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Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR) is an open source JavaScript and Adobe Flash based technology that enables the replacement of text elements on HTML web

Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR) is an open source JavaScript and Adobe Flash based technology that enables the replacement of text elements on HTML web pages with Flash equivalents. It was initially developed by Shaun Inman and improved by Mike Davidson and Mark Wubben. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Inman_Flash_Replacement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Inman_Flash_Replacemen... http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr/ http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr/

apu 18y ago
So let me get this straight. In order to make sure everyone sees titles in the same font, they're rendered using flash. So I have to load the buggy flash plugin for a page with all text. I can't select the title. I can't resize the title (nor does it resize with the page zoom). Adblock displays a distracting "Block" above the title (and I'm assuming a large number of people have similar flash-blocking/warning plugins). So why is this better than an image version of the title with alt text? That seems to be much easier, takes almost no resources, requires neither flash nor javascript, resizes automatically in Firefox (albeit using nearest neighbor, which is still better than not resizing at all). Finally, is the font used for the title that important?
- thomasmallen 18y ago
  sIFR degrades gracefully and is accessible. I recommend that you read up on sIFR before recoiling in "no, it's FLASH!" horror. And yes, typography is important in design.
  - apu 18y ago
    I never said it wasn't accessible or that it doesn't degrade gracefully. I did read the links provided on sIFR. My points remain. An image would degrade just as gracefully and be just as accessible. And graceful degradation/accessibility seem to be answering the UI question for older browsers. What about current browsers? Since I have flash installed, the title is rendered using flash and now I can't resize/select the title. In this case, the "degraded" version seems like a step up. Finally, yes, I know that typography is important in design. I was just wondering at what cost.
    - thomasmallen 18y ago
      Yes, the image would work just as well. Now try generating that image on the fly for 1000 product pages, for instance. sIFR draws content from HTML, making it far more flexible. I very easily implemented Trajan Pro product titles for an artist's website for around 400 products, and this would have been prohibitively tedious if I were using images. As for your resizing concern, sIFR should only be used for headlines. Typically, everyone can read text in that size (body copy may require resizing, but only a fool would run blocks of text through sIFR).

apu 18y ago

So let me get this straight. In order to make sure everyone sees titles in the same font, they're rendered using flash. So I have to load the buggy flash plugin for a page with all text. I can't select the title. I can't resize the title (nor does it resize with the page zoom). Adblock displays a distracting "Block" above the title (and I'm assuming a large number of people have similar flash-blocking/warning plugins). So why is this better than an image version of the title with alt text? That seems to be much easier, takes almost no resources, requires neither flash nor javascript, resizes automatically in Firefox (albeit using nearest neighbor, which is still better than not resizing at all). Finally, is the font used for the title that important?

thomasmallen 18y ago
sIFR degrades gracefully and is accessible. I recommend that you read up on sIFR before recoiling in "no, it's FLASH!" horror. And yes, typography is important in design.
- apu 18y ago
  I never said it wasn't accessible or that it doesn't degrade gracefully. I did read the links provided on sIFR. My points remain. An image would degrade just as gracefully and be just as accessible. And graceful degradation/accessibility seem to be answering the UI question for older browsers. What about current browsers? Since I have flash installed, the title is rendered using flash and now I can't resize/select the title. In this case, the "degraded" version seems like a step up. Finally, yes, I know that typography is important in design. I was just wondering at what cost.
  - thomasmallen 18y ago
    Yes, the image would work just as well. Now try generating that image on the fly for 1000 product pages, for instance. sIFR draws content from HTML, making it far more flexible. I very easily implemented Trajan Pro product titles for an artist's website for around 400 products, and this would have been prohibitively tedious if I were using images. As for your resizing concern, sIFR should only be used for headlines. Typically, everyone can read text in that size (body copy may require resizing, but only a fool would run blocks of text through sIFR).