Trying to figure out why those damnable TextFields won’t play nicely with your MovieClips? They just don’t respond to simple things, like setting alpha properties. Fear not! There is a solution! And I won’t forget it this time because I’m writing about it… ;)
Gotta embed those fonts! Here’s the Adobe docs. I won’t venture a technical explanation, only that I assume Flash requires the font vector information to translate the text to a shape, and thus, suitable for raw DisplayObject action.
Step 1: Reference the font. Library > Add Font… Be aware of the name you use here, lets say “Arial” for this example.
Step 2: Make the font available for ActionScript. Library > Font > Linkage. Export for ActionScript in first frame.
Step 3: In your ActionScript:
var tt:TextField = new TextField();
var tf:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
tf.font = "Arial";
tf.color = 0x000000;
tt.defaultTextFormat = tf;
tt.text = "test text";
tt.embedFonts = true;
tt.alpha = .5;
addChild(tt);
Something else to note. You have to assign a defaultTextFormat before placing text into the TextField, otherwise, it doesn’t work right. Finicky Flash.
