website visitor's font

AveSatani_666's picture

He has: 21 posts

Joined: Aug 2007

hi guys, i have a question is there a way or a script or software that you can use on your website so that your own font can be readable from the visitor's pc or browser, even if they do not have the font you use on your website... so that the design you've made will stay the same on any visitors browser or pc?

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

I think Microsoft played with a technology that allowed you to embed fonts within a webpage, but it's only compatible with Internet Explorer and even then it's pretty flaky. Best thing to do is use CSS to specify that as the primary font and then fall back to more common fonts if they don't.

No-one bothers embedding fonts anymore, it's just not practical.

Andy

Roo's picture

She has: 840 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

Yes I played with that once and IE popped up a warning window about it. I figured that it would freak people out so I didn't do it.

That said...I do seem to recall reading something about doing this (with css???) at ALA or from Zeldman's site or something.

I can't recall the details but maybe a search of those sites might help.

Roo

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

You can do it with Flash. I've seen it done. The technique is called sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement).

Find out about it here: http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/

For a small amount of text - headings and such, you can also just make them as images and use CSS to replace plain text with a background image.

In both cases, the techniques are only good for smaller amounts of text. Not for whole paragraphs or articles. Use them for headings or other small bits only. Other text needs to be done in regular HTML. As Andy said, there is no reason why you can't specify a lot of fonts in your CSS. Check out the CSS on Joe Clark's site as an example - he uses long chains of fonts with some unusual choices.

AveSatani_666's picture

He has: 21 posts

Joined: Aug 2007

thanks meg, im gonna try that asap...

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.