Cufon loaded asynchronously doesn't render in IE

Question

I'm creating a site which uses Cufon and is particularly heavy in terms of page-weight due to a large amount of Javascript. Therefore I'm trying to load in the script asynchronously with head.js ( http://headjs.com/ ) like so:

head.js("http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.4.2.min.js", function() {
 head.js("/js/libs/cufon-yui.js", function() {
    head.js("/js/shared/Stag_Bold_700.font.js" , function() {
            Cufon.replace('h1', { fontFamily: 'Stag Bold' });
    });
 });
});

So Jquery is downloaded first, the subsequent cufon lib file and cufon font are downloaded in sequence and then Cufon is finally called to replace the H1. Obviously, this is a trimmed down example with fewer replacements but this still doesn't work when just attempting to replace the H1.

The problem is that ONLY in Internet Explorer (6/7/8), the text is not replaced but I can see that Cufon has definitely been called. I can ascertain this because the tag has the class "cufon-active cufon-ready" added to it. When I inspect the markup using the IE Developer toolbar, the cufon/cufoncanvas tags are there inside the selected elements but are, for want of a better word, invisible.

In IE9, the script behaves as intended similar to Chrome and Firefox. I have tried adjusting the Cufon drawing engine and have updated to the latest 1.09i version for good measure. If I move the Cufon calling statements to the document ready event instead of loading asynchronously, it works but I am trying to optimize page load and my site will be using a number of Cufon fonts as well as many other JS plug-ins. I've also tried using both labs.js and head.js to load the appropriate files asynchronously.

Answer 1

I had the same problem - I addressed this by using the browser detection of head.js to do the following:

if (head.browser.mozilla || head.browser.webkit || head.browser.opera ||
        (head.browser.ie && (head.browser.version == '9.0'))) {
        head.js('script/jquery.min.js',
                'script/cufon.js', function () {
                    head.js('script/bebas_neue_400.font.js', function () {
                        Cufon.replace('h1', {
                            textShadow: '1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)'
                        }).now();
                        // or a head.js('scripts/file.with.cufon.replacement.js');
                    });
                });
            } else {
        // here we load scripts depending on GZIP support for this browser
        document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="script/jquery.min.js">\x3C/script>');
        document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="script/cufon.js">\x3C/script>');
        document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="script/bebas_neue_400.font.js">\x3C/script>');
        document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="script/file.with.cufon.replacement.js">\x3C/script>');            
    }

You could also use conditional comments (I didn't because I am also doing GZIP support detection in JavaScript and needed to adjust the scripts which are loaded dynamically.)

It's a hack, but should be useful enough until it's addressed within the library itself.

(I have also posted GIST with a more complete example here)

Answer 2

try calling

 <script type="text/javascript"> Cufon.now(); </script>

just before </body> tag closes.