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Typekit To Break The Web Font Barrier
Published on Jun 02, 2009
One of the biggest limitations in website design centers around fonts that can be used on any given website. Currently the only fonts that can guarantee to be rendered on a website are system fonts that everyone has on their machines. As you might imagine this is very limiting as there are only a handful of these universal system fonts. But a new solution named Typekit is about to change all this.
The ability to embed fonts in a website
Newer browsers support this ability to embed fonts in a website. (In fact, soon nearly all modern browsers will.) However the rub comes from the font foundries (the folks creating the fonts) who don’t want their fonts to be used online for free for fear that the font files can be stolen and reused (rather than purchasing them through legitimate means).
And this is where Typekit comes in. What Typekit promises is to make it near impossible for someone to grab the font file from a website using it. In this scenario the font foundries are happy (because their files are secure) and website designers are happy (because we can move past the current font limitations). It’s a win win for all involved!
A big change for website design
It’s not every day that such a big change comes along in the website design world, but this certainly is one of them. Typekit will open the door to be able to use any font we wish to in our website designs. While it may not seem like a big deal to you, this is something that website designers around the world have wanted for many, many years. I know I’ll be keeping a close eye on Typekit’s progress.
For more about Typekit see the Typekit blog.
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