Web Typography

In twenty years, web design has come a long way. First we were given images to work with, and then more color choices, and then more font choices... But not many. The problem with using typography in a web page design is that the viewer has to have the font on his or her machine. Your average user doesn't have fancy fonts beside the system fonts their computer came with.

To solve this dilemma, a lot of designers began placing the fonts they wanted to show in images and embedding them into their page layouts. While this approach worked from a visual standpoint, it caused a number of accessibility and SEO issues. Not to mention that if one wanted to copy and paste the information, he or she could not.

So, why not provide the end user with the font so that they could view your design as intended... as it shows on your machine? The easiest and most acceptable option is the "@font-face" command, which allows the CSS to fetch a needed font from somewhere on the server. The problem with this method is that anyone with the knowledge could dig into the server and download the font for himself. In the case of fonts with limited use licenses, this is comparable to theft. There are some font foundries that allow their fonts to be used for free in your designs, but you're still limited in your choices. Also, IE doesn't support the "@font-face" command.

Speaking of Microsoft, they came up with their own solution to the licensing problem by providing some fonts in the "Embedded Open Type (.EOT)" format, which temporarily downloads a font for view on a specified site per machine. Unfortunately, IE is the only browser that supports this method, and many are critical of the restrictive nature of the font usage.

The most widely-accepted method at the moment is to subscribe to font services like Typekit, which allow you use of their font libraries or the option of uploading your own fonts for a monthly fee. This method is the least exploitative of creators of fonts, but the most painful for users of fonts, especially those that can't afford the fees involved.

The future of Web Typography seems to be pretty uncertain. Nobody can come to an agreement on what method is best, and a consensus has to occur before the W3C will endorse that method. I personally feel that if you want to utilize the best fonts, you're going to have to pay in some form or another. A means of uploading and sharing the fonts you've paid to license will probably be the best method that makes everyone happy.

This blog entry is really informative and lists a good batch of links that can help designers explore their options.