Font blurring problems when embedding Captivate SWFs
A current project sees us producing short simulations using Adobe Captivate and embedding the resulting SWF in our own e-learning application.
Our application is deployed using Steven Sacks’ Gaia Flash framework, and loads the Captivate content as an ‘Asset’. Some custom XML parameters let us specify the exact width and height, but despite matching the Captivate settings exactly we were seeing a mysterious font-blurring effect that simply wasn’t there when we viewed the Captivate content outside our application.
It turns out our problem was in the use of customised UI elements in Captivate. We’d imported some button art at an incorrect size and resized it within Captivate. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be an issue because (we discovered) Captivate does some (ahem) ‘magic stage resizing’ in the background when it’s running as a standalone element, and the ‘magic’ wasn’t happening when it was embedded in our Gaia application.
The solution was an old one… ‘do everything exactly right the first time’ – ensure all button and UI art was at the correct dimensions, removing the need for Captivate to do any ‘magic stage resizing’ and restoring complete clarity to our text.
