In: Root » » Web design tips » Working with text and Setting font characteristics
Working with TextIt is easy to add text to your movies. You will find that you can transform text as simply as you can alter lines and shapes. Text is a great way to create stunning effects without creating a movie with a large overhead. Excellent examples of the uses of text in Flash movies can be found on the Internet. Some examples combine text and sound with no other graphics. Together, these create great effects. Adding textYou add text using the Text tool on the Tools panel. Buttons and list boxes in the Property inspector enable you to select a font, a font size, tracking, kerning, and normal, superscript, and subscript, as well as the bold and italic styles and font color. Choosing fontsWhen you select a font and publish it with your movie, it will be exported with the Flash Player (.swf) file, so that font does not need to be installed on the user’s system. Device fonts shown at the top of the fonts list (sans serif, serif, typewriter) are not embedded in the exported Flash movie. Using a device font causes the movie to use the font on the user’s system that most closely resembles the selected device font. The purpose of using device fonts is to create a movie with a smaller file size because the font is not embedded in the .swf file. Any fonts that are purchased may not be allowed to be exported. A Web designer or developer should secure copyright and export permissions before deploying a font without distribution rights. You select a font from the list of fonts you have installed on your system. Sometimes the fonts are installed automatically when you install a new application, so you may not have used many of the fonts available to you. Windows and Mac users usually have many TrueType or PostScript fonts from which to choose. Fonts are available from the slider in sizes from 8 points to 120 points. But size is relative to the size of the Stage in your movie. If you really need bigger fonts, you can type numbers ranging from 0 to 2500 into the Font Size list box instead of using the slider. Setting font characteristicsThere are many ways to select a font. Enter the point size as 48 in the Property Properties submenu of the Window menu; click the down arrow to the right of the Font Size list box and use the slider to select a 48-point size, or simply click the Text icon on the Tools toolbar or Standard toolbar. Select a bright color and begin typing on the Stage. 48 points doesn’t look very large when displayed on the default movie Stage. In addition to font size and color, you can change the character spacing, also called kerning. An increase in the character spacing increases the space between letters. Use the Selection tool to select the text block just created. Select the down arrow on the Character Spacing list box, and use the slider to increase and decrease the value. Kerning controls the space between certain letters. In kerned text, differing amounts of space exist between letters, depending on the space the letter takes up. For example, in the preceding sentence, the space used by the letters t and a in the word takes is less than that used by the letters k and e. For the most part, kerning is not a major concern in Flash movies. You also can use the Selection tool and the Scale modifier to stretch the text block. With the text block selected, use the Selection tool and the Scale modifier, and drag one of the tabs formed on corners of the text block to enlarge or decrease the size. Drag a middle tab to scrunch or elongate the text. Dragging the middle tabs distorts the text, whereas dragging a corner tab maintains the aspect ratio while adjusting the size. |
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