How does Flash determine which fonts are displayed in the font menu?

[Stee1962]

Hi all...

I haven't been able to find a decent resource to give me clues as to how Flash determines which fonts are displayed in the font menu, and which ones are variants only accessible through the "bold" or "italics" style buttons.

Also, I've occasionally had trouble accessing new faces added to a pre-existing family on my system. I suspect that there is a conflicting naming convention someplace in these cases, but I have yet to nail down the specific cause.

Anyone?

Thanks!

[FFF]

Under Edit, you'll find PREFERENCES. This is where you can set some of the fonts that you'd like to have in your Flash authoring environment. The menus I believe are part of your operating system defaults, which you can also change using the properties panel (Desktop > Right CLick > Properties).

[Stee1962]

Thanks, FFF...
From what I can tell, the Font Mapping Default preference is just where you set the default font you'd like to replace missing fonts. I don't see how I could select a font set or anything here, although I could be overlooking something.

Although the issue I'm describing is certainly related to my OS, there seems to be a discrepancy between the way, say, Adobe Illustrator recognizes and lists fonts and the way Flash does. Flash seems to be pickier and more idiosyncratic when it comes to deciding whether to list Eurostile Bold, for instance, or hide it from the font menu and display it on the stage only if the "bold style" button is depressed.

Ideally I'd like to find specific technical information on how Flash parses the system font library, what it looks for, and why certain faces in a particular family are listed while others are not. I've been a full-time Flash designer for over 4 years now and I haven't found a comprehensive answer to this one yet.

[FFF]

are you on mac or pc?

[Stee1962]

PC.
I'm running Windows XP as of a few days ago, but most of experience up to now has been on Windows 2000. Not sure if that makes any difference...

[FFF]

Differnet programs will treat fonts differently. It happens for example in Photoshop and Flash. I suggest taking this question directly to Macromedia.

[Stee1962]

Probably a good idea.
Thanks for the feedback, FFF...

SD

[FFF]

No problem. I researched your problem, but the nearest I found was a Mac related issue which is not applicable in your case. Talking to some Macromedia team members in their forum may be the best bet in this case.

[ceglia]

has anyone found an answer to this issue? i'm experiencing the same problem. i need a certain variant of the font FUTURA that is available in Photoshop, but the variant doesn't appear in my font menu in Flash.

anyone know of a workaround? do i need to convert the font to a different format?

thanks.

[marycallahan]

same problem here, I'm on a mac-FFF, what issue did you uncover related to mac. I'm using fontbook also to manage my fonts.

thanks

[ceglia]

I was able to find a solution that worked for me, but may not work in all cases.

The font I needed was Futura Heavy, which appeared in Photoshop but not in Flash. I went to my font folder (in Windows XP) to see whether Futura Heavy was somehow different in format from Futura Medium (which was appearing in Flash). I figured one might be a TrueType font and the other something else and that would explain it. Well, they were identical, both were PostScript Metrics, so that obviously wasn't the issue. Then I double-clicked on Futura Heavy to view the font, and I noticed that the name that appeared at the top of the font preview page was NOT Futura Heavy but Futura Medium, Bold. In other words, all I had to do to get Futura Heavy into Flash was to select Futura Medium and make it bold either through the properties panel or through ActionScript.

Not sure which variant you're looking for, but if it's Heavy or Oblique, your answer may be to just apply bold or italic.

Good luck!

(If anyone else finds any more info on this topic, please let me know!)

[ziggytrix]

Incorrectly installed fonts will display that sort of behavior in OS X.

Like if you copy the font suitcase, but then forget to copy the printer outlines for a PS type 1 font.

Like I did today, and spent most of the day trying to figure out why it wasn't showing up in Flash, but showing up in Photoshop.