I have a client that I build a business card "builder" application for in Flex. All the text elements that users add to the stage are Flex spark TextArea. I have a list of fonts that we allow the user to set on the text areas and some of the fonts included do have Bold and Italic versions of the font. The others that do not I simply disable these options in the control panel so the user doesn't have the option to click bold or italic buttons.
Photoshop does something similar if you load a font that doesn't have Bold or Italic options they disable the dropdown that would allow you to select these options in the text pallet http://grab.by/bOTC
When bold and italic aren't an included font face then Photoshop as a couple of buttons for applying Faux Bold and Italic to the font. Basically they programmatically thicken up the font face or slat it to make it look italic.
I've tried just setting fontWeight and fontStyle on the fonts that don't have bold or italic included in the embedded fonts and the result usually is a "web safe" font shows instead of the selected font or nothing at all happens.
I am wondering if there is a programmatic way that anyone has found that will do this in Flash / Flex. Basically thicken the font face or tilt it slightly to look italic. My guess is this would be pretty difficult and not worth the time and effort to the client but would be a neat thing to figure out and have a solution for.
