Using Non-web Based Fonts
On the majority of the sites that I have built or worked on, a non-web based font is usually used for headers and special text. There are a number of different methods of using non-web based fonts on your website. In the past, I had been using sIFR, but it is slow, difficult to setup and get working. I recently came across a JavaScript alternative method called Cufón.
As Cufón is a JavaScript based solution it is faster than sIFR and I have found it much easier to setup. The Cufón project has a web-based font creation wizzard to make your Cufón font file, so you don't have to have any Flash program to create the font file, like you do with sIFR. You only need a TrueType (TTF), OpenType (OTF), Printer Font Binary (PFB) or PostScript font.
I searched the Joomla! extensions directory to see if anyone had written a plugin to use Cufón fonts on a Joomla! website. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a solution for Joomla! 1.5. I therefore wrote a plugin which will allow you to specify your Cufón font for different CSS selectors. You can find more information about this plugin: KC Cufón Font Replacment on our extensions site: www.keashly.net.
Comments
I have found Cufón to be a lot easier to setup and get working than sIFR. If you follow the instruction the Cufón Project provides it is quite simple to get working.
Most of the problems that people have are because they didn't read the docmentation.
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There is no doubt that using any of the non-web based font methods increases the code size and slows down the site. Cufón seems to have the least impact from my testing. Cufón does add some code bloat, but the text is still in the code for crawling and indexing the pages.
The technique that you are referring to above is called sIFR. sIFR is slower and a little more trouble to setup than Cufón.
When using the Cufón generator, don't put anything in the domain field, leave it blank. Then your font can be used on any domain.
Go to http://www.keashly.net/typography/kc-cufon-font-r eplacement which will explain how to use the plugin.
The purpose of the plugin is so you can use those fonts in your website. Without Cufón, sIFR or some other similar font replacement application you are not guaranteed that the visitor to your website will see the font that you want them to see, it will prbably be replaced by a web-based font like Arial or Times.
That is the whole point of using a technology like Cufón is so the user will see the font that you want them to see. Without Cufón or a similar solution, you are right the majority of users will have their font replaced by a standard web-based font. But with Cufón the user see the font you provide.
your work is very much appreciated.......
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