Embedding Verdana in a dynamic text field, need to make it bold - do I have to buy Verdana Bold?

Question

First off, I don't have a copy of Verdana bold. It's no where on my hd and I don't know the first thing about making fonts so that is out of the question.

I've been searching for a couple of hours now and it seems the tried and true solution is to embed multiple versions of the font off the stage.

Ridiculous. Right? In either case, I am pleading to all you Flash Jedi out there to please tell me there is another way? I refuse to turn to the dark side.

Answer 1

First of all, you don't have to buy it. Second, this is how it's done in Flex so it can give you some insight.

@font-face{
src:url('fonts/Verdana.ttf');
font-family:Verdana;/*any name you want actually, you can have it VerdanaBold*/
font-weight:bold;
}

To call it later from a component, let's say a Label

<s:Label text="Your text here" fontFamily="Verdana"/>

The long answer is that I can't believe you don't have Verdana on your system, how come? If you see it in Office software or even in notepad font settings but don't know how to get it, assuming it's a Windows system, look under Control Panel > Fonts.

Answer 2

If you're using the Flash IDE, embedding it outside the stage (anywhere - it just need to be on your project) is, indeed, the best way to do it. Basically, if you have a TextField with font embedding set, Flash only embeds the basic font, ignoring the rest - so if you want text with <b> somewhere in there, the bold font has to be embedded.

You probably do have Verdana bold in your system, maybe you just can't see it (depends on your system). Just try creating a Verdana TextField and enabling bold.

You can also have it added to the library as a font asset, but it has problems of its own. Feature wise, the hidden textfield trick works best.

You can also embed fonts with the [embed] meta tag, but that's a bigger can of worms for you if you're working with the IDE (since it means to start using the Flex SDK from it).

Answer 3

You can go to the library panel and from the top right corner (click the little triangle and grid looking thingy) and choose "New Font". There you can embed bold Verdana and use it in your code.