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New Options for Web Fonts

Charles Hamilton — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:00:58 +0000

Until recently, web designers didn’t have much control over the fonts we could use. We were pretty much limited to the small number of fonts that came with popular operating systems. Microsoft and others developed some web font systems, but they weren’t compatible with all browsers. There’ve also been some useful workarounds like sIFR, although, being Flash-based, these had limitations and were tricky to use.

Now, however, there are some very promising options for embedding fonts into web sites, using simple additions to a web site’s CSS (style sheet). I’ve been trying a few of these web font services, and so far, they all work well.

TypeKit

TypeKit (please see the disclosure at the bottom of this post) currently offers over 500 fonts, and its font library will shortly be expanded, thanks to an agreement between TypeKit and Adobe to make Adobe’s font collection available on the platform. TypeKit has several pricing plans, and it offers a free trial. TypeKit is used by WebWorkerDaily and the other GigaOM Network sites.

WebINK

WebINK from Extensis has recently become available in public beta, and offers almost 2,000 fonts. WebINK’s pricing is based on the number of websites included, fonts needed and the storage used.

FontsLive

The FontsLive service from Ascender offers around 125 fonts. Its pricing varies depending on the font(s) used and on website size/bandwidth uses. It offers a free 30-day trial.

Google Font API

Google is also getting into the act, having recently released the Google Font API. It’s a Google Labs project, and as of now, only offers about 20 fonts, so it may not be suitable for production environments. But as with many Google products, it’s being offered at no cost.

Webtype

Ascender and The Font Bureau have just announced Webtype, so I haven’t had time to try it yet. It appears to offer about 100 fonts. Webtype’s pricing is based on the number of fonts and amount of bandwidth used. A free trial is available.

In addition to the service listed above, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is developing an open format called Web Open File Format (WOFF) that, if adopted, will bring more options. So we can hope that it’s only a matter of time before the ubiquity of fonts like Times New Roman and Arial comes to an end.

Disclosure: TypeKit is is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

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FontCapture: Transform Your Ugly Handwriting Into an Uglier Font

Imran Ali — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:00:29 +0000

I’m a little partial to digital tools that can be used to create diagrams and images that look hand drawn — Balsamiq Mockups is a wonderful example.

I’ve often thought it’d be great to have a font made from my own handwriting, enabling me to “hand annotate” digitally crafted images to add an informal, playful and personal touch. Of course, creating a typeface from scratch is an expensive, skillful, labor-intensive process, best left to professional typographers, not amateurs like myself.

So imagine my delight in discovering FontCapture, an entirely web-based application that enables you to create a font from your own handwriting within minutes — and what’s more, it’s free. All you need is a printer and a scanner.

“Fontifying” your handwriting is a simple, four-step process:

Print a specially formatted template.
Complete the template with your individual handwritten characters – up to 128 glyphs. Be careful to align ascending and descending characters with the template’s baseline marks.
Scan your completed template back into your computer and upload it to the service.
Within a few seconds, you should see a preview of your font and a link to download it in OpenType format (see the screenshot above).

The service works very well. It’s simple, fast, free and accurate — though perhaps a little too accurate. FontCapture demonstrated how appalling my handwriting really is! I didn’t do a perfect job of keeping my characters and glyphs aligned within the marks on the template, but the final result was a pretty good representation of my jittery scrawl.

I’d readily recommend the app to anyone who needs a digital representation of their handwriting, but sadly my own handwriting is too illegible to be charmingly applied to digital imagery.

What would you do with a font of your own handwriting?

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Quick Picks: Two Must-Have Resources for Designers

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:49 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve actively participated in the design game, but recently, when I was doing some work for a friend, I took a look around to see if there were any new tools that would work better and more efficiently than the ones I’ve been using for ages. Because of the nature of the project, I went looking in a couple of specific areas: file-sharing and font resources. My old picks for these services were still around, but they haven’t changed much despite the passing of many intervening years, so I wanted to check out the new kids on the block.

File Sharing

Once upon a time, I used Image Shack for most of my design-related file hosting needs. That was before I had my own server space with which to play. But despite still having private server space, sometimes it’s just easier and faster to use an online file-hosting service, especially if that service is incredibly easy to use.

Sharenload is really simple, and it has an impressive file size allowance. How does 2048 MB sound? You can upload up to five files at a time that together add up to a full 2 GB. Have more you need to share? No problem. Just reload the site and do the same thing over again. Sharenload provides you with a nice progress screen, and then gives you automatically generated download and file deletion links for each file.

You can also sign up to keep track of your files if you like, or even pay for a premium account ($5-$50, for 7-180 days) to get more storage space, remove ads and get other perks. It’s a great, easy solution that your clients will also really appreciate.

Font Resource

My old typeface haunts are mostly still in operation. 1001fonts, Blambot, and FontFreak all continue to be great resources, but there’s nothing like sheer volume to put a smile on my font-loving face. A new resource put together by a group of web designers offers enough selection for even the most jaded of font geeks. Best of all, PimpYourFont.com is all hand-selected, so you don’t have to worry about duplicates and other oddities that can crop up in web crawler-generated lists.

The site is simple, but does have a variety of methods for navigating fonts in the database. By default, they’re listed in the order in which they were uploaded, with the most recent additions listed first. You can also view them alphabetically, by style, or take a look at the top 100 list. And of course, you can always search the site if you know what you’re looking for.

What new design resources have you discovered recently?

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