TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Sat Jul 20 14:04:14 EDT 2024

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LUC DEVROYE

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Extracting fonts from Flash files

A quote from Apostrophe on alt.binaries.fonts, regarding the extraction of fonts from Flash files: " It's true that you cannot extract fonts from a Flash file, but it's not true that the symbols converted can only be understood by Flash. To illustrate, you can drop a Flash symbol onto Freehand, and it will be read as vector art, with modifiable control nodes and all. It is quite easy to extract all the vectors of a Flash files, save as EPS, and from there turn them into a font. So technically fonts *can* be extracted from Flash, albeit with a little effort. The process I just described is actually a fool-proof knock-off method, believe it or not. When someone uses vector files (including fonts) in a Flash design, Flash converts the vector into *another* (its own) vector format, which means that it retraces the outlines of the vector using its own mechanism, therefore its own node definitions. So, if for instance one were to take the capital A of Times and use it in an .swf still, one can easily drop the A onto Freehand and obtain an outline that is very very very close to the Times A, but with a different set of nodes defining it. So if contemporary person were to check the original Times against a Times processed through Flash, they'd be mystified, since the fonts would be so digitally different yet the outlines would be almost identical. Another stab in the heart of digital protection, I suppose. Don't even get me started on how easy it is to hack fonts from Shockwave files :o)"

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