Major Changes in Web Typography / April 13, 2010
A big change occurred among modern browsers in 2009. In mid-summer all modern browsers began supporting linked fonts. What does that mean exactly? Web-fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana and a few others dominated the internet until recently. These select fonts are accessible to virtually any internet user, and therefore web designers have been restricted to this limited collection for accessibility purposes.
With the recent change, modern browsers will now correctly render nearly any font that a designer wishes to use. Great news, right? We’ve taken a giant leap forward in terms of controlling a user’s interactive experience. But there’s one major hang-up.
In order for a user to view a non-traditional font on a web page, that font must be downloaded off the web server. In turn, this leaves the font exposed and anyone with the slightest bit of computer know-how can personally download it. As you guessed, that’s illegal. The hours and hours that a type designer has poured into the creation of that font goes right down the crapper when someone illegally downloads it.
Luckily, it doesn’t end there. A few solutions popped up in response to the legality issue, one being Typekit, a subscription-based service that allows you to legally use unique fonts in your site. Typekit has teamed up with type designers and foundries to create a large library of fonts, and Typekit personally hosts these fonts in order to protect them. In turn, a customer simply pays an annual fee and everyone wins.
An example of Typekit in action The New York Times Skimmer using Cheltenham and Franklin
There are other solutions out there, such as individual foundries creating web-specific font licenses Typotheque in The Netherlands for example and I’m sure we’ll be seeing many more solutions pop up over time.
So keep your eyes open, and you’ll see web typography develop more and more. Just be sure to shield them when you come across a site set in Curlz because as we know, both good and bad design will come from this.
An example of Typekit in action The Sew Weekly blog using Coquette and Proxima Nova
Posted by Jennifer
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