Adobe FLASH CS3 PRO User Manual page 268

Device fonts
For static horizontal text, use device fonts as an alternative to embedding font outline information. Flash includes
three device fonts, _sans (similar to Helvetica or Arial), _serif (similar to Times Roman), and _typewriter (similar
to Courier). When you specify one of these fonts and then export the document, Flash Player uses the font on the
user's computer that most closely resembles the device font.
Because device fonts are not embedded, they result in a smaller SWF file. They can also result in more legible text at
small point sizes (below 10 points). However, if a user's computer does not have an installed font corresponding to
the device font, text may look different than expected.
See also
"Create and edit text fields" on page 265
"Use device fonts" on page 274
Masking device fonts
You can use a movie clip to mask device font text in another movie clip. (You cannot mask device fonts by using a
mask layer on the Stage.) For this movie clip mask to function, the user must have Macromedia Flash Player 6
(6.0.40.0) from Adobe or later.
When you use a movie clip to mask device font text, Flash uses the rectangular bounding box of the mask as the
masking shape. That is, if you create a nonrectangular movie clip mask for device font text in the Flash authoring
environment, the mask that appears in the SWF file takes the shape of the rectangular bounding box of the mask,
not the shape of the mask itself.
For more information on using a movie clip as a mask, see Using movie clips as masks in Learning ActionScript 2.0
in Adobe Flash.
For a sample about device font masking, see the Flash Samples web page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples.
Download and decompress the Samples zip file and navigate to the Masking\DeviceFontMasking folder to access the
sample.
About anti-aliasing text
Anti-aliasing lets you smooth the edges of onscreen text. The anti-aliasing options are particularly effective for
rendering smaller font sizes. When anti-aliasing is enabled, all text in the current selection is affected. Anti-aliasing
operates with text of all point sizes in the same way.
Anti-aliasing is supported for static, dynamic, and input text if the user has Flash Player 7 or later. It is supported
only for static text if the user has an earlier version of Flash Player.
When using small text in a Flash document, keep in mind the following guidelines:
• Sans serif text, such as Helvetica or Arial, appears clearer at small sizes than serif text.
• Some type styles, such as bold and italic, can make text less legible at small sizes.
• In some cases, text appears somewhat smaller than text of the same point size in other applications.
See also
"Work with text anti-aliasing" on page 273
"Font outlines and device fonts" on page 261
FLASH CS3 262
User Guide