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I have the exactly same font on Mac and on PC. I have created the .fla file on PC with Flash Professional CS5 and when I open it on Flash Professional CS5 on Mac, the font is noticeably smaller.

This causes all kinds of layout problems between our PC and Mac Flash developers. I've searched google, but found no working solution to this.

Embedding the font did not help. Is there any way around this?

The best I've managed to come up so far is to run Flash editor inside virtual Windows when developing with a Mac.

Edit: The font is not smaller, but there are problems on spacing between the rows of text with some fonts that cause layout problems.

Mikko Tapionlinna
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  • known problem here at work too. We manage by using 1 of either mac or PC when building the final swf. The font size is not changing here though, just the vertical placement. – Les Dec 09 '10 at 11:15
  • i'm assuming you're testing with a browser. might it be caused by the zooming text function on your web browser and using system fonts? is the font still smaller if you launch the .swf in from Flash Player? – Chunky Chunk Dec 09 '10 at 11:57
  • No, I'm not in the browser testing phase. This problem appears in the editor itself and all content after that, also in the browser. – Mikko Tapionlinna Dec 09 '10 at 14:13
  • Les, it might be the text size, I did not check that carefully. Still quite problematic. We're installing virtual windows to the macs atm. :( – Mikko Tapionlinna Dec 13 '10 at 08:28
  • Yes, the problem is not the size, it's the vertical position of the text. It happens on some fonts and not on others. We solved this now with a virtual windows approach. :( – Mikko Tapionlinna Dec 14 '10 at 14:22
  • We have this problem at work, too. This Mac/PC font problem has been around for at least 3 iterations of their creative suite. –  Jan 20 '11 at 12:03

1 Answers1

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There is a roundabout way to test the real dimensions of the font, and find a better size.

Pick some letter and put it in a textfield (TF) and add a line return: "MM\nMM". I don't think the TF has to be added to the display list. Set the font, then convert the textfield to a bitmap. Find the height of this bitmap. If it is not the height you wanted, change the font size, leading, kerning, etc., and try again. If you have a specific dimension this text should meet, then this process can be automated.

HTH.

iND
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  • This does not exactly solve the layout problems between PC and Mac developers. Sure, such a hack could be built, but the editor itself seems to have the problem. Nonetheless, I no longer work at the same company, and this is the closest answer that I've had (the only one) So I'm accepting it and leaving it at that. Thanks. – Mikko Tapionlinna Jun 06 '12 at 14:33