Fonts within an executable

[Eudaimonist]

I'm new both here and to Java, so please bear with me.

My limited research into Java's capabilities indicates that an application can only use those fonts already on the user's machine. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

My question is: how can I get a Java application to use fonts not supported by the user's machine?

Here is the scenario: The user downloads a Java executable (possibly in a zip file) and runs it. The user does not have a particular font used by the Java application already on his machine. I want that download to bring the font with it in some fashion that the application can use.

[Eudaimonist]

Is there no way to do this? I suppose I could make a graphical file that contains all the font's character glyphs and get them that way, but of course I'd prefer not to do that unless necessary.

Could I perhaps load a font into an object and then save the object to a file? How does that sound as a solution?

What is the easiest way to do this?

[ArchAngel]

You could check to see if the font is installed:

import java.awt.*;


public class Test {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
                GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();

                Font[] fonts = ge.getAllFonts();
                for (int i=0; i<fonts.length; i++) {
                        String faceName = fonts[i].getName();
                        System.out.println(faceName);
                }
        }
}

...and if it's not, copy the font file to a specified fonts directory, re-run the above test to check that the font is registered and then continue.