What happened?

In order to make it as easy as possible for websites to use a huge selection of fonts on there websites, Font Burner was built on a concept that allowed websites to hotline to the fonts hosted here. This reduced the number of steps to add fonts to your site to basically one. What does “hotlink” mean? This means that the fonts all live on the Font Burner servers. When you use one of our fonts, you are linking to our files. (The exception is users of the WordPress plugin. WordPress users can skip down to the WordPress section). This font (contained in a Flash .swf file) gets loaded every time someone views a page on your site. If your page gets viewed 100 times, the Font Burner server delivers the font 100 times. The steady growth of Font Burner over the last few years has steadily increased the demands on our server. Thousands of websites serving thousands of pageviews every day adds up. It is hard to estimate how many millions of files we serve up each month, but you can imagine that it is a huge number. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it isn’t possible to support a hotlinking model any more.

So what now?

Fortunately, there is a solution that is a win for everyone involved. You can still use any of the 1000+ fonts found here, you simply have to host the font yourself! Rather than linking to the font on our servers you will link to a font that is stored on your website. I will explain how to do this in a moment, but first let me list the pros and cons of this new method.

Pros:
1. Less downtime. Since you host the files yourself you are no longer at the mercy of Font Burner’s servers which have suffered from downtime due to the demands of hundreds of websites.

2. Faster font loading. Your server will be able to deliver your fonts faster than Font Burner can because, again, you won’t be limited by our stressed servers.

Cons:
1. More complicated setup. Don’t worry, it isn’t hard, but it is one step further than before. Scroll down to see what exactly is involved in the new system

What this means for you…

If you are hotlinking to a swf font hosted on Font Burner your fonts will no longer show up. If you are panicking because your fonts dissappeared, there is a quick fix that will get your headlines to reappear. Simply remove the Font Burner code from the header of your page. This will cause your headlines to default back to there original styles. This should give you time to update your Font Burner settings without your headlines being gone in the meantime.

How do you get your fonts working again?

Unless you are using the WordPress plugin, here is what you need to do to get your fonts back online. Basically, you do two things. First you upload the font to your server, then you update the code so that your site links to the font in the right location. Here is how you do both:

1. The first step is to download the font and supporting files from Font Burner. Navigate to the page of Font Burner where the font you are using is located. Look towards the bottom of the page for download links. There are several files that you need. One is the SWF font file. The second is the font’s “javascript (php) file.” The final file is called the “core Font Burner CSS and Javascript files.” You don’t need to know what these files do.

2. Next, upload the files to your server. You should have 5 files total: 1 swf, 2 css, 1 php, and 1 js. Put these files in a place where you can find easily, like in a font folder or in your root directory.

3. Finally, update the Font Burner code that you have in the header of your pages. Look for a line that says something like, this:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.fontburner.com/css/fontburner.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.fontburner.com/css/fontburner_print.css" type="text/css" media="print" />
<script src="http://www.fontburner.com/fontburner.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.fontburner.com/js/black/fontname.php"></script>
<!-- sIFR fonts delivered by www.fontburner.com -->

and replace it with the code provided by Font Burner that looks like this:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/fontburner.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/fontburner_print.css" type="text/css" media="print" />
<script src="http://www.yourdomain.com/fontburner.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.yourdomain.com/fontname.php"></script>
<!-- sIFR fonts delivered by www.fontburner.com -->

Note: your code will be a little different because you are going to be replacing “yourdomain.com” with your actual domain name. Also the “fontname” will be replaced by the name of the font you are using. That’s it. You can now check out your site and confirm that everything is working.

WordPress Plugin Users:

If you have the latest version of the Font Burner plugin or have installed the plugin recently you don’t need to do anything. If you are using an older version of the Font Burner plugin for WordPress and your fonts have dissappeared then you need to make a couple changes. Here is what you need to do:

1. Go to your WordPress plugin control panel and upgrade the plugin.

2. Once the plugin has been upgraded you will need to go to the Font Burner control panel. There should be a message on this screen that contains links to the fonts you were using. Click these links to download a zip file of each font. Unzip each file to get the .swf file contained in the zip file. These are the files that you will be hosting on your server.

