Anyway, I tried ambedding teh font from the actionscript, and I still get the same error : “transcoding parameter is not supported by flex2.compiler.media.FontTranscoder” as I tried to import the dfont, even though I m with an sdk4 and even if I create a project appart… aaaaah :(

Check out the fontswf utility instead of compiling w/ Flash CS4 or CS5; “Using the fontswf utility”.

Peter

warning: incompatible embedded font ‘Lucida Grande’ specified for spark.components::RichText (myTargetText) . This component requires that the embedded font be declared with embedAsCff=true.

as I embbed a swf file in my css with the param embedAsCff set to true :
[code]@font-face {
src: url("lucidaFont.swf");
fontWeight: normal;
font-family: "Lucida Grande";
embed-as-cff:true;
embedAsCff:true;
}

s|RichText{
font-size:12;
rendering-mode:cff;
font-lookup: embeddedCFF;
font-family:"Lucida Grande";
font-weight:normal;
color:#000000;
text-align: start;
direction: ltr;
}

[/code]

I think the problem comes from the swf embedded font cause when I use the “Lucida Grande.dfont” it is working fine… I tried compiling it in CS4, CS5 (with export in actionScript set to TLF), without success..
But I need to use the swf, so I have to find a way to embedded the font as cff in Flash. Stuck since 2 days on the problem … Help !!! (Peter the master :D)

http://pastebin.com/3jmqifnK

[Bindable]
public var details:String;
 
protected function getTextDetails(event:MouseEvent):void {
 
	// will return device, embedded or embeddedCFF
	var fontLookup:String = Object(event.currentTarget).textFlow.computedFormat.fontLookup; 
	var fontFamily:String = Object(event.currentTarget).textFlow.computedFormat.fontFamily;
	var renderingMode:String = Object(event.currentTarget).textFlow.computedFormat.renderingMode;
	var details:String = "Font: "+fontFamily+", Font Lookup: "+fontLookup + ", Rendering Mode: "+renderingMode;
}

Ah yes, if you’re using the ns.adobe.com/flex/halo namespace you’re using an old Flex 4 beta SDK and your code will need to be changed when you upgrade to a newer nightly build of the Flex 4 SDK.
The new Spark TextArea is built upon TLF (Text Layout Framework) which is built upon FTE (Flash Text Engine), and includes better bi-directional text support, ligatures, subscript/superscript, strikethrough, and all around better looking text.

Yes, you can use the classic TextField, MX TextArea, or Spark TextArea without embedding a font. Also, all work with embedded fonts. All just depends on whether you want to rotate the text, or change the alpha, or if you want to ensure that the Flash/Flex application will work on a user’s computer if they do not have the specific font installed on their machine.

Peter

Thanks a lot for your response.

My apologies for my misleading post and my guesses at what the problem were; I’ll be more careful in future :-)

I had to make one slight mod, to the code you listed to make it compile/work:

Line 4:

xmlns:mx=”library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx”

I changed to:

xmlns:mx=”library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo”

If you could help me with the following questions, I’d appreciate the help:

1 – What if any would be the advantage of using the new spark components (for instance TextArea) over the older TextField? From what I can see, the new FTE and TLF provide lower level support; however, more code effort is required. From a TextField, I’m able to set background color/alpha/border etc… With TextArea I either have to use setStyle or TextAreaSkin etc… I do understand that there are a number of improvements for sparks* TextArea over mx* TextArea.

2 – In the example I provided, I was able to use the new sparks* TextArea without embedding a font. I guess the obvious reason for embedding a font is it ensures the final swf app has access to the required font?

Thanks again for your help and support.

Cheers

Sure, your revised example is better since it doesn’t try and use systemManager.stage.addChild(), but it doesn’t really solve the problem of not being able to use an embedded font with a TextField. The one important thing to note is that there are two ways of font embedding now with Flex 4 and Flash Player 10. Previously you would embed a font and it would always use the flash.text.TextField class and use a DefineFont3 font behind the scenes. Now with the new Flash Text Engine/FTE (flash.text.engine.*) classes and Text Layout Framework/TLF (flashx.textLayout.*) classes, you can also embed fonts as DefineFont4 by setting the embedAsCFF property to true (which is now the default value in the latest beta Flex 4 SDK builds).
So the important thing to remember is that if you want to use embedded fonts, if you’re using the “older” TextField based Flex components (mx.*) — or are using the TextField class directly , you need to set the embedAsCFF property to false when embedding your fonts. If you are using the newer FTE or TLF based Flex components (spark.*), you need to set the embedAsCFF property to true when embedding your fonts.

Here’s a slightly modified version of your first example which uses an embedded font with a classic flash.text.TextField object:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
               initialize="init();">
 
    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            public var boxHolder:MovieClip;
            public var textHolder:MovieClip;
            public var textTitle:MovieClip;
 
            [Embed(source="C:/Windows/fonts/arial.ttf",
                    fontFamily="ArialEmbedded",
                    mimeType="application/x-font",
                    embedAsCFF="false")]
            private const ArialEmbeddedFont:Class;
 
            public function init():void {
                boxHolder = new MovieClip();
                boxHolder.graphics.beginFill(0x990000);
                boxHolder.graphics.drawRoundRect(50, 30, 100, 60, 10);
                uic.addChild(boxHolder);
 
                var myFont:Font = new ArialEmbeddedFont();
 
                var myFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
                myFormat.font = myFont.fontName;
                myFormat.size = 12;
                myFormat.color = 0x000000; // black
                myFormat.align = TextFormatAlign.LEFT;
 
                var myTextField:TextField = new TextField();
                myTextField.width = 80;
                myTextField.wordWrap = true;
                myTextField.defaultTextFormat = myFormat;
                myTextField.embedFonts = true;
                myTextField.multiline = true;
                myTextField.htmlText = "Hello World";
                myTextField.selectable = false;
                myTextField.background = false;
                myTextField.border = false;
                myTextField.antiAliasType = AntiAliasType.ADVANCED;
                myTextField.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
 
                textTitle = new MovieClip();
                textTitle.x = 40;
                textTitle.y = 20;
                textTitle.addChild(myTextField);
 
                textHolder = new MovieClip();
                textHolder.addChild(textTitle);
                uic.addChild(textHolder);
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
    <mx:UIComponent id="uic" />
 
</s:Application>

Peter