Home > Articles > Design > Adobe Creative Suite

Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

␡

⎙ Print

< Back Page 27 of 398 Next >

In the first part of this Working with Text series, you looked at how to add Static text to the Stage. In that section, I extolled the virtues of using text in Flash—you don’t have to embed your fonts when using Static text. Input and Dynamic text, as well as text created with ActionScript, are entirely different matters.

By their nature, Input, Dynamic, and ActionScript text fields can have their text values updated dynamically or on the fly. If you don’t embed your text, which requires adding the individual characters of a font, your text will not look as you intend it to look. For example, you may select a font, such as the one below, that looks cool:

Figure 1

The font above is called "Bradley Hand." By default, Static text embeds the font outlines of this text so that it looks the same in your Web browser. Dynamic and Input text do not. If the user does not have the Bradley Hand font on his computer, the text will look like this:

Figure 2

The font here is _Sans, a default font installed with the Flash Player. As you can see, the effect is very different.

Embedding Fonts

To ensure that text looks exactly the same every time it’s viewed, you need to embed the font within your Flash movie. The process is similar to working with PowerPoint or Quark where you embed font outlines into the main file to preserve the design’s layout.

Embedding a font does add size to the final Flash movie. It’s easy to add 200Kb of additional file size just by adding one or two embedded fonts to a movie. The font embedding tools in Flash are customized to help you manage how much of a font you want to embed. This reduces the overall file size of the final exported SWF file.

Font embedding is managed in the Properties Inspector for any Dynamic or Input text. In the following image, I’ve selected a Dynamic text block from the Stage and highlighted the Properties for it. You’ll see a button on the right side labeled "Embed..."

Figure 3

Selecting the Embed... button opens the Character Embedding window:

Figure 4

Each font is composed of many different parts, called glyphs. There is one glyph for each keystroke on the keyboard. For instance, there is a glyph that represents the number "1" and another glyph that represents the lower case "a." Fortunately, you can decide how many glyphs per font are embedded, giving you greater control over your movie’s final file size.

The Character Embedding Window

The first thing you need to do is choose which character sets you want to embed in your Flash movie from the Character Embedding window. You’ll notice that each character set also displays (in parenthesis next to the character set name) how many glyphs are embedded as part of the set. Each glyph adds file size to the final movie, so it’s worthwhile to ask yourself if you need all the glyphs for a particular font. The answer may seem obvious: "Yes, I want them all." In reality, you probably don’t.

The most basic fonts contain only the characters on the keyboard. Even so, the characters on your keyboard include all of the letters (both upper case and lower case), numbers, and special characters such as @, $ and *. Some fonts contain even more glyphs to support large character-based languages such as Traditional Chinese and Japanese Kanji.

You have a broad range of options—make your selection carefully. The first option in the Character Embedding window is "All." This option will select all of the glyphs for a font and embed them into the Flash movie. The number of glyphs will vary slightly from font to font, but here you can see that the number is 39,477. That’s a lot of glyphs. Do you need all of these glyphs?

If, for example, the Dynamic text field you’re working with will use only numbers, you’d be better off to select "Numerals," which is the fourth option in the Character Embedding window. The difference in final file size is striking. When selecting all of the glyphs for the Bradley Hand font, for example, the final file comes to 250kb. When selecting just the Numerals, the final size of the SWF file is 8kb.

AutoFill

You can also embed your fonts using the AutoFill option. The AutoFill option is a blank field where you can type in the characters you want added to the final Flash movie. For instance, here you can see that I’ve listed some numbers and letters. Only these characters with their corresponding glyphs will be embedded in the Flash movie:

Figure 5

As I type in the characters that I want to embed, the number of glyphs that will also be embedded appears in the dialog just below it. In this example, the total is 19.

Don’t Embed

Your choices don’t have to be final. If you accidentally embed the wrong glyphs from the wrong font, you can click the button labeled "Don't Embed" and all embedded characters will be removed.

Summary

Font embedding is essential for Dynamic and Input text, as well as text created with ActionScript, if the font you’re using is key to your design. By default, the font will not embed itself—you need to do this through the Embed option on the Property Inspector.

< Back Page 27 of 398 Next >

🔖 Save To Your Account

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Privacy Notice

Overview

Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information

To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information

Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security

Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children

This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing

Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out

Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information

Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents

California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure

Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

As required by law.
With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact

Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020

Email Address