454 Chapter 26 – Embedded Font TechnologyTrueDoc Technology (“Dynamic Fonts”)
Web Design in a Nutshell, eMatter Edition- Specify the font document by name in your HTML document using the<font
face> tag or thefont-family property in CSS1. - Use a special font-embedding tool to create the downloadable font file(s) for
your document (note, you need to have the font installed on your machine).
The tool compresses the font shapes into a very small file and adds some
security features. - Include information in the HTML document that links it to the font file.
- Upload the HTML documents and the compressed font files to your server. If
you are using TrueDoc Dynamic Fonts, you need to configure your server to
recognize the new font MIME type. - The users’ 4.0 browser will display the text in the font you’ve chosen. The
font will be anti-aliased to smooth out the jagged edges. (Note, at small point
sizes, the anti-aliasing can actually make some fonts less legible. Do some
testing first.)
TrueDoc Technology (“Dynamic Fonts”)
TrueDoc technology was developed by Bitstream in 1994. Netscape partnered with
Bitstream in 1996 to include “Dynamic Font” support in the Navigator 4.0 browser.
In 1998, Dynamic Fonts became available for Internet Explorer 4.0 via an ActiveX
control. TrueDoc is capable of compressing TrueType and Type 1 fonts, and it is
compatible with the Windows, Macintosh, and Unix platforms.
File Format
Portable Font Resource (.pfr)
Technology
TrueDoc uses a method called “direct rendering” which means the font infor-
mation is rendered (by a very compact rasterizer program) within the browser
itself without relying on the operating system.
The information for several fonts can be compressed into a single.pfr file.
Font Embedding Tool
Eventually, TrueDoc font embedding tools will be built into popular
WYSIWYG web-authoring applications. However, as of this writing, the only
available tool is HexWeb Typograph 2.0, from HexMac, which works on both
Windows and Macintosh. It is available as a standalone product, or as a plug-
in to BBEdit for the Mac or FrontPage for the PC.
You can download a free demo of HexWeb athttp://www.hexmac.com/.
HTML Code
Navigator and Internet Explorer require slightly different methods for
attaching Dynamic Fonts to an HTML document.
Netscape Navigator 4.0:
.pfr files are embedded using a<LINK> tag, as follows:
<LINK rel="fontdef" src="url/fontname.pfr">
The<link>tag goes between the<head>and</head>tags at the top
of the document.