Font outlines and device fonts
When you publish or export a Flash document, fonts in text fields are represented by embedded font outlines or by font names. Alternatively, you can use device fonts to specify a general type of font, such as sans serif.
Font outlines and names
For static text, Flash creates outlines of the font and embeds them in the SWF file. Flash Player then uses the outlines to display the text.
For dynamic or input text, Flash stores the font names; Flash Player then locates identical or similar fonts on the user’s system when the Flash application is displayed. To ensure that users have the correct fonts for dynamic or input text, you can embed font outlines, but this can increase file size.
Not all fonts displayed in Flash can be exported as outlines with a Flash application. To verify that a font can be exported, use the View > Preview Mode > Antialias Text command to preview the text; jagged type indicates that Flash does not recognize that font’s outline and will not export the text.
Device fonts
For static horizontal text, use device fonts as an alternative to embedding font outline information. Flash includes three device fonts, _sans (similar to Helvetica or Arial), _serif (similar to Times Roman), and _typewriter (similar to Courier). When you specify one of these fonts and then export the document, Flash Player uses the font on the user’s computer that most closely resembles the device font.
Because device fonts are not embedded, they result in a smaller SWF file. They can also result in more legible text at small point sizes (below 10 points). However, if a user’s computer does not have an installed font corresponding to the device font, text may look different than expected.
