sifr vs flir
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- Moo
Which is the best way to get readable styled text online sifr or flir?
Or is there any other ways of doing this?
Cheers
m00
- moth0
- ShaneHolley0
I second Cufon. It's great but... there are issues regarding some font copyright as the encoded js fine can be de-compiled and downloaded. It's pretty unlikely but the font foundries don't see it that way, which is fair enough.
- you can lock the js file to just your domainNightshade
- you need to make sure that the font license allows embedding .. this goes for all techniqueslukus_W
- 23kon0
We'd been recommended to look at Cufon by a developer at a job we've picked up.Our developer had a look at it and didnt like it, so we're still using sifr. lol.
- grow a pair and tell him to use it or fuck offfiesta
- think it was for the font ripping reasons, but i shall inform him that FF's are cool with it. got a link?23kon
- As if your dev gives a hoot about copyright - he just wants an easy life,detritus
- yeah, them developers love an easy lifecalculator
- bind the font to your end-domain. done.kerus
- 23kon0
re: Fiesta's comment I spoke to developer
ok, reasons for us using Sifr
- Text is selectable
- Text is crisper (vector and not antialiased)
- It is completely legal , so until theres a link to say cufon is 100% legal ....- but it's got loads of issues with spacing and links and interactivity.Jordy
- how is it completely legal?? I think the last point is bullshitelukus_W
- how is it not legal??? custom fonts have been used in flash since the beginning of flashbigtrick
- you can download someone else's sifr font and use it on your own site. afaik the font license needs to allow embedding...lukus_W
- embedding - which leaves all three methods on a level legallylukus_W
- poomoo0
The delay for sifr to replace the text is unacceptable.
- Moo0
so before using any fonts with Cufon its best checking the licenses etc i take it
- 23kon0
Jordy, just work around the issues then, no?
Its not as if there arent a million and one other issues that ou have to deal with or workaround when you are designing for web anyways
- jimbojones0
You can still decompile sifr and get the font. it's a pain in the ass, but it's possible. Best solution ever is @font-face but I wonder how long will it take it to sort out browser support and legal stuff.
- vaxorcist0
sifr is hard to setup and tweek, therefore some developers love it because it's job security
- armsbottomer0
Cufón:
javascript font rendering, sans flash/images- damn... a bit late on that one. i should learn how to read.armsbottomer
- Coffeemaker0
how well does Cufon render across browser/platforms and *cough* IE6?
- lukus_W0
it works well - even on IE6, because it uses VML to render ..
The only problem I know of, is that some IE6 installations in a corporate environment might have had the '.dll' giving IE6 the ability to render VML deleted (as a quick fix to a previous security vulnerability years ago). In those cases cufon won't work.
- people who are using IE6 still deserve the inferior experience.kerus
- BusterBoy0
Major drawback is you can't select the text. That's a big one for me as well as the font licensing issues.
- I don't understand why people are saying that sifr is fine with standard font licenses.. who gave it the green card?lukus_W
- show me where it says sifr is not kosher with the font companies?bigtrick
- because you can extract the font from the sifr file?jimbojones
- Coffeemaker0
What are the issues in regard to font licensing? You got to pay for each computer that renders it?
- schjetne0
Well, the potential font licensing issues you guys are mentioning with sifr would also apply to absolutely every flash file that uses any other font than the viewer has installed on their computer. Which means about 99% of every flash site ever has got font licensing issues. This is why we (and the cufon project people) assume that sifr does not have any licensing issues. It's just Flash after all. We've always used custom fonts in Flash without even questioning the legality. What's supposed to have changed?
- excellent point. so what if some foundries would start a major lawsuit? they could win, no?janne76
- Pretty sure that'd be a tough one to win, as they would have to sue the entire internet.schjetne
- Apparently Cufon is a different matter because their embedding technique isn't incorporated into a Flash file, though.schjetne
- the thing that's changed is that the font is available as a separate flash file which can be copied and used independentlylukus_W
- technically it's not that different to cufon - it's just that cufon produces a txt file and sifr produces a binary filelukus_W
- it's about the amount of computers rendering it, no? so once it is "downloaded"..janne76
- I think the main issue the foundries raise is the possibility of people reusing the fonts publishedlukus_W
- (which is why they hate the idea of @font-face without some kind of wrapper)lukus_W
- janne760
DAMN
"Fonts produced by the following foundries/vendors/creators are known to be safe: Adobe Systems. The following are known to require separate or extended licenses for Web Embedding: Berthold (separate), FontFont (separate), Fontsmith (separate), Hoefler & Frere-Jones (separate), ITC (separate), Linotype (extended)."http://cufon.shoqolate.com/gener…
agreement.
- janne760
i asked because i was wonderin if there are cross platform aliasing/anti-aliasing issues...
- lukus_W0
I think about it in terms of compromise...
1) if dealing with static headings -> produce a proper nice sharp bitmap and use image-replacement
2) if styling dynamic headings, considered use of cufon will often be better than default fonts.
3) choose default font-families carefully to ensure that the fall back is still reasonable.
I know that sifr used to (and may still) have issues with transparent backgrounds -> transparency + flash is not-possible on some systems - so the background would default to block colour... this produced a far worse effect than bad aliasing ever could. And kerning + tracking sometimes seems pretty dodgy with sifr to me.
At the end of the day, not one of these font-replacement technologies can be seen as a silver bullet.