Designers at SXSWi 2010 get closer to web typography freedom

Web designers have been held hostage for years in terms of our ability to use the type we want where we want it. Some solutions are already working, and a cross-platform standard is emerging. The first was Samantha Warren’s discussion about how we should be changing our design aesthetic. The Phase2 Technology Senior Web Developer was very enthusiastic but a bit dreamy. I started to switch off when she started to compare Helvetica to her favorite pair of shoes.

Warren redeemed herself when she got back to talking tech. She said that the world of web typography is changing at a record pace. For years we have been stuck with the same old fonts, but the powers that be are finally getting it straight. Well, somewhat straight. Recent advancements are allowing developers to use pretty much any font; as long as you have the appropriate license.

Rise of the Web Fonts

The second session was a panel that reaffirmed some of the things that Warren discussed and added historical context to current web font issues. The following presenters have lead the charge for font freedom on the Web: 

• Roger Black and David Berlow – The Font Bureau
• Jeffrey Veen – Small Batch, Inc.
• Bert Bos – W3C

Problems with the current state of web fonts

Designers have been forced to trap their fonts in image or flash files. Internationalization is huge, but there are very few fonts that are cross language.

Because fonts can be heavy, designers are concerned about performance. At Google, seconds equal dollars and speed will always trump design when it comes to big player websites. Font rendering is messy and inconsistent.

Half the challenge is to deal with the browser specific font hinting. Web fonts are designed to be viewed on the Web, thus do not need font hinting. It is going to be this way for a while, but we are on our way to great things.

Recent history of web fonts

In the early days, fonts were set by the user rather than the designer. Font synthesis was too complex, so many designers relied on the widely used system of fallbacks with the base being “serif and “sans-serif”. This was the birth of CSS1.??April of 1996 saw the first font download become possible. Synthesis Panose became available and font metrics were born. This happens when the font takes a long time to download.

In 2006, the W3C discussed image replacement techniques. Accessibility suffers from image replacement so this lead them to push forward for better solutions. The next solution was open type, which became the world wide standard. At this point W3C said they were finished; so they thought.

What’s being done

Typekit is a subscription-based service for linking to Open Type fonts from remote servers. Traditional media, such as the New York Times, are jumping on board to use this technology because it allows them to keep their brand unity. Harvard Business review redesigned their magazine and website concurrently and they now have consistent type across both platforms.

One of the last hurdles for Typekit and other type hosted services to overcome is the font loaded event. The W3C is currently working on improving this CSS command to fix this delay. Browsers have finally started to come to the table with their own font embedding solutions, but we are still five to six years from the new WAF format, which will make fonts embedded into browsers natively.