26 Mar
Posted by Ray Cheung as Fonts, License Free
Cufón is similar to Typeface.js which aims to become a worthy alternative to sIFR, and despite its merits still remains painfully tricky to set up and use. Cufón consists of two individual parts as well – a font generator, which converts fonts to a proprietary format and a rendering engine written in JavaScript.
It works on every major browser on the market. There is near-zero configuration needed for standard use cases. And it is fast, even for sufficiently large amounts of text.
Requirements: Canvas and VML
Demo: http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2009/03/cufon_font_embedding/
License: License Free




Cufon looks great, especially having dealt with sIFR in the past – but no text selection? Thats a tough one for me to get past, and one of the things I loved most about sIFR. Hopefully a solution pops up soon.
The way this works is to basically distribute the font (as javascript in SVG) to the end users browser. My understanding of copyright protection for fonts would make this practice illegal.
When you use a font and create a graphic, you are not distributing the font. But the SVG is the “math” of the actual font.
Someone should consider checking the legality of this if implemented for corporate uses.
[...] Cufón – Another sIFR alternative for Font Embedding | Web Resources | WebAppers (tags: sifr font javascript canvas) [...]
Mike: However Cufón uses a bounch of algorithms to make the font easier so one wouldn’t even distribute the original font if one doesn’t choose to turn off optimization..
Peter “but no text selection”.
Correct me if i’m wrong my cufon does has text selection, you just don’t see it in the window… But is does get selected.
Wow Zonaksu, you’re right – the text is selected, and you can copy and paste it. Very cool, and very unexpected. Still, without being able to see what you’re copying and pasting, and considering the average user will just assume they can’t, does it matter?
Another review:
http://www.erenemre.com/2009/03/cufon-vs-sifrwhich-one-is-better/
I tried Cufon for the intro text of my website – about 20-30 words. I am not quite sure I like the way the html is rendered on the page with a for every word. Am I missing something here?
[...] WebAppers] Questo articolo è stato pubblicato lunedì, 30 marzo 2009 alle ore 16:53 Se non vuoi [...]
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