Mark Scerri – Eye on the web

My last post about 2 months ago was on fonts and how we should handle scenarios when the user does not have the required font. Well after two months a new method is on the block. TypeKit a viable solution to using non-standard web fonts.

From my previous post you might remember that with the @font-face we could attach the required font and use it liberally as in the following example:

@font-face {
	font-family: sample;
	src: url('sample.otf');
}

Then you can use it normally in you CSS:

h1 {
    font-family: sample;
}

However with this method there are licensing issues (becuase you are distributing the font). You cannot distribute and let users install the font everywhere. Font makers who make a living out of creating fonts are equally unhappy about this. TypeKit come into play. It is the first serious attempt to provide an easy framework for licensing of fonts. So how does it work?

TypeKit will negotiate license fees with the owner of the font. Then site owners pay a license fee to use a specific font on a specific domain. Users who visit the site will download the font without any licensing issues directly from the TypeKit servers. TypeKit will only provide the font if that domain has paid the necessary license fees.

As Internet Explorer only supports Embedded Open Type (EOT), TypeKit also provide the EOT font format.

Of course developers still need to be careful. There is the risk that a file is blocked if access to the server is unavailable. Therefore one needs to provide a standard fallback font. Finally TypeKit can provide developers and designers a solution that removes the legal ambiguity related to distribution of fonts.