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Work with text anti-aliasing

Flash provides improved font rasterization that lets you specify the anti-aliasing properties for fonts. The improved anti-aliasing capabilities are available only for SWF files published for Flash Player 8 or later. If you are publishing files for earlier versions of Flash Player, you can only use the Anti-Alias For Animation feature.

Apply anti-aliasing for each text field rather than each character. Also, when you open existing FLA files in Flash 8 or later, the text is not automatically updated to the advanced anti-aliasing options; you must select individual text fields and manually change the anti-aliasing settings.

When you open a FLA file created for use with Flash Player 7 or earlier, the text Property inspector sets the anti-alias option to its equivalent anti-aliasing option from Flash MX 2004. However, to use the advanced anti-aliasing features, you must upgrade the FLA content for Flash Player 8 or later.

Choose an anti-aliasing option for selected text

 In the Property inspector, choose one of the following options from the Anti-Aliasing pop‑up menu:
Use Device Fonts
Specifies that the SWF file use the fonts installed on the local computer to display the fonts. Typically, device fonts are legible at most font sizes. Although this option doesn’t increase the size of the SWF file, it forces you to rely on the fonts installed on the user’s computer for font display. When using device fonts, choose only commonly installed font families.

Bitmap Text (No Anti-Alias)
Turns off anti-aliasing and provides no text smoothing. The text is displayed using sharp edges, and the resulting SWF file size is increased because the font outlines are embedded in the file. Bitmap text is sharp at the exported size, but scales poorly.

Anti-Alias For Animation
Creates a smoother animation by ignoring alignment and kerning information. This option creates a larger SWF file, because font outlines are embedded. For legibility, use 10-point or larger type when specifying this option.

Anti-Alias For Readability
Uses the Flash text rendering engine to improve the legibility of fonts, particularly at small sizes. This option creates a larger SWF file, because font outlines are embedded. To use this option, you must publish to Flash Player 8 or later. (Do not use this option if you intend to animate text; instead, use Anti-Alias For Animation.)

Custom Anti-Alias
Lets you modify the font’s properties. Use Sharpness to specify the smoothness of the transition between the text edges and the background. Use Thickness to specify how thick the font anti-aliasing transition appears. (Larger values cause the characters to look thicker.) Specifying Custom Anti-Alias creates a larger SWF file, because font outlines are embedded. To use this option, you must publish to Flash Player 8 or later.

Upgrade content for Flash 8 or later anti-aliasing

  1. Open a FLA file created for use with Macromedia Flash Player 7 or earlier.
  2. In the Publish Settings dialog box (File > Publish Settings), select Flash Player 8 or Flash Player 9 from the Version pop‑up menu.
  3. Select the text field to apply the Anti-Alias For Readability or Custom Anti-Alias option to.
  4. In the Property inspector, select Anti-Alias For Readability or Custom Anti-Alias from the Font Rendering Method pop‑up menu.

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