"You can't use that font. It's not Web safe!"
Web safe? Web safe!? Curse the Web and it's lack of typographic variety!
Imagine a Web where beautiful typography is unlimited (with out the use of Flash). Imagine how it would differentiate a design or a company.
But every Web designer has had it beaten into their skull that they should limit the fonts in their design to Verdana, Times, and a few others. While most hate it, many have embraced the limitation and relish the challenge. Others like the continuity it provides. Either way, the reason we do this is because nothing else works .
But the answer is not so simple, or nearly as boring.
There is a CSS property called @font-face that allows you to use any font you wish. It's not universally supported in current browsers . There are also different font formats for Internet Explorer (imagine that). Harder to solve is the issue that you can't take any commercial font and put it on the Web for everyone to have.
So technical and legal limitations killed Web Typography from taking root. But things are changing. CSS3 is on the way . The ranks of good, free, unlicensed Web safe fonts are growing. New license schemas and services like TypeKit and Typotheque for font usage are emerging. Now Firefox has released a new cross platform font format .
Keep an eye on this. I sense a growing trend.
Comments
While the rest of us sun-bathe on the beach of bland fontitude, you have the foresight to see the tidal wave of beautiful web fonts coming on the horizon. Thanks for giving us head-in-the-sand beach-goers (or casual web surfers) a heads up!
On a serious / less poetic note: This is much more wide-spread than I had imagined. It looks like the major browsers are all making moves to help make this functional and widely adopted. I will say, be careful what you wish for! Remember how ugly myspace profiles became once the users were given the freedom to customize? Just imaging all of the hideous web pages of the future once this technology gets into the wrong hands!
I’m definitely excited about the opportunities this allows. The biggest advantage I see is the ability to provide a richer design experience while maintaining search engine love and cms compatibility.
Carson's got a point. When "desktop publishing" first arrived back in, I don't know, 1890 or so, everyone with a PC decided he/she was a designer. The ugliness was epic: tombstoned headlines, 12 fonts/page, discordant clip art. In the hands of a good designer, font freedom is a real boon -- but we'll probably see a bit of awful stuff, too. Still a good trend to see fonts set free.
Yes, unlimited fonts in the hands of amateurs can be scary. But the Web is already moving beyond the stage where beginners are making a mess of things. I'm sure that we could see some terrible graphic design, but I think there would be a net gain.
John, Carson, Jonathan and Paul — Along these lines, just received an alert from FontShop, one of the biggest type foundries:
"For nearly 15 years, web designers had two frustrating choices when it came to type on the web: use one of the few “web safe” fonts preinstalled on major operating systems, or substitute text with images and Flash/JavaScript® hacks. Not anymore. Recent developments in web standards and font formats make it possible to render HTML text in typefaces other than the same old default fonts. Today, FSI FontShop® International is leading the charge to offer fonts designed specifically for web use."
www.fontshop.com
Haven't looked into the licensing models or details, but wanted to point out further evidence of 'the tidal wave of beautiful web fonts coming on the horizon'. Carson — what a poet! ;)
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