How do I add a new font for my RoR website (hosted on linux, developed on Mac)?

Rails
1

Hi,
Any pointers where to start digging re how I could use some fonts (e.g.
Iconian Fonts ) in my Rails web site?

I develop on Mac, but deploy to a Linux box. Does this mean I have to
work
out how to install fonts on both operating system I guess? Would I then
only have to refer to the fonts in the CSS style sheet such that my RoR
application beyond this would need no further modification?

–
Greg
http://blog.gregnet.org/

2

Greg,

You might want to read up a bit more on how fonts are used on the web.
If you declare specific fonts to be used in your CSS, it only tells
the browser to try and use it. If the person browsing the
site/application doesn’t have the font specific installed on their
application, then they it’ll default to a font it does have. Here is
some information that explains it.

Hope that helps…

Robby

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 2:02 PM, Greg H.
[email protected] wrote:

http://blog.gregnet.org/

–
Robby R.
Chief Evangelist, Partner

PLANET ARGON, LLC
design // development // hosting w/Ruby on Rails

http://www.robbyonrails.com/
aim: planetargon

+1 503 445 2457
+1 877 55 ARGON [toll free]
+1 815 642 4068 [fax]

3

oh, that makes sense - so for our Web Apps we’re pretty much stuck to
common
denominator fonts for the browsers then?

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 8:09 AM, Robby R.
[email protected]wrote:

I develop on Mac, but deploy to a Linux box. Does this mean I have to

design // development // hosting w/Ruby on Rails

–
Greg
http://blog.gregnet.org/

4

I guess you could go some sort of flash based approach, but then you
have
the issues associated with that, e.g. still need to have same text
behind
for screen readers, how do search engines then go indexing your site
etc…

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Fernando P. <
[email protected]> wrote:

–
Greg
http://blog.gregnet.org/

5

Greg H. wrote:

oh, that makes sense - so for our Web Apps we’re pretty much stuck to
common
denominator fonts for the browsers then?

Exactly.

6

On 17 Jan 2009, at 23:40, Greg H. wrote:

I guess you could go some sort of flash based approach, but then you
have the issues associated with that, e.g. still need to have same
text behind for screen readers, how do search engines then go
indexing your site etc…

See sIFR » Mike Industries and similar solution.
Degrade gracefully and fully indexable. The big question is: do you
really need it? The default system fonts can be enough to make a nice
looking website without the need for such a solution.

Best regards

Peter De Berdt

7

On Jan 17, 5:36 pm, Fernando P. [email protected]
wrote:

Greg H. wrote:

oh, that makes sense - so for our Web Apps we’re pretty much stuck to
common
denominator fonts for the browsers then?

Exactly.

I feel compelled to point out that this is only part of the story.
First of all, it is always possible to specify a weird font as first
choice, as long as you’re willing to put up with fallback to another
font.

Second – and more important – is the fact that more and more
browsers support dynamic font embedding as specified in the CSS2
standard; please see CSS @ Ten: The Next Big Thing – A List Apart and
http://en.wikipedia.org/Dynamic_fonts . It’s not universal yet, but
with any luck, it will become more so.

Good luck!

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
[email protected]
http://www.marnen.org

8

Finally, when you absolutely need something exactly as you want, use
images…

Cheers, Sazima