Embedding and using external fonts.

Question

I'm using Flash CS4.  I'm trying to load and embed an external font.  The main problem I'm having is that I need to import more than just latin 1.  I need many special characters imported as well.  Because of this, using Flash CS4's create new font from the library is not an option.  I'm using Verdana, so I know the font has all the characters I need.
So what I need to do is create an external swf that holds the font.  Then I need to import and use the font.  Unfortunately, I've found way too many ways online that work but don't fit my needs.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

1. Embedding
a. You can embed font in Flash IDE by creating Font as a library asset and then compile this swf. There are tons of help available on Internet.
b. If you use Flash CS5 or compilers that utilizes Flex SDK, you can create class like below and compile it into a swf:
package 
     import flash.display.Sprite;
     public class FontLibrary extends Sprite
          [Embed(systemFont="Verdana", fontName="_verdana", mimeType="application/x-font", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontStyle="normal",unicodeRange="U+0020-U+007E")]
          public static var Normal:Class;
          [Embed(systemFont="Verdana", fontName="_verdana", mimeType="application/x-font", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontStyle="normal", fontWeight="bold",unicodeRange="U+0020-U+007E")]
          public static var Bold:Class;
          [Embed(systemFont="Verdana", fontName="_verdana", mimeType="application/x-font", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontStyle="italic", fontWeight="normal",unicodeRange="U+0020-U+007E")]
          public static var Italic:Class;
          [Embed(systemFont="Verdana", fontName="_verdana", mimeType="application/x-font", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontStyle="italic", fontWeight="bold",unicodeRange="U+0020-U+007E")]
          public static var ItalicBold:Class;
No matter what way you choose - you will have font available the external swf.
Try to load external swf into current domain. When you load the swf there is no much to do. Once swf is loaded - fonts should be available throughout application.
To use the font - just pass its name into TextFiled instance's TextFormat. WIth the example above:
myTextFormat.font = "_verdana";
Documentation for TextFormat:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/text/TextFormat.html
To see available fonts you can use the following:
var allFonts:Array = Font.enumerateFonts(false);
allFonts.sortOn("fontName", Array.CASEINSENSITIVE);     
for (var i:int = 0; i < allFonts.length; i++)
     trace(allFonts[i].fontName);