Cursive Font Family?

One that is likely to be installed on PCs?

[Birdman]

Hello,

Can anyone recommend a common cursive font that is likely to be available on users computers?

I've been toying with these two but got on a brand new winXP and neither were available.

"Amazone BT"
"Mural Script"

Your feedback is most appreciated!

[TryAgain]

You might check this webmasterworld thread: What is the most common fonts installed? [webmasterworld.com]

Or: VisiBone Font Survey Results - Browsershare [visibone.com] (www.visibone.com)

If only there'd been a standard way of embedding fonts.
Oops forgot; font designers don't want their fonts embedded. Oh well.

[choster]

There doesn't seem to be a typeface I'd call "cursive" with wide installation. The codestyle.org and VisiBone surveys say Comic Sans MS is common (I believe it's a standard Microsoft font, so comes with Office or IE), but that's more "handwriting" or "script." "Cursive" implies interconnected letters.

Is there a default in any of the major browsers? We all know "serif" on Windows is probably going to be Times New roman and "fixed" on Mac is probably going to be Courier, but I've never tried "cursive" or "fantasy."

[Birdman]

Thanks TryAgain! Good links. Unfortunately, they prove that I may be stuck with using images. :(

It's a template based system and I really wanted the fancy font but on the other hand, I don't want to have to create images every time someone signs up.

Next Question
Are there scripts available that will dynamically create images from text? I have some experience with PHP/GD but have never attempted something like that.

Thanks again!

<added>Thanks to choster, as well</added>

[tombola]

"cursive" = "oblique" = "italic"

Are there scripts available that will dynamically create images from text?

By using the GD Graphics library you can generate images on the fly (based on user input) in .jpeg and .png format.

[TryAgain]

Are there scripts available that will dynamically create images from text?

Haven't personally seen this being done (or didn't notice), but Google came up with a lot of related stuff on this, like:

Dynamically writing text to images with PHP [development.gurusnetwork.com] (development.gurusnetwork.com)
Create dynamic images with SVG and XSL [builder.com.com] (builder.com.com)
AspImage [serverobjects.com] (www.serverobjects.com)

[Birdman]

Thanks again, TryAgain.

Looks like it won't be so bad after all. Actually this should prove to be quite useful. By the way, I didn't mean for everyone to do my legwork for me, but it is appreciated. I wanted to get the valued opinions of my fellow WW members first before I went on the SE mission ;)

It seems the GD Library is very powerful. I found this site from the user comments at php.net/image/ and it is very useful.

[nyphp.org...]

I especially like the Drop Shadow Example [nyphp.org] :)

Now I've gone and done it. Another adventure ;)