3. Upload the .swf file(s) to the Font Burner plugin folder on your server. This is located somewhere like

/wp-content/plugins/font-burner-control-panel/fonts/

4. Once you have uploaded the .swf file into the “fonts” directory in the plugin folder the font will now appear in the dropdown menu in your Font Burner settings page. Select the font and save the options.

In conclusion

So as you can see, this is a bit more work than the original Font Burner concept, but I hope you agree that the tradeoff is worth it. As always, I am open to suggestions and feedback. Thanks for your support and I hope to continue to use Font Burner. Finally, I would like to point to another option for rich typography for your website. Google Fonts is a technology vastly superior to the sIFR system that makes Font Burner work. The selection of fonts is a bit small but it is growing. If you are using WordPress, I have a Google Font plugin that you can check out.

New Font Burner Support Forum
The biggest news is the new addition of a support forum to this site. The goal is that the forum will be a great resource for anyone struggling to get Font Burner working on their site. I am also looking to the Font Burner community to help each other out and share tips and suggestions. Click here to visit the forum!

If you have insight into common problems encountered when using Font Burner, please make a post and share your expertise with the community. Your contributions to the forum would be greatly appreciated! Additionally, if you are interested in being a forum moderator, I am looking for help there, too.

I wish I could say that this was entirely unselfish, but the truth is that I am hoping this will help reduce the amount of technical support I do via email. I have been close to closing the doors on Font Burner, but just can’t pull the trigger. It is a labor of love, and sometimes it really feels like labor! I feel really guilty when someone sends me an email with a question that I don’t answer. I apologize if you are one of the people I have neglected! Please forgive me. Hopefully the forum will prevent me from being as big of a jerk to people who use my service.

WordPress Plugin Update in Devleopment
In other news, I am working on a new version of the Font Burner WordPress plugin. While this release won’t introduce much (if any) new functionality, it is a major upgrade because it will address some of the performance issues happening behind the scenes. I am hoping to reduce the code size, and streamline how the Font Burner code is injected into the WordPress header. It is pretty much a rebuild from scratch and that is why it is taking so long. Stay tuned for the official release of the new and improved plugin.

That’s the news for now. Thanks to everyone who uses Font Burner and makes this site a success! I really appreciate your support.

Font Burner is powered by over 1000 sIFR font swf files. Until now these sIFR font files have been silently working behind the scenes to bring rich typography to your website. This is perfect for the average person, but there has been a growing demand for the ability to download the actual sIFR swf files so that people can host their own fonts rather than just linking to the font on Font Burner. Before I get to far ahead of myself let me define a few of the terms I keep using.

What is a .swf font file?
An swf file is a shockwave filed, otherwise known as a Flash file. An swf can be anything from a video to a website, to animation. In the case of Font Burner, the swf is basically an empty Flash file that contains an embedded font. By using a technology called sIFR the swf font files are used to switch ordinary headlines into the font embedded in the swf.

What is sIFR?
SIFR is what powers Font Burner. SIFR takes a .swf font file and uses it to switch your headlines from default fonts to the font of your choosing.

Now that we have defined sIFR and swf font files you may be asking what you would do next. Well, this is admittedly an advanced feature that will appeal to people that are comfortable customizing javascript. One of the challenges of siFR is that it requires you to own Flash and be able to create a sIFR swf file. These obstacles are what inspired Font Burner to create an easy way to add sIFR to your site without any of the hassle that typically accompanies using sIFR technology.

Unfortunately, in Font Burner’s current state it can be somewhat limiting in that the color choices and customizations just aren’t possible yet. Some people just want the .swf font files and can handle the customization on their own. For these power users the ability to download free swf font files is all they are really looking for.

All the .swf files are free for download. However, if you use a Font Burner Font it would be appreciated if you gave credit to Font Burner as well as the font designer on your site. I hope you enjoy this new feature!

On Jan 10, 2009, at 5:12 AM, Keith Bates wrote the following in an email titled “K-TYPE LICENCE INFRINGEMENT:”

Adrian,

I have not received a reply to the request I sent a few weeks ago asking you to remove my K-Type fonts that appear on your FontBurner site. Please remove them immediately!

I was initially rather surprised that someone who purports to be helping font designers would not even credit each font foundry whose fonts are being used within FontBurner.

