sIFR is web-element that uses JavaScript and Flash to create rich text for the web that is dynamically created based on the offsetHeight and offsetWidth of the text elements. Since it uses CSS to find the text to replace, sIFR is able to meet W3C standards by being suppressible via stripped style sheet. The web-element uses Javascript to discover if the browser can run Flash and then to hide and replace all identified for change text. A small SWF is created with the text to be replaced and then sized to the exact height and width of text element to be changed. The latest version creates the Flash text at a small font size and then scales it up to a size to fit the element. The key thing to remember when you use this is the big what if the user doesn’t have Flash. According to Mike Davidson (who created sIFR with Mark Wubben), You need to try to make you text look similar to the Flash via your CSS. Basically don’t leave your section headers as regular sized text to be replaced with huge titles. The non-Flash browser will destroy the look of the site in this case. Also this is accessible because the Flash is only replacing text in the same way a style sheet could replace text elements with images. So a screen reader should just see the page in the normal way, but a regular user will see the Flashiness. The developers of this technology have really thought about their users. They worked with the Firefox Flashblock developers to make the Flash not show up for Flashblock users. sIFR even has a best practices recommendation. The gist? Don’t use this to replace all text, just section headers. Also designers should be wary of using this to create links because Flash takes away some browser functionality when used for hyperlinking.

sIFR if free to head over to the link below to download and check it out. The zip comes with an FLA that you can open and edit to add you own fonts and make changes.