[html5] Accessing the user's installed fonts

[Oliver Sartun]

Hello guys,

for all I know it's not possible to retrieve a list of all fonts a
user has installed on his system via JavaScript. Is that correct?
You either have to use Flash or a rather hackish solution that
involves assigning a potentially installed font to a DOM element and
measuring its dimensions
(http://remysharp.com/2008/07/08/how-to-detect-if-a-font-is-installed-only-using-javascript/)

The thing is that in a webbased word processor (i.e. Google Docs,
Zoho, etc.) a user wouldn't be able to use his own fonts which is a
major disadvantage compared to native word processors. Especially
professional users need to have access to their custom fonts. For
instance, it wouldn't be possible to create advanced word processors /
DTP applications like InDesign for the open web platform, if I get
that right.
Is a solution to this problem in the making? Or hasn't this been
addressed yet? Or does a solution already exist that I'm not aware of?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Oliver Sartun