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Company: Fonts for Flash
Price: $15.00 per font
Official Website
System details: Windows XP, 1200 Mhz Celeron, 512 MB, IE 6, DVD, CD-RW
The concept of having tools and media made specifically for Flash isn't a new one. With all of Flash's quirks over the years and the large base of developers, the market for 3rd party Flash tools has grown to be a profitable one.
We've seen everything from video, music, and pictures for Flash. Now we have Fonts for Flash. I've been seeing the Fonts for Flash logo on a lot of Flash related sites for a while. Although the concept immediately caught my interest, I'm just finally trying some of the fonts out.
The problem with Flash and fonts
Getting fonts to look right in Flash hasn't been the easiest of tasks over the years. Some fonts just won't look right no matter what is done, while others require workarounds in order to stay clean and crisp. The problem becomes even worse when there are large groups of text in Flash. Some Flash developers have resorted to creating bitmap images of text so they have complete control of how the text appears in Flash.
Fonts for Flash (FFF) promises to end all that nonsense.
FFF does it by creating pixel fonts. Pixel fonts are designed so that every part of the font character falls on the monitor's pixels. This prevents the font from appearing blurry on computer monitors.
Font comparison
The best way to see how well Fonts for Flash works is to compare to other fonts in Flash. Below, is a large set of text taken from George Orwell's 1984. Normally, I would use HTML to display this text simply because I know it will look crisp and clean. I used FFF's Alias Font on the left and Arial on the right.
Arial may or may not be your favorite font, but FFF's small font has a readability level that is perfect. There is no blur or distortion whatsoever.
After testing several other fonts, the same results were achieved. Depending on what kind of font look or size you need, FFF has a variety to choose from, even several Hebrew fonts.
Strict usage rules
In order to get the fonts to work correctly there are some strict rules that must be followed like keeping the fonts size in denominations of 8 and they must be positioned on exact pixels, but the results are well worth the trouble. Also, FFF offers detailed guides to walk you through everything.
The fonts run for $15.00 a piece and can be purchased on FFF's site. There are discounts when they are bought in bulk. Thankfully, the fonts are also available for both Mac and PC. |
