|
To convert to Embedded Open Type fonts, you need to use Microsoft’s Weft (Web Embedding
Fonts tool).
It is free from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft3/default.htm.
There is a link on this page to download the software. It is still a Beta version
so expect an extremely small number of very tiny bugs.
When you run Weft, it builds up a list of the fonts on your system and off you
go. There is the inevitable wizard that prompts you through the process. You need
to:
-
Specify the web page that uses the font. Weft should follow any links to pages
that might use the font so that you can include (or not) the font on them all.
Or you can add tell Weft about them yourself
-
Analyse the web pages to get a list of all the fonts that you use on the pages
-
Select the fonts you want to convert and embed from the list the analysis produces.
There will be information about whether you can embed the font. There may be
some fonts that you can’t convert for either technical or legal reasons.
-
You also need to decide if you want to convert and embed the whole font or just
the characters that you use
-
Specify where you want to put the Embedded Open Type fonts you create. You can
put the file on a server or on your local drive and copy it to the server later
-
Specify the site on which the fonts will work. This is to stop anybody nicking
your fonts
-
Create the font
Once the font exists, you can use it to your heart’s content on your pages.
So are there any problems? Well, of course there are:
-
You can only use Embedded Open Type fonts in Internet Explorer
-
Despite your best efforts the security doesn’t always work and other people can
download the font and keep it
-
You can’t convert Postscript fonts
-
The page may take longer to load because the font downloads first. And you have
a file for each font so the browser might have to go to the server several times
|
