Punjabi text not rendering correctly in TLFTextField instance?

Question

I'm experiencing rendering issues with a SWF file using a runtime generated instance of the TLFTextField class (Flash CS5 or CS5.5), specifically with Punjabi and only on Mac OS browsers. The text displays as control characters (or outlined rectangles), and not in Punjabi. However, if I make an authortime instance of TLFTextField in a FLA, copy and paste Punjabi text into the field on the stage, and publish it with an embedded font like Arial Unicode MS, Punjabi displays just fine. If I try to use the same embedded font on a runtime instance, I still get the weird characters. Even weirder, if I leave the authortime instance on the stage, and then create a runtime instance of TLFTextField, the text shows just fine in both fields! What's happening with the authortime instance that I can not get to happen with the runtime instance?
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.
-Robert

Answer 1

Perhaps I should just make a post that says, "Has anyone used TLF to render Punjabai text"? Would that be suitable for a post in this forum? Alan, I know how I can continue to debug the issue further using either native FTE methods as well as TLF containers directly instead of the shell that I'm using to create them. So far, I've found that this is a Mac specific issue (Windows is fine), and that my only workaround is to specify a TextLayoutFormat instance using a fontFamily value of "Gurmukhi MT". This font seems to only be available on the Mac OS X install disc in the Optional Installs folder (I had it installed by default, but my Canadian government clients did not). If I specify the following properties for a TextLayoutFormat instance, it will display:
textFormat.fontFamily = "Gurmukhi MT";
textFormat.fontWeight = FontWeight.NORMAL;
textFormat.fontLookup = FontLookup.DEVICE;
textFormat.renderingMode = RenderingMode.CFF;
I was hoping I could get it to work in an embedded fashion, but my research also indicates the Mac OS has a different lookup table for Punjabi glyphs than Windows OS.
I only have so much time left in this project to find a solution, and I might just go with this approach for now. Hopefully, other users who need to render Punjabi / Devanagari characters can utilize some of what I've said here as a solution.
-Robert