More importantly with regard to K-Type, you are failing to acknowledge or publicize the terms of our Licensing Agreement which allows K-Type ‘Freebies’ to be used without a licence ‘for personal use only’.

The great problem with FontBurner is that although you are supplying this software free, it will be utilised by commercial concerns who will assumed that you have commercial clearance to use our fonts. You have not sought or been granted such permission. Indeed, the K-Type Licence Agreement, clearly visible on our website and available in the documentation within all current versions of K-Type fonts, clearly states that ‘Freebies used for commercial purposes must be licensed at the same rate as Pay Fonts’. Furthermore, K-Type fonts used within software products such as you are offering, need to be covered by an Enterprise Licence.

I trust you will quickly remove our intellectual property from your web site and FontBurner product and will advise me as soon as this is done. I attach a full list of K-Type ‘Freebies’ below.

Failure to comply with this instruction will result in legal action.

Keith Bates

K-Type Freebies (Free for Personal Use)

3×5
Alex
Anna
Collegiate
Dalek
Designer Block
Digitalis
Flatpack
Future Imperfect
Gommogravure
Greetings
Insecurity
Kato
Klee Capscript
Lexia Readable
Magical Mystery Tour
MailArt
MailArt Graphics
Mailart Rubberstamp
Mandatory
Max
Ming
Norton
Pix-L
Ray Johnson
Roadway
Sans Culottes
Snippletweak
Subway Ticker
Susanna
This Corrosion
Victor Moscoso
Wanda
Waverley

On Jan 10, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Adrian Hanft wrote:

Keith,

Somehow I missed your email from a few weeks ago. It either got filtered as spam or I missed it over Christmas when I was using my phone for email. Apologies.

Font Burner tries to make it simple for anyone to use freely available fonts on their websites. Since we have so many fonts in the system it is currently a little hard to credit the font designers as well as we would like. Hopefully we can improve that in the future because we really do respect font designers and thank them when they share their property freely. While we believe that it is within our legal rights to post any and all fonts on Font Burner, we try to respect the wishes of font owner such as yourself who ask us to remove a font. So, as a courtesy to you, I have turned off the following fonts within the Font Burner system:

Future Imperfect
Greetings
Lexia
Mailart rubber stamp
Mandatory
Susanna
This corrosion

As a point of clarity, I am curious how K-Type views sIFR in general? Do you restrict the use of sIFR completely with your fonts? I assume you realize that any time a sIFR file is posted online technically anyone could link to it and use it on their site, commercial or otherwise. If you demand that Font Burner remove the sIFR files off our server you are basically saying that it is illegal for anyone to use your fonts in sIFR even if they have purchased the font. That’s just something I want you to think about and I would be curious to know your thoughts in that matter.

Also, I want to alert you to the fact that I will be posting all our correspondence publicly and unedited on the Font Burner blog. I think it is important that all our users are aware of issues like this. Thanks for your email and let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Adrian Hanft

I have yet to hear back from Keith, but when I do I will post it here.

Museo
This beautiful slab serif was designed by Jos Buivenga, maker of several of the best free fonts online. Check out josbuivenga.demon.nl for several premium fonts. There are several weights of Museo available for free from myfonts.com. I like this one because it is really readable without losing any character. Click here to see a sample.

Cuprum
This san serif was designed by Jovanny Lemonad and can be downloaded from dafont.com. I don’t know much about it, but it is a simple and easy to read sans serif. I am definitely a fan of this one. Click here to see it in action on Font Burner.

Both of these fonts were recommended to us by readers. Thanks! If you know of a great free font that is absent from our archives, please visit our support forum and request to have your font loaded into the system.

Visit the plugins homepage or download it from the plugin directory at WordPress.org. If you use the plugin please give me any feedback that you have. We hope you enjoy this new tool!

Learn all about wordpress plugins using testkings free resources. Download the testking ccnp guide and testking ccda videos to learn how to create inspiring wordpress themes.

