sIFR is a tool that allows novelty and custom fonts to be used on web pages. It uses javascript and flash to take text (commonly headings), hide it, and replace it with a flash-based alternative. It’s pretty clever and works pretty damn well.

But there are some drawbacks. For example, sIFR over links doesn’t always work well, especially on Mac browsers. Links become unclickable, and as far as I know, there’s no good workaround. I’ve tried applying the sIFR to different levels in the DOM, but to no avail.

Tom sent me a link to something called FLIR, which is an image-based text replacement tool. A lot like sIFR, it allows us to use specialty fonts rather than the limited selection of web-safe fonts.

Here’s a link to FLIR on facelift.

I have yet to try it, but I will try it out real soon and will post feedback and results here.