SIFR text invisible to browsers' Find command

Users are not able to fin开发者_StackOverflowd sifr text using ctrl-f/cmd-f. Is it possible to configure sifr for this functionality?

No, it is not.

SIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) locates specified passages within an HTML document, and replaces them with Flash movies that print out the same text in a fancy font. The original text is preserved, and can be read aloud by screen reader software, but is hidden from view.

Sadly, the Find function (CTRL/CMD + F) will not work on the Flash movies. Under the hood, each area of replaced text is actually treated as a whole separate window being operated by Flash, rather than an area of the browser window. So the highlighting or skip-to functions of Find will not work on the replaced text, because the browser does not have access to Flash's windows. In some browsers, a Find may "work" by finding the hidden text left for screen readers; but because it is hidden from view, there is no change in the screen to signal its location to the user, which can be frustrating.

I would recommend looking into the @font-face CSS directive, which allows you to embed custom fonts. Font Squirrel is a helpful utility for generating the necessary code with a large variety of fonts of decent quality. Because @font-face works within the browser instead of superimposing new windows within the document, the Find function will work normally. Not all browsers support @font-face, but most modern browsers do. For older browsers, specify a fallback font in your CSS as usual.

If it is truly important to you to have a consistent typeface across both older and newer browsers, you could try a hybrid approach:

1. Use @font-face for most browsers
2. Use JavaScript to detect @font-face support.
3. Trigger SIFR only in browsers that do not support @font-face.

The hybrid approach will yield the best results, but it's rather a lot of work. It also incurs a lot of dependencies -- your page has to include not just the @font-face stuff, but also the SIFR stuff, which will increase your page's download times. So weigh your options carefully.