The Spanner

So, I’ve been working this evening. I’ve created my first couple of pages using the sIFR (scalable Inman Flash Replacement) technique.
For those of you who’ve not heard of it, sIFR allows you to replace specific targeted elements. Remember how you used to make headers for every h1/h2/h3 in Photoshop, trim to fit then do the CSS dance to hide the text and show the graphic as a background? sIFR does away with all that, turning standard (x)HTML text into a Flash movie, using your desired fonts, colours and spacing.

But wait. You said “Flash”… yeah, that’s right. Adobe Flash is usually the bane of my life when web and accessibility are mentioned in the same breath… but the sIFR technique is completely accessible. If Flash is not installed, the page gracefully drops back to the initial CSS styles you set up for the elements, using standard fonts. If Flash is installed, the fonts look beautiful, very crisp and sharp, and in the font you desire. But what about all that embed crap? Fear not, the source code still has your <h1>header text</h1> in place. Like magic… it’s really impressive.

Why have I only just got round to it? I don’t know to be honest, possibly a case of really despising Flash for purposes such as this, but after playing with the beta of sIFR 3.0 (which has been out for a while, and works very well) I’m a convert.

My next step is to use it in our JP74 Content Management System, adding another feature for clients, allowing them control over header text through the CMS…