Posted by Harlan Messinger on 10/31/25 12:00

Jonathan N. Little wrote:
> ynoteh wrote:
>> I know that a web page will not look as intended if the visitor does
>> not have the specified font installed on their computer..
>> But what about printing the web page? If the same visitor tries to
>> print that page and does not have the font installed, will they get
>> the intended font, or a substitute on their printout? I think a
>> substitution?... I'm trying to grasp what the printer sees, but having
>> a mental block!
>
> Viewing or printing, same thing. if the user does have the font, it will
> not print. The font is not *embedded* in an HTML document. Look at it
> this way and HTML document is like script for a play, it test what the
> actors say and do, but not who the actors are. So on Broadway Lang

Lane.

> and
> Broderick may stared. If the play is in your hometown, the play will be
> the same, but the actors will most likely not be Lang and Broderick but
> who is available.

It already wasn't Lane and Broderick by the time I got to the show on
Broadway. It was Steven Weber and some English guy, and the English guy
was terrible and Weber not so hot, and they were removed from the roles
within weeks.

> Same as your font in a HTML document. Unlike in media
> where fonts are embedded like PDFs, to complete the analogy, like a copy
> of a movie. If you have a copy of the '68 movie then wherever you play
> it the actors are always Mostel and Wilder.

But if you have a copy of the 2005 version of the movie then it's Lane
and Broderick again.

A better analogy might have been a script for Robin Hood where Robin's
lines are annotated, "Spoken in an English accent", which means that
actors who have an English accent installed will speak their parts in an
English accent, while Kevin Costner, who evidently doesn't have an
English accent installed, will speak American all through the film.

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