Certain installed fonts not appearing in flash

Question

This has become a pretty frustrating experience. I'm running
XP and have installed 6 .otf fonts, from the Avenir family. Flash
MX 2004 and Flash 8 don't see all but the Light and Roman versions
of the font (they are the only ones that appear in the font menu).
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop display all the fonts, however.
An associate suggested that sometimes Flash doesn't like the
names to be non-standard; in other words, it doesn't like "Heavy",
but prefers "Bold", etc. This seems to support the fonts not being
displayed in the Flash font menu, as they are
AvenirLTStd-Heavy.otf, AvenirLTStd-HeavyOblique.otf,
AvenirLTStd-LightOblique.otf and AvenirLTStd-Oblique.otf. The only
two being displayed in the font menu are AvenirLTStd-Roman.otf and
AvenirLTStd-Light.otf ("Roman" and "Light" are pretty traditional
names).
I've tried renaming the fonts to "Bold" and "italic", etc.,
but Windows still sees the original names. I've tried opening the
fonts in Notepad and changing all references (for example, all
"Heavy" to "bold"), but saving the font file (even if I add and
remove a space) makes it unreadable as a font (security issues, I
think).
One reason I think it's a naming issue, is I did try renaming
Heavy to Roman, and installed it, and Flash saw it as Roman, but it
had the Heavy characteristic. This work-around doesn't work,
however, as I need Roman, too (and renaming it Roman2 doesn't
work).
Is there any solution for this? I need access to all of the
Avenir font family, as it's for a branded project that uses Avenir
specifically.
Oh, and last but not least, I have the fonts installed on my
Mac, and Flash 8 and CS3 both see all the fonts, no problem.

Answer 1

> An associate suggested that sometimes Flash doesn't like
the names to be
> non-standard; in other words, it doesn't like "Heavy",
but prefers "Bold", etc.
> This seems to support the fonts not being displayed in
the Flash font menu, as
> they are AvenirLTStd-Heavy.otf,
AvenirLTStd-HeavyOblique.otf,
> AvenirLTStd-LightOblique.otf and
AvenirLTStd-Oblique.otf. The only two being
> displayed in the font menu are AvenirLTStd-Roman.otf and
AvenirLTStd-Light.otf
> ("Roman" and "Light" are pretty traditional names).
> I've tried renaming the fonts to "Bold" and "italic",
etc., but Windows still
> sees the original names. I've tried opening the fonts in
Notepad and changing
> all references (for example, all "Heavy" to "bold"), but
saving the font file
> (even if I add and remove a space) makes it unreadable
as a font (security
> issues, I think).
> One reason I think it's a naming issue, is I did try
renaming Heavy to Roman,
> and installed it, and Flash saw it as Roman, but it had
the Heavy
> characteristic. This work-around doesn't work, however,
as I need Roman, too
> (and renaming it Roman2 doesn't work).
> Is there any solution for this? I need access to all of
the Avenir font
> family, as it's for a branded project that uses Avenir
specifically.
> Oh, and last but not least, I have the fonts installed
on my Mac, and Flash 8
> and CS3 both see all the fonts, no problem.
It has nothing to do with font name itself. Also, by the way,
font being a system component,
can't be easily renamed in NotePad. You will need dedicated
font editing tool like Macromedia's
Fontographer.
Anyway, Flash simply does not support some fonts and font's
families. Unlike Other tools you brought
up, Flash is vector based and not catered to handle all kind
of fonts, but specific groups only. In
fact if you deal with more applications, you will realize
that it's a common issue. CorelDraw supports
literally any font, half of which won't never shop up in
Photoshop, then these that show up in photoshop,
half of it won't show up in Flash, and so on. You just can't
use all the fonts and it won't matter
whatever you change their names. It's all about the font and
its outlines and the way it is made.
Best Regards
Urami
"Never play Leap-Frog with a Unicorn."
<urami>
If you want to mail me - DO NOT LAUGH AT MY ADDRESS
</urami>