Topic: About embedded fonts

Same site as the Netscape issue (still waiting on host tech support for a response for that one), different issue and different question.

The lawyers for whom this site is being built are insisting on a specific, non-common font (RotisSansSerif) for use on the text-links on the site -- and they want it on *all* browsers, not just MSIE. After hearing my explanations about why this is not possible, I've been ordered to "simply create graphics for each text link". After hearing my arguments & pleading about how that would make the site end up on "Web sites that suck" (among other issues), the designer for the site (the one who came up with the overall look & appearance of the thing) said that she's "never had this much trouble about fonts before" from previous folks she's worked with, and that she's always used uncommon fonts & never had an issue. At that point, I told her that I wanted to know what those programmers' secret was, because there's no such way to do it cross-browser that I've ever been able to find in any book or Web resource.

Aside from the obvious use of GIF/JPGs, *is* there any way to use uncommon fonts on a Website & have cross-browser support? I know about Flash, but the site in question doesn't have anything on it that needs or deserves Flash. Will Dreamweaver or Fireworks allow that?

ZenFrodo: Both NS and IE toyed with the idea of embedding fonts into web pages but it all pretty much faded away a few years ago.

I suspect the trick is to tell them they'll have their font, set up a stylesheet with the font in (as well as lots of laternatives) and then show them the site on their computer.

Other than cheating or using inappropriate technology I'm not sure what the solution is - it depends on what you mean by text links. Do you mean text menu links or all the links in a page?

You might want to have a look at this as it is along similarish lines:
http://development.gurusnetwork.com/discussion/thread/2185/

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Emperor --

If I could be sure the lawyers had the font on their computer system, that would've been the route I took. I know about the Microsoft/Netscape thing, and I am working with MS's WEFT to embed the fonts on the page for MSIE/Windows folks. However (according to the designer), the lawyers are insisting that the font be available to Netscape & Mac folks as well, no matter that that's only 6% of the web. No amount of reasoning on my part has altered that, though I strongly suspect it's the designer that's doing the insisting, not the lawyers.

The links are text menu links (http://www.cpmlaw.com/test/cpmgray/index.html to see what I mean). The links are the ones in the side bar, along the bottom bar, and the "Site Map" link.

However, I think I'm stuck doing the GIFs, unless someone can point me to a really good cogent thorough link to an article explaining *why* using a GIF for simple text links should not be done. The reasons I'm giving them aren't getting through.

Maybe they'd be happier with a PDF instead of a website...

would it be possible to do a browser detection, and embed the fonts whichever way is needed for that browser?

Nathius --

That brings us back to the original question -- what technology embeds fonts for Netscape & Mac systems? Detecting the browser is okay, but if I can't tell the browser in question to display the RotisSansSerif font and have it actually display that font no matter what a user has installed on his/her system, there's no point to it.

There used to be something called TrueDoc for Netscape, but they're gone. I don't think even the latest Netscape versions support it. I know the Mac versions don't.