ActionScript® 3.0 Reference for the Adobe® Flash® Platform
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flash.text 

FontType  - AS3

Packageflash.text
Classpublic final class FontType
InheritanceFontType Inheritance Object

Language Version: ActionScript 3.0
Runtime Versions: AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

The FontType class contains the enumerated constants "embedded" and "device" for the fontType property of the Font class.

Related API Elements



Public Properties
 PropertyDefined By
 Inheritedconstructor : Object
A reference to the class object or constructor function for a given object instance.
Object
Public Methods
 MethodDefined By
 Inherited
Indicates whether an object has a specified property defined.
Object
 Inherited
Indicates whether an instance of the Object class is in the prototype chain of the object specified as the parameter.
Object
 Inherited
Indicates whether the specified property exists and is enumerable.
Object
 Inherited
Sets the availability of a dynamic property for loop operations.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the string representation of this object, formatted according to locale-specific conventions.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the string representation of the specified object.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the primitive value of the specified object.
Object
Public Constants
 ConstantDefined By
  DEVICE : String = "device"
[static] Indicates that this is a device font.
FontType
  EMBEDDED : String = "embedded"
[static] Indicates that this is an embedded font.
FontType
  EMBEDDED_CFF : String = "embeddedCFF"
[static] Indicates that this is an embedded CFF font.
FontType
Constant Detail

DEVICE

Constant
public static const DEVICE:String = "device"

Language Version: ActionScript 3.0
Runtime Versions: AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Indicates that this is a device font. The SWF file renders fonts with those installed on the system.

Using device fonts results in a smaller movie size, because font data is not included in the file. Device fonts are often a good choice for displaying text at small point sizes, because anti-aliased text can be blurry at small sizes. Device fonts are also a good choice for large blocks of text, such as scrolling text.

Text fields that use device fonts may not be displayed the same across different systems and platforms, because they are rendered with fonts installed on the system. For the same reason, device fonts are not anti-aliased and may appear jagged at large point sizes.

Related API Elements

EMBEDDED

Constant 
public static const EMBEDDED:String = "embedded"

Language Version: ActionScript 3.0
Runtime Versions: AIR 1.0, Flash Player 9, Flash Lite 4

Indicates that this is an embedded font. Font outlines are embedded in the published SWF file.

Text fields that use embedded fonts are always displayed in the chosen font, whether or not that font is installed on the playback system. Also, text fields that use embedded fonts are always anti-aliased (smoothed). You can select the amount of anti-aliasing you want by using the TextField.antiAliasType property.

One drawback to embedded fonts is that they increase the size of the SWF file.

Fonts of type EMBEDDED can only be used by TextField. If flash.text.engine classes are directed to use such a font they will fall back to device fonts.

Related API Elements

EMBEDDED_CFF

Constant 
public static const EMBEDDED_CFF:String = "embeddedCFF"

Language Version: ActionScript 3.0
Runtime Versions: Flash Player 10, AIR 1.5, Flash Lite 4

Indicates that this is an embedded CFF font. Font outlines and a subset of OpenType tables are embedded in the published SWF file.

Text that uses embedded CFF fonts is always displayed in the chosen font, whether or not that font is installed on the playback system. Also, text that uses embedded CFF fonts is always anti-aliased (smoothed) by Flash Player. You can select the rendering mode and hinting for an embedded CFF font using the flash.text.engine.FontDescription.renderingMode and flash.text.engine.FontDescription.cffHinting properties.

One drawback to embedded CFF fonts is that they increase the size of the SWF file. However, embedded CFF fonts are typically 20% to 30% smaller than regular embedded fonts.

Fonts of type EMBEDDED_CFF can only be used by the flash.text.engine classes. A TextField directed to use such a font will fail to render.

Related API Elements