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Posted by David E. Ross on October 31, 2006, 1:48 am
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vila@systar.fr wrote:
> David E. Ross wrote:
>> vila@systar.fr wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am working on an intranet product based on html.
>>> I want to use a special font that is not installed on most users PCs.
>>> Is there a way of offering to down load a font? Most users will be
>>> using Internet Explorer.
>>>
>>> Francis
>>>
>> (The following addresses your issue with respect to the Internet. See
>> the bottom with respect to your intranet.)
>>
>> *** Start Rant ***
>>
>> You can provide a link on your Web site through which users can download
>> the font. Be sure that you have versions for PCs (Windows), Macs, and
>> Unix. Unless this is a font you created, also be sure you are not
>> violating a copyright or license.
>>
>> I once encountered a Web page that used an unusual font and had such a
>> link. The page's owner had created the font himself. I still have the
>> font, but the Web site is now defunct. Thus, I can't direct you to his
>> site to see how he presented the font.
>>
>> You might also wait until the Web Fonts specification for CSS3 is
>> finalized. This would allow you to provide the font temporarily to
>> visitors to your page, seamlessly embedded within the page. Again, you
>> must be sure the font does not have a restricted license that prohibits
>> embedding. Also, you must be prepared to wait; I don't expect this
>> specification to be finalized any time soon. There has been no activity
>> to advance it in four years. Although the comment period supposedly
>> closed 30 August 2002, comments were still being made the middle of this
>> year.
>>
>> In the meantime, while some browser developers have implemented their
>> own proprietary capability for embedding fonts in Web pages, others are
>> waiting until W3C publishes its final recommendation on Web Fonts. You
>> might go with the proprietary implementation, but anyone in your
>> audience using a different browser will not see your desired font.
>>
>> *** End Rant ***
>>
>> Since you want to restrict this to an intranet, I must assume that
>> everyone seeing the page is within the same organization. Have your
>> system administrator install your desired font in all the computers in
>> the intranet. If the system -- intranet and individual computers -- is
>> properly configured, your system administrator should be able to do this
>> remotely without the users even knowing what happened.
>>
>> --
>>
>> David E. Ross
>> <http://www.rossde.com/>
>>
>> Concerned about someone (e.g., Pres. Bush) snooping
>> into your E-mail? Use PGP.
>> See my <http://www.rossde.com/PGP/>
>
> Thank you for your response. As it happens, I am neither on the www nor
> on a local intranet where I can ask the system administrator to do
> something. I am working on products that clients can install on their
> own intranet. The product my company sells is guaranteed to work on
> Internet Explorer. Anyway if users don't have the font it will not
> prevent them from reading the page.
> The font I want to install is one where digits appear looking like
> 7-bar displays (as in pocket calculators).
>
Package the font with your product. Any intranet should have a system
administrator who can handle distributing the font.
Building a Web-based product that is targeted to IE is tying your
business to a fading star. See the charts and related discussion at my
<http://www.rossde.com/viewing_site.html>, starting with the heading
"Why?".
--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>
Concerned about someone (e.g., Pres. Bush) snooping
into your E-mail? Use PGP.
See my <http://www.rossde.com/PGP/>
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