Flash 101 (Part 4): Don't Touch Me! - High Fidelity (
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There is an important point to be noted here,
related to your usage of fonts within your Flash movie. Typically, the fonts
that you use are embedded within the Flash movie, so that they appear correctly
in the user’s browser; this adds to the file size of the final .SWF file, but
ensures maximum fidelity when the movie is played back.
The alternative
here is to use Flash’s in-built "device fonts", generic fonts in the "sans",
"sans-serif" and "monospace" font families. These fonts are named _sans,
_sans-serif and _typewriter in the font selection box of the Character panel,
and using them can substantially reduce the size of your Flash file. The
downside: since these fonts are not embedded within the file, the Flash player
will "approximate" to the most similar font found on the user’s system, and
display text in that font. Obviously, this means a loss in fidelity, since text
in the final Flash movie may look completely different from the
original.
To use device fonts, check the "Use Device Fonts" option in the
Text Options tab of the Character panel. You’ll also see a check box below that
marked "Selectable" – check this if you’d like the user to be able to select the
text as it appears in the final Flash movie.
Finally, you can link text
blocks to Web site URLs – simply enter a URL into the URL field on the main
Character panel. Here’s an example: