Embedding Fonts ?

[Richmond Mathewson]

Cross platform FONT COMPATIBILITY ?

Fonts are a bit of a pain as we have almost no way of
knowing what fonts a potential end-user has on their
PC. This is especially true when we have to consider
non-Latin fonts.

As MS Windows, Macintosh and Ubuntu-Linux can all cope
with True-Type fonts I wonder if there is a way that
fonts can be EMBEDDED in stacks (rather like the way
they can be embedded in PDF documents) so that they
can "travel" with a stack and/or standalone either
from computer-to-computer or cross-platform.

My recent experience in this respect is rather limited
as it consists of taking stacks authored on one of my
Macs downstairs to the Ubuntu Pentiums in the school
and finding:

1. (Obviously) the fonts on the Ubuntu boxes are not
the same as on the Macs. Now, in my case, I could
simply transfer the TTFs I need across from a Mac to
the PCs; however as most of them are proprietary that
could, at least, be legally problematic. I am unaware
of legal problems associated with embedding fonts as
they are unavailable for end-users to use elsewhere
than in the artifact they are embedded in.

2. The textSize defaults.

This means that on every Ubuntu machine I have to
spend quite some time resetting all the buttons
(actually this has so annoyed me that I set my buttons
up on the Mac and take screenshots, erase the buttons
and replace them with images derived from the
screenshots; another time-consuming exercise that is
both boring and fiddly) and the text fields.

That is all very fine as far as it goes, but would be
a right •*€@><# if it involved 50 machines or
end-users outwith my control.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson

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A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development Life Cycle.
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