Comments on: Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/ the Phinney-us Blog on Typography & Text Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:30:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Sam Foster http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1341 Sam Foster Wed, 26 May 2010 08:46:19 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1341 This has been going on since at least '99 when I got burnt trying to deploy cross-browser web fonts using MS' eot and the bitstream truedoc format that Netscape 4 supported. Font-smoothing was off by default in most Windows of the day, and most fonts didn't smooth (or anti-alias) below 18pt or so. I.e. they looked like ass on the screen in IE. Which left you with a small collection of screen-optimized fonts to choose from, or the prospect of making your own - not a trivial task. Guess which fonts were screen optimized? Yes, our old friends Verdana, Arial, Tahoma etc. Back to square one. We were having the same discussions about licensing 10 years ago. Maybe this time around there'll be a breakthrough? At least nowadays the 100+KB to download a full character set for a font isn't a deal-breaker. <em>[There are certainly new approaches which deal with the licensing issues, including http://www.webink.com, the service I've helped develop at Extensis.]</em> This has been going on since at least ’99 when I got burnt trying to deploy cross-browser web fonts using MS’ eot and the bitstream truedoc format that Netscape 4 supported. Font-smoothing was off by default in most Windows of the day, and most fonts didn’t smooth (or anti-alias) below 18pt or so. I.e. they looked like ass on the screen in IE.

Which left you with a small collection of screen-optimized fonts to choose from, or the prospect of making your own – not a trivial task. Guess which fonts were screen optimized? Yes, our old friends Verdana, Arial, Tahoma etc. Back to square one.

We were having the same discussions about licensing 10 years ago. Maybe this time around there’ll be a breakthrough? At least nowadays the 100+KB to download a full character set for a font isn’t a deal-breaker.

[There are certainly new approaches which deal with the licensing issues, including http://www.webink.com, the service I've helped develop at Extensis.]

]]> By: Font Hinting Explained By A Font Design Master http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1104 Font Hinting Explained By A Font Design Master Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:50:34 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1104 [...] environments they’ve cared about, Type 1 and OpenType CFF fonts render perfectly well on screen: Boing-Boing-Redesign-Uncovers-Web-Font-Ignorance Just about any application on the Mac OS. Adobe Acrobat, InDesign and Illustrator, on any platform. [...] [...] environments they’ve cared about, Type 1 and OpenType CFF fonts render perfectly well on screen: Boing-Boing-Redesign-Uncovers-Web-Font-Ignorance Just about any application on the Mac OS. Adobe Acrobat, InDesign and Illustrator, on any platform. [...]

]]> By: Henk Gianotten http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1082 Henk Gianotten Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:50:12 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1082 I think, there is another major problem by using BPreplay. The lack of characters for non-English languages. It has only 207 characters and only Greek users can display a fair number of their characters. Different character sets and different encodings can increase these problems too. Boing Boing does not know when they want (or have) to show these "strange characters". In my opinion their designers (and/or web technicians) did a very bad job. I think, there is another major problem by using BPreplay. The lack of characters for non-English languages. It has only 207 characters and only Greek users can display a fair number of their characters. Different character sets and different encodings can increase these problems too. Boing Boing does not know when they want (or have) to show these “strange characters”. In my opinion their designers (and/or web technicians) did a very bad job.

]]> By: Sex, lies, & type | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1073 Sex, lies, & type | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:22:08 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1073 [...] Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font IgnoranceWhere to get Web fontsBetter Postscript CFF font rendering with DirectWrite.Typotheque has now [...] [...] Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font IgnoranceWhere to get Web fontsBetter Postscript CFF font rendering with DirectWrite.Typotheque has now [...]

]]> By: A giant step for typography on the Web | Type Directors Club http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1062 A giant step for typography on the Web | Type Directors Club Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:21:42 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1062 [...] boingboing.net is a high-profile early adopter of this technology, with mixed reviews and results. This article by Thomas Phinney goes through some of the issues that have come up with BoingBoing’s implementation of the [...] [...] boingboing.net is a high-profile early adopter of this technology, with mixed reviews and results. This article by Thomas Phinney goes through some of the issues that have come up with BoingBoing’s implementation of the [...]

]]> By: New developments in web fonts | Type Directors Club http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1058 New developments in web fonts | Type Directors Club Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:53:37 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1058 [...] boingboing.net is a high-profile early adopter of this technology, with mixed reviews and results. This article by Thomas Phinney goes through some of the issues that have come up with BoingBoing’s implementation of the [...] [...] boingboing.net is a high-profile early adopter of this technology, with mixed reviews and results. This article by Thomas Phinney goes through some of the issues that have come up with BoingBoing’s implementation of the [...]

]]> By: Lindsey Thomas Martin http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1054 Lindsey Thomas Martin Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:50:21 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1054 Very helpful article. Thank you. When I read: 'many foundries are still trying to figure out how to approach the web fonts conundrum. Will they license fonts for use on web servers directly? Will they do so but specify security requirements that can’t be met by sticking regular desktop fonts on web servers', it occurred to me that this may be something to which Extensis could apply its expertise in managing fonts. LTM Very helpful article. Thank you. When I read: ‘many foundries are still trying to figure out how to approach the web fonts conundrum. Will they license fonts for use on web servers directly? Will they do so but specify security requirements that can’t be met by sticking regular desktop fonts on web servers’, it occurred to me that this may be something to which Extensis could apply its expertise in managing fonts.

LTM

]]> By: Sex, lies, & type | meshdairy http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1052 Sex, lies, & type | meshdairy Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:22:10 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1052 [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...] [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...]

]]> By: Sex, lies, & type | More On Design http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1042 Sex, lies, & type | More On Design Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:22:07 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1042 [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...] [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...]

]]> By: Sex, lies, & type | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/10/boing-boing-redesign-uncovers-web-font-ignorance/comment-page-1/#comment-1037 Sex, lies, & type | i love typography, the typography and fonts blog Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:25:32 +0000 http://www.thomasphinney.com/?p=417#comment-1037 [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...] [...] WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF. Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance [...]

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