Embedding an APL font directly into a web page

[urbancamo]

Thought you might be interested that I've just described on my blog
http://blog.wickensonline.co.uk how to embed an APL font into a
webpage as a javascript include created by the excellent Cufon
utility. This allows you to serve up pages containing APL code without
requiring the user to download a font first.

Regards, Mark.

[Stephen Taylor, editor@vector.org.uk]

On Aug 12, 10:46 pm, urbancamo <m...@wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
> Thought you might be interested that I've just described on my bloghttp://blog.wickensonline.co.ukhow to embed an APL font into a

> webpage as a javascript include created by the excellent Cufon
> utility. This allows you to serve up pages containing APL code without
> requiring the user to download a font first.
>
> Regards, Mark.

That certainly produces a clear display! But as graphics, which
precludes cutnpaste into editors, rather a desirable feature for code,
I think.

My vote remains with UTF-8 encoding for web pages. This produces an
accurate display in modern browsers where the OS has one of the large
Unicode fonts installed – most modern machines – and an attractive
display where a Unicode APL font has been installed. (The APL Wiki and
Vector both use this scheme.)

Stephen Taylor

[urbancamo]

On Aug 13, 9:28 am, "Stephen Taylor, edi...@vector.org.uk"

<stephentaylorf...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 12, 10:46 pm, urbancamo <m...@wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
>

> > Thought you might be interested that I've just described on my bloghttp://blog.wickensonline.co.ukhowto embed an APL font into a

> > webpage as a javascript include created by the excellent Cufon
> > utility. This allows you to serve up pages containing APL code without
> > requiring the user to download a font first.
>
> > Regards, Mark.
>
> That certainly produces a clear display! But as graphics, which
> precludes cutnpaste into editors, rather a desirable feature for code,
> I think.
>
> My vote remains with UTF-8 encoding for web pages. This produces an
> accurate display in modern browsers where the OS has one of the large
> Unicode fonts installed – most modern machines – and an attractive
> display where a Unicode APL font has been installed. (The APL Wiki and
> Vector both use this scheme.)
>
> Stephen Taylor

Yes, I stumbled across the aplwiki this morning (you guys have
certainly been busy since the last time I visited - excellent stuff),
and with the SiMPL font installed locally it looks marvelous.
Rendering in the default font (arial/lucida?) was still readable but
nowhere near as nice looking. CSS3 is the way to go and is now
supported in Firefox version 3. This will allow reference to a font
via URL, circumventing the need for a user to install that font for
the best experience.

Regards, Mark.

[urbancamo]

Having thought about it I still think there is value to what I have
done - for the casual visitor (which is who I am targetting my blog
at) it is the best solution - it looks a bit crap with the default
font installed on their browser (and part of the point of what I'm
doing is to show accentuate the aesthetical nature of APL), but I
couldn't expect them to install a font just for my website.

As for the code not being selectable - I totally understand that for
aplwiki - but for my website it's not that important. I can always add
a hyperlink to the code, or another page or section with the code in
the default font.

One thing that does appear to be a problem in general with displaying
APL is that it generally requires a larger font to be easily legible.

Discussion is good! Mark.