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Embedded Pixel Fonts in Flash on OS X

Categories: Flash, Web Development

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Recently, while building my new version of my flash web-site I had a problem with a free pixel font i downloaded from Orgdot. Here were the symptoms of my problem:

  • If I embedded the pixel font it would blur when used with a dynamic text field.
  • The same pixel font would not blur if in a static text field.
  • The pixel font would not blur in a dynamic text field that used system (A.K.A. device) fonts.
  • Flash did not give me any errors when embedding the font.
  • The windows version of the same font caused the Flash IDE to hang when it embedded the font (IE when the movie was published)
  • I was following standard pixel font guidelines, sizes in multiples of 8, integer coordinates, 100% _xscale & _yscale.

After wasting a bunch of time I concluded that it MUST be a problem with the font encoding/type. I downloaded the trail for Trans Type and converted the font (previously a postscript font) to a windows true type font. I installed the font, rebooted flash, and it worked. The question that went through my mind was “Why didn’t the windows version of the font work in the first place?” I’m not sure, but Trans Type generated a different size windows true type font than the windows font that you can download from orgdot. My trial is almost out for the Trans Type, I wonder if there is a open source tool to accomplish this incredibly simple task?