Since I don't know a whole lot about Flash, I'm wondering if this is a problem with my setup or with the creators of the Flash animation.

Here is a screenshot of what I'm talking about:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ej2980/images/example.png

I can remember having pretty fonts before on this animation, from the ESPN.com homepage. Now they look like this.

Now, I don't know how fonts are displayed in animations such as this. I don't know if the plugin decodes font information and gets the fonts from your system, or whether the data is hardcoded into the animation. If the former is true, then it's gotta be a problem with my setup. If the latter is true, I know that it is the fault of the creators of the animation.

Usually Flash fonts are embedded inside the animation itself and will look the same (or very, very similar) across all platforms that have Flash plugins.

Your screenshot looks like it's more of a Java applet. Java applet fonts look different under Windows and Linux. And somehow it's also GTK related i guess, because I remembered changing some GTK font settings and then it affected the Java applets which has fonts on it.

why can't Java use Qt stuff

'cuz Trolltech's strange licensing conflicting with SUN's JAVA licensing, perharps ?!...

OK, I just noticed the same thing, on Macromedia's website. I viewed the page source, and noticed that it was coming from a JavaScript. So it appears you were right, Azmeen. No idea what I need to do for Firebird to recognize it? It's a GTK+ 1.2 app if I am not mistaken, but the pretty TTF fonts already show up in it, and other GTK+ 1.x apps like The GIMP and Grip.

i can't see flash on my browser. do i have to install it manually ?