About Unicode Text Encoding In Flash Applications; About Font Outlines And Device Fonts - MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING FLASH Use Manual

About Unicode text encoding in Flash applications

Macromedia Flash Player 7 supports Unicode text encoding for SWF files in Macromedia Flash
Player 7 format. This support greatly enhances your ability to use multilingual text in SWF files
that you create with Flash, including multiple languages within a single text field. Any user with
Macromedia Flash Player 7 can view multilanguage text in a Macromedia Flash Player 7
application, regardless of the language used by the operating system running the player.
For information on Unicode support in Macromedia Flash, see
Multilanguage Text," on page

About font outlines and device fonts

When you publish or export a Flash application containing static text, Flash creates outlines of
the text and uses the outlines to display the text in Flash Player.
When you publish or export a Flash application containing dynamic or input text fields, Flash
stores the names of the fonts used in creating the text. Flash Player uses the font names to locate
identical or similar fonts on the user's system when the Flash application is displayed. You can also
export font outlines with dynamic or input text by clicking the Character option in the Property
inspector and selecting options. See
Not all fonts displayed in Flash can be exported as outlines with a Flash application. To verify that
a font can be exported, you can use the View > Preview Mode > Antialias Text command to
preview the text; jagged type indicates that Flash does not recognize that font's outline and will
not export the text.
About using device fonts
For static horizontal text only, you can use special fonts in Flash called device fonts as an alternative
to exporting font outline information. Device fonts are not embedded in the Flash SWF file.
Instead, Flash Player uses whatever font on the local computer most closely resembles the device
font. Because device font information is not embedded, using device fonts results in a somewhat
smaller SWF file. In addition, device fonts can be sharper and more legible than exported font
outlines at small point sizes (below 10 points). However, because device fonts are not embedded,
text may look different than expected in user systems that do not have an installed font
corresponding to the device font.
Flash includes three device fonts, named _sans (similar to Helvetica or Arial), _serif (similar to
Times Roman), and _typewriter (similar to Courier). To specify a font as a device font, you select
one of the Flash device fonts in the Property inspector. During SWF file playback, Flash selects
the first device font that is located on the user's system. See
on page 114.
About masking device fonts
You can use a movie clip to mask text that is set in a device font and converted into a movie clip.
For a movie clip mask on a device font to function, the user must have Flash Player 6 (6.0.40.0)
or later.
235.
"Setting dynamic and input text options" on page
Chapter 13, "Creating
"Making text selectable by users"

About font outlines and device fonts

115.
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