To do list:

• Allow different color for different headlines (H1 can be a different than H2)
• Alignment options (right, left, center, justified)
• Different fonts for H1, H2, H3, and H4

Since the launch of Font Burner last April I have had several conversations with Font business people and I can’t point to a single person who has shown any interest in embracing sIFR. At best, they are willing to turn a blind eye to the use of sIFR. At worst, they expect an additional payment for a special sIFR license.

Think about that for a second. You legally purchase a font. You can use it freely anywhere you want. In advertising, on television, in a book, on the side of a plane, in your logo, anywhere. But if you want to use this font on your website, stop the presses! Oh, no! If you want to use the font that YOU PAID FOR on your website you will have to purchase an additional license. That is ridiculous. It is greedy, plain and simple.

This type of restrictive stance is a symptom of an industry that is only interested in turning a profit. This became even more clear to me when I had some correspondence with a representative from a relatively unknown font distribution website. I won’t give them the satisfaction of a link or mentioning them by name.

I was approached by this company because they wanted to know if I would be interested in promoting their free font of the month. At first I thought it would be a mutually beneficial partnership. I would promote their free font of the month and in exchange they would let me use the font within the Font Burner system. But when the details of how the arrangement would work were explained, the obvious one-sided arrangement became apparent.

The company had no interest in letting me use their free font on Font Burner. In fact, they don’t allow the use of any of their fonts with sIFR to anyone without an additional license. Yes, you heard that correctly. You would have to buy a license to use a sIFR version of a font that they are GIVING AWAY FOR FREE! To quote:

We would not want our free font of the month posted to your site, either temporarily or permanently. Thus we were hoping that you would simply promote the free font, and link over to our site for users to download it.

Can you believe that? They expect me to promote their products and send traffic to their site without getting anything in return. They expect something for free in one breath and then in the next they refuse to loosen their restrictive policies in the slightest bit! I can’t use the very font that they want me to promote on my site without being in violation of their license! Unbelievable.

I will end this post with my response to this unscrupulous solicitor:

Thanks for clarifying your license restrictions. Unfortunately, I can’t endorse a company that takes such a limiting stance in regard to sIFR. I don’t agree with requiring additional licenses for using sIFR. If you purchase a font I believe you should legally be able to use it on your website without having to pay extra for that “luxury.” Frankly, I think you have more to gain from making it easier for people to use fonts online than by restricting them, but you guys have to run your business however you feel comfortable. Thanks again for contacting me, and keep me in mind if the licensing atmosphere loosens up at (campany name withheld).

The first site is called sIFR Generator. It is an online tool that makes it easy to convert True Type fonts to a swf file that you can use with siFR. It is compatible with sIFR 3 and might just be the easiest way to generate sIFR font files. If you don’t want to shell out the cash for the arguably overpriced Flash software it is definitely your best option.

The second site I want to point you to is css-tricks.com, where there is a video tutorial about how to use sIFR 3. If you are a visual learner like myself, you are going to find this tutorial is for you. If you are lucky your days of stumbling through the sIFR documentation are over. And while I am on the topic of good sIFR tutorials, you might want to look at these instructions on Design Intellection. Good stuff.

I hope you find these links useful. Good luck with your sIFRing!

Font Burner respects the rights of font designers. We love fonts and want to make font designers rich and famous. We also love the internet and want to expand the options for online fonts. There is a balancing act that has to happen that allows growth for online font usage as well as rewarding the hard working people who create fonts. Font Burner is right in the middle of it and unfortunately we won’t be able to please everyone.

Font Burner uses sIFR to render the fonts. Most commercial fonts require that you own a license for any font that you are using with sIFR. There is plenty of gray area in a statement like that, but Font Burner has decided to error on the side of safety and honor the font companies’ wishes. For that reason, all the fonts available on Font Burner right now are copyright free fonts, the majority of which can be downloaded for free at dafont.com. At the launch of Font Burner there were some commercial fonts mixed in by mistake. We apologize for any oversight and if you see any more fonts that you believe shouldn’t be available here please let us know!

The hope is that Font Burner can expand beyond the free fonts and offer commercial fonts eventually with the font designer’s blessing. We are looking for a font company or a font designer that is willing to embrace this technology and give us a thumbs up for use on Font Burner. The exposure and publicity that comes with Font Burner has the potential to be a big boost to anyone who recognizes the advantage of being seen as a leader in this regard.