Thanks to Nexus I saw a new project called typeface.js that offers a solution to typeface management (where you can use any typeface that you want, whether it be on the users system or not) without using Flash (which the popular, oft-mentioned sIFR uses):

Instead of creating images or using flash just to show your site’s graphic text in the font you want, you can use typeface.js and write in plain HTML and CSS, just as if your visitors had the font installed locally. This is a work in progress, but functional enough at least to render the the graphic text on this site. Here’s what it takes to get going: load the typeface.js library and some typeface.js fonts, then proceed like normal:

PLAIN TEXT

HTML:

1.  
2. <script type=“text/javascript” src=“typeface-0.10.js”></script>
3. <script type=“text/javascript” src=“helvetiker_regular.typeface.js”></script>
4.  
5. <div class=“myclass typeface-js” style=“font-family: Helvetiker”>
6.         Text here in Helvetiker font…
7. </div>
8.  

The examples area shows how the solution nicely integrates with CSS.

Having canvas and VML legacy support is great. It would be nice to allow the selection of text though, always a pain in the ….