Downsides of Web Fonts?
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- boobs
So I was looking at this:
And it looks too good to be true. Which my Mother always warned me to stay alert for. So, what are the downsides to this that I'm missing?
- doesnotexist0
you'll be asked to use avant garde everywhere.
- mikotondria30
- this is really a failure of your browser/platform to provide decent font renderingacescence
- isn't that the problem they're trying to fix ?mikotondria3
- + //slag off my lovely computer, pal, and you and I'll have a problem.mikotondria3
- It could also be your anti-alias settings in your operating system.monospaced
- gramme0
Looks like you have to use Linotype fonts with this service, right? Is there not a viable solution yet which is foundry-agnostic?
It's ass-backwards to choose type for a brand based on the limitations of a web service. This is why Typekit, to me, isn't worth a hill of beans yet.
- Unless you're already using Linotype, ITC, or Monotype fonts for particular clients... in which case you just got lucky.gramme
- Continuity0
A foundry-agnostic service would rely on foundries wanting to embrace the @font-face specification. For example, here's what H&F-J have to say on the subject, on their website:
'H&FJ is carefully following the development of browsers that support the @font-face tag within Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and enthusiastically supports the emergence of a more expressive web in which designers can safely and reliably use high-quality fonts online. At this time, however, the delivery of fonts via @font-face constitutes the illegal distribution of our font software, and we therefore do not permit our fonts to be used in this way. The hosting of our font software by any server or other computational architecture capable of delivering web pages, or data used to render web pages, either in whole or in part, is expressly prohibited under our End-User License Agreement.'
In other words, one of the more established and successful foundries doesn't want to play ball. It wouldn't surprise me if the likes of Emigre, Lineto, P22 and so on don't want to play either.
- Yeah, it seems like a lot of type companies don't want to be on the web at all. Which translates to = why get their fonts?boobs
- gramme0
Why would it be so hard to tweak @font-face so that it hides font software? Surely this is not unpossible.
Even then, who would *actually* steal the fonts if they were there for the taking? Who would even (a) know how to do this, and (b) want to do this, besides unscrupulous designers?
- acrossthesea0
Downsides could be the possible cost and the visual "flicker" that appears when it does the replacement.
- I've noticed that, too. The net result looks pretty wonky.Continuity
- That's called FOUT (flash of unstyled text) and is typically most visible in Firefox. Chrome, Safari, IE don't suffer from this.jkidwell
- typist0
i am one of those unscrupulous designers
(a) already have the technology and app
(b) want to do this since day one
- gramme0
TypeKit seems to work pretty well from a technical standpoint. But again, limited font choices. Was looking @ Frank Chimero's site the other day. He uses it and it looks sharp. No flickering or anything from what I can see.
I think H&FJ, Village, Font Bureau, et al are missing the boat by continuing to hold out for the perfect technology.
- Especialy since the perfect technology doesn't exist. There will always be someone out there ready and able to break it.Continuity
- Fizik0
didn't google try to tackle some of those 'flash of unstyled text' issues with it's new Font API
- kalkal0
Well, all the web fonts I've seen so far are aliased on windows 7
- kalkal0
How so? Are you saying that they are or aren't anti-aliased? If they aren't then they're all horrible until they find a way to get them anti-aliased. I hate aliasing, I also hate window's style of anti-aliasing, to the point where I use an app which gives windows mac styley anti-aliasing (if not, a little bit nicer may I add)
- jaylarson0
web fonts look good on macs—terrible on windoze.
- monospaced0
Oh, what I'm saying is that the fonts themselves are neither aliased nor anti-aliased. They are in fact infinite in resolution — as you know since you probably use them in design applications.
- kalkal0
Ah, I see, enable mac antialiasing on windows and they look fine. I guess it's still a problem because most users of most sites will see the ugly aliased fonts, using windows. I doubt most people care but it bugs the hell out of me. Especially seeing half a site anti-aliased and the headers aliased.
- *on safari in windowskalkal
- as far as I know it's not "mac antialiasing," it's just anti-aliasing and it's been around on Windows for over 10yrsmonospaced
- I have a machine running XP and there are ClearType settings.monospaced
- I'm not using ClearType at all by the way, I'm using gdi++ http://localhostr.co…kalkal
- i quite like gdi++., actuallymikotondria3
- kalkal0
No, you can opt out of using native text rendering in safari in windows. You get all the anti-aliasing choices that are offered in system preferences on the Mac.
- I never said you couldn't, so no need to argue. All I was saying is that anti-aliasing is already built-in to Windows.monospaced
- I think we're just getting each other confused. I meant that webfonts aren't aliased, not that windows fonts aren't.kalkal
- *AREN'T ANTIALIASED! God, now I'm confused.kalkal
- Web fonts are neither aliased or anti-aliased. They are infinite resolution.monospaced
- How do you not understand this?monospaced
- OK MY LOWDOWN IS that webfonts aren't antialiased under most browsers when run in windows!!!1!111!!kalkal
- You're basing your statement on your computer's settings alone. Default is anti-aliased. Sorry.monospaced
- Most will see anti-aliased type, regardless of their OS or browser.monospaced
- Even if I turn off my 3rd party anti-aliasing app, Cleartype is still enabled and (as per default) and web fonts are still not antialiased.kalkal
- not antialiased. I'm saying they suck under windows. It's the same on my girlfriends laptop too.kalkal
- That's really really weird. I'm looking at this on a Windows machine and this type is anti-aliased, for sure.monospaced
- jxh1120
typotheque offer their fonts for web use at the moment
- jkidwell0
Fonts on systems are rendered using the operating system's rendering method. That's why Macs tend to look better than Win. If you install Safari on Windows, then you can enable the Mac-style of font smoothing, which can look "fuzzy" to some Win users.
Check out WebINK for web fonts too: http://www.webink.com