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Dynamic Fonts
Have to make a GIF image for every HTML document on your page because you want that "special font" on there? If so, don't go through the hassle of GIFs, use Dynamic Fonts instead. Dynamic Fonts are a condensed font file (FPR) that can be imported to a user's computer for use on the web. Unlike GIFs, Dynamic Fonts are made with typing text in a FONT tag, thus if you make a typo, you won't have to make a new image. Also, Dynamic Fonts are cached so that you only need to call them once on your index page, then you can use them for all the HTML documents on your page.
Getting/Making the Fonts
To start make Dynamic Fonts, you need to download a typograph. The best free typograph that I have seen is HexMac's Typograph (which you can download by clicking on the previous link). The download is only about 2 megs worth. If you can't get this typograph to work or if you'd rather save yourself the hassle, TrueDoc has a nice collection of Dynamic Fonts for you to freely put on your site. If you chose the TrueDoc option, skip this paragraph and the next one. Once you have downloaded the Typograph, you will need to "burn" a font file. This is pretty self-explanatory once you get the software. Once you have done this, come back to the tutorial, then you will learn how to put Dynamic Fonts on your page...
Alright, now that you have downloaded the Typograph and made your PFR file, double-check some things. Is the web page you put in when your "burned" the font the same as the domain under which your page is hosted (www.mypage.com, members.server.com, etc.)? Now, if you have Geocities as your web page provider, you need to download the PFR file to a different server (GC doesn't support the PFR file type). Do make sure, however, that your listed domain in the Dynamic Font file is //www.geocities.com even though the actual PFR file might not be located there. Also, be sure you remember the initial name of the font that your "burned" along with the PFR name.
Implementing the Fonts
To put Dynamic Fonts on a web page for viewing, you use the below code
<LINK REL="FONTDEF" SRC="http://www.yourserver.com/fontname.pfr">
In the SRC, you put the URL location where you saved the PFR file. The code doesn't stop there though. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer didn't originally have Dynamic Font support, so TrueDoc came up with a script that allows IE support. For the IE code, you'll first need to download (right-click) the below file and upload it onto your server.
msfontfix.js
Once you have that done, put the following code IMMEDIATELY AFTER the previous code
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="msfontfix.js">
</SCRIPT>
<link>
Now you have cross-browser support for the Dynamic Font of your choice. Putting the actual Dynamic Font on your page is not difficult at all. Have you still remembered the original name of the font before you "burned" it? Good, because we need to use it in the FONT tag like so
<font face="YourFontsName">This is Some Dynamic Font</font>
You put the original font name under FACE. Be sure that it is capitalized correctly and that it has spaces where needed. See, it wasn't so tough to make Dynamic Fonts. Dynamic Fonts only look slightly different from the ugly GIF files you've used before, and are a great addition to anyone's page.
For More Info
Step 3 has a list of font's that do not need to be made into Dynamic Fonts because they accompany the Windows3.x and later software
Dynamic Font resources..
TrueDoc
HexMac
Next Step
CSS in 7 Easy Steps (Home)
© 2000 Nicolas Spiegelberg. All rights reserved
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