed them it seems like it's probably a better idea to use a graphic image. Yes/no/maybe?

Although having said that it's probably not really important. I just wondered if it is possible to select fonts, I don't have a specific use for that capability at the moment.

Of course I will as soon as I send this...__ =8^)

erik leeman · Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:08 pm

I guess the choice between using a graphic with fancy lettering or embedding a font (if we can find out how to do that) depends on the resulting filesize and desired flexibility. Fonts are infinitely scalable, so a really really LARGE text takes just as many bytes as a small one. And if we want (and manage) to load our texts dynamically from external sources then fonts are the only option too, embedded or not. I imagine it should be possible then to not only feed the actual text, but also its colour, size, etc. 'from the outside' into placeholders.
.... oh well, we can dream about it can't we?

; )

Erik

Pat Swovelin · Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:58 am

So I probably shouldn't hold my breath about it happening anytime soon...

Dang.

Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:50 pm

Embedding a font is technically not too hard (I hope) but raises a bigger problem for me with copyright because for most fonts you don't have the right to redistribute them (even those included with Windows as far as I know) so I need to find a way where the user can create the font and pack it in the SWF so that I don't have to bother directly with the rights issue.
I keep this problem on my to do and maybe I can find a good solution with Pano2VR 2.3.

smooth · Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:27 pm

As a matter of interest and the fact it uses Javascript. You might find Coffee Cup Website Font software worth a look.

Regards, Smooth

Pat Swovelin · Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:07 am

I've seen that before, thanks for the reminder.

"Embedding a font is technically not too hard (I hope) but raises a bigger problem for me with copyright because for most fonts you don't have the right to redistribute them (even those included with Windows as far as I know) so I need to find a way where the user can create the font and pack it in the SWF so that I don't have to bother directly with the rights issue."

Can they be converted to graphics in the same way you convert text to outlines in AI or shapes in PS? Then the font(s) isn't being distributed only a facsimile of it is.

"I keep this problem on my to do and maybe I can find a good solution with Pano2VR 2.3."

Thanks. I'm sure a lot of people would use a feature like that.

Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:52 pm

smooth wrote:As a matter of interest and the fact it uses Javascript. You might find Coffee Cup Website Font software worth a look.

Regards, Smooth

Wow, this is great! Didn't know that something like that exists. I will have a look when the time comes.

geo · Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:45 am

Well... Flash allows you to embed fonts into your SWF. (They aren't really accessible outside of the SWF, so they really aren't being "distributed" in different manners that others can use.) And since Adobe is a foundry of sorts, they obviously don't have an issue with having their fonts distributed contained in SWFs.

[There is a copy protect bit that does preclude some fonts, but those are in the minority. And not sure if Flash respects it like Acrobat does.]

However, as a workaround, will a container SWF that has the face in question embedded, allow a child SWF access to the face? Guess I'll have to try it...