Check user fonts and display question

[krappleby025]

Hi All,

is there a way, to check if a user has a specific font on there system, and if not prompt them to download a font that is needed on the site..

I am making a speciality site, and it looks a lot better in the correct font..

is this possible.
any help would be appreciated

cheers

 

[sleipnir214]

I don't think so.

From where would you download them? A lot of fonts are available only under license.


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[krappleby025]

The font used, is a free font.. but a lot of people dont have it installed ont he computers. and the site does not look the same without the correct font..

as you are aware it auto uses arial or times.. and that just makes the site look basic..

 

[ericbrunson]

There's no way to check that the font is installed, that would require the browser to give up information about the client machine that would be inherently intrusive and insecure.

Generally speaking, it's bad web design to code for explicit fonts.

 

[DRJ478]

The first question is always if it necessary to use that specific font. If yes, put it into a graphical element.

However, there is a hack using JavaScript to get at the fonts. It is described here:

http://www.webreference.com/dhtml/column30/

I mention it for completeness, but would discourage its use.

 

[ericbrunson]

Dr. J,

Interesting article. I think the original poster should look at the link at the bottom of that page:

http://www.webreference.com/dhtml/column30/2.html

]

However, I don't think their DHTML method works on all platforms, like mine: Linux+firefox. They do have a disclaimer on the page, though.

 

[Vragabond]

krappleby025, in HTML there is a method of loading custom fonts. It is not browser/platform agnostic, but it works on the most popular browser. Since CSS allows you to select multiple fonts and the user's browser will automatically scroll down the list until it finds the correct font, you can use this method and have graceful error handling.
FAQs how to embed fonts:

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=1525

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=4042

 

[ericbrunson]

...but it works on the most popular browser.

It works on Firefox? Great!!! ;-)

 

[Olavxxx]

You might simply want to display a small image, and:

Does your font not look like this? Then you might have a decreased visual experience browsing this site! Please download the fontpack for free!

ps. it must look professional

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster