link to Unicode font ?

[grunt]

I've gone thru' lots of the post here and learned that Unicode fonts cannot be embedded in Flash movies. Can someone please tell me :

1. why this is (is it a size issue only)?
2. if this is likely to change?
3. if it is possible to link (Export for Runtime Sharing) to a Unicode font?

I am asking becasue I am developing a cartoon site and would like to implement as many language texts as possible to reach a wide audience. This unicode stuff is wonderful but I don't quite have my head around it.

Thanks all

[Frets]

Unicode fonts CAN be embedded into swf's

When you embed the font you are embedding the shapes
of the font. ergo it shouldn't matter what operating
system a visitor is using.

Embedding is not the same as using Device fonts
which a visitor must have stored in order to view the content.

So long as you have an operating system that supports
them and a version of flash/swish that supports them
as well.
Example
swish 2.0 does not support unicode
swish 2.01U does (free upgrade)
Swishmax does

Windows 98 doesn't support unicode
XP does.

[grunt]

Thanks for that Frets. So, I suppose it should be possible to link to a full Unicode font and not embed it in every single swf ?

[tonypa]

You can use font symbols:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...haredfonts.htm

[grunt]

Ta' for the link tonypa.

Has anyone heard of sites that use unicode font symbols? My goal is to allow a wide variety of characters to be seen by an end user irrespective of local fonts installed on their machine. Obviously to cater for non-Latin scripts will require quite a large font but, hey, they exist and I'm keen to implement it. Any info appreciated.

[tonypa]

Are you using MX2004? Its suppose to have better unicode support:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/f...res/tools.html

[grunt]

Here's what I've managed so far with MX. I followed the MM support topic about font symbols and set up a fla/swf that has nothing other than my unicode font and appropriate linkage. Why I have to publish a swf I'm not sure - my unicode font is 1300k, the swf is 25k SO it's not actually embedding anything (is it meant to and, if not, what's the use of it?).

From my project I then Open as Library.. and copy the linked font to the local library. Again, what this achieves I'm not sure. If I leave text fields as unembedded I get a correct result on a machine with the font installed. If I embed All characters (which, I presume, is how you share the outlines) I don't get any non-Latin characters - even tho' they're all in the font.

So confused.

[tonypa]

Im not really that familiar with Unicode, so I might talk rubbish here.

One thing I wonder is why cant you use static text fields? Symbols in static text fields should show in every computer. Do you have to change texts in the dynamic text fields and thats why you want to embed font? Or is it that yu dont have the correct codepage installed in your authoring computer?

This might be interesting:
"Setting Up English Windows XP and Flash MX to Author Content in Japanese"
http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~p...mx/index.shtml

Im not sure if you even can embed whole unicode fonts. Quote from http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...ts/unicode.htm
"Note that you can't currently embed all characters from multiple languages in a SWF, only English and the current language such as Japanese will work correctly."
If I understand it correctly, it should work with English + 1 other language, but not with all possible languages.

Not much help, I know

[grunt]

Yes, I want to change texts dynamically. I want to be able to read unicode text strings from XML into SWF and display them on any machine (irrespective of the fonts that user has installed). Additionally, I'd like users to be able to switch languages on-the-fly (reload from XML). You might be reading a cartoon text balloon in english and wonder how it translates to french. Voila! Could be useful to anyone learning languages.

Maybe a solution is to parse the XML on my machine and spit out a big SWF that has all the possible texts stored as static text symbols (would this file be smaller than a big font??). My main SWF could then load the required languages as external movies. Ugh, makes my head hurt thinking about it.

All this business with shared font symbols ain't helping either. Thanks for all the links tonypa. Maybe it can't be done (sob..). That said, I'll take any further input on the topic!