Custom Fonts not appearing on webpages on other computers?

[Medking]

Hi there,

Just recently created a website in iWeb and made it live. I used mostly custom fonts downloaded from here there and everywhere, however when I access the site on another computer the fonts don't show up.

Is this because they need to have the fonts installed on their computers to view them?

Is there any workaround to this?

Medking

[Chasethebase Reporter]

Yes, this is because you're using a custom font where it isn't installed on the other computer that's trying to access it. The best workaround is to make the area of font you're trying to use (Say, navigation or header) a custom image rather than text.

If you're using a custom font as body text, I'd recommend falling back to fonts such as Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Helvetica or Georgia to name a few.

[Medking]

Ok thanks a lot for the help.

And yes I'm probably going to have to change some of my main body text fonts.

I've changed my headings already, but since Google won't recognize image text I'm going to have to change the body text.

Also, any tips on making the website appear when you search in google? You can't embed metadata or anything like that in iWeb right?

[Cupcakes]

I would recommend sticking to "web based" fonts for anything in your body text (eg: paragraphs).

If you have a CSS stylesheet you can add/change:

 body {
  font-family: Helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif;
 }

The font stack I created will show all text in Helvetica but if that is not present on the computer it will then load arial, verdana or if none of those are available it will simply choose a sans-serif font.

If you do have some headings that you want to use a custom font with, I would recommend trying out Cufon: http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/. It will allow you to use an OTF or TTF font with CSS. So it will be compatible in all computers/browsers.

To see an example as well, you can check out the 2nd link in my profile. All of my heading text use Cufon. :)

[Medking]

Thanks Cupcakes, I'm going to try that out. I'll let you know how I get on.

[sweetsam]

There are some javascript based solutions which enable you to use custom fonts even though they may not be available on the viewers computer. sIFR and cufon are the ones that I have tried and worked very well. I prefer cufon because it is a lot faster than sIFR and does not need flash to function like sIFR. However cufon does have a disadvantage that does not affect sIFR. Text generate by cufon can not be selected.

[primexx]

why use outdated hacks when you can embed the font directly? http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2009/10/30/ho...-css-font-face/

[Cupcakes]

  primexx said:

why use outdated hacks when you can embed the font directly? http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2009/10/30/ho...-css-font-face/

No one suggested any "hacks" nor did the OP actually use any hack. I'd prefer rendering with cufon or SIFR before just letting @font-face utilization. Unless you don't mind fonts look jagged..

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Don't use a jagged looking font then.

Rendering the text to an image, sIFR and "Cuf?n" are hacks, they all break user interaction and only sIFR does font hinting.