An alternative to sIFR called FLIR (Facelift Image Replacement) was mentioned on Boagworld recently, and I only just got around to checking it out.
I was never a fan of sIFR, mostly because it required using (and owning) Flash. So not only does that mean you need to own a flash player to see the text, you also needed to own a Flash composer to create the font file.
FLIR uses php and javascript only: the javascript calls the php script, which changes text into an image. It’s all controlled in CSS and a couple of config files (which you rarely ever have to touch), and if you have javascript disabled (or your browser doesn’t have javascript) you wouldn’t know the difference. Even if you do have javascript enabled, to the reader the sites looks just like you have an image with the text in.
Personally, I’m rather excited by FLIR. Being a big typography fan I was always disappointed by the small number of web safe fonts out there, so I’m looking forward to using FLIR a lot. It’s a little buggy, but it’s still new, and I’m sure these will be ironed out in time.
Ah this is what I want – i want to use woodcut and I found that some pc’s dont have that font and I want a technique to replace it. Should I use Flir?
im not putting the site up for real as a real site… does flir cost money?
I have found a post by mezzoblue but not sure what It is I need… can you email me when you have the time so I can read it at my leisure – im going to be doing something for college course
http://www.mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/
Hi Sarah. I’d recommend FLIR, yeah. You don’t need the font on the viewer’s computer (you’ll need to upload it to your web server), it converts the text to an image for you. All you need is php and javascript