SteveMacKley design

Last night FontFont announce that more than 30 of the most successful FontFont families are now available as Web FontFonts®, including FF DIN®, FF Meta®, FF Dax®, andFF Kievit®.

Finally we are getting to the point where the fonts used for print branding can be utilized on the web, thereby allowing for consistent branding across all media.

FontFont provides the following points for why Web FontFonts:

• They look great. Great care was taken to optimize Web FontFonts for display on nearly any screen, whether that screen is connected to a Mac or driven by Windows with ClearType switched on.
• They are easy to buy. Buying a Web FontFont is as easy as licensing a conventional desktop font. There is no subscription to sign up for and you pay only for the font you need. Pricing is determined not by domain or bandwidth, but by the average monthly pageviews for all websites in the licensed organization.
• They work on most major browsers. Web FontFonts are delivered in EOT Lite and WOFF, the two formats supported by the most commonly used browsers: Internet Explorer® and Firefox®, covering more than 90% of all web visitors. We expect other browsers to join in implementing WOFF soon. A free Typekit hosting option extends compatibility to Safari® and Chrome® users.
• No DRM. Because webfonts are essentially shared with everyone who visits a webpage that uses them, some font makers may want to use some sort of DRM to prevent unauthorized use. Not us. Web FontFonts come in formats that work only on websites (not in any desktop app), and do so without crippleware or user interruptions.
• They speak more languages. The FontFont library has always offered top class language support, extending many of the most popular families to include character sets like Central European, Cyrillic, and Greek. Web FontFonts are no exception. The Pro versions contain the same language support as their desktop companions.

More info available at Fontshop’s Blog.  Technical info on what you get is here.

Don’t be too surprised if this blog is update to FF DIN or FF Milo sometime in the future.

Ralf Herrmann has created a webfonts wiki.  In Mr. Hermann’s word it is “The website dedicated to webfonts & @font-face embedding”.  With info on what webfonts are, to browser support, and demo pages, the wiki is an great resource for those try to navigate the morass that is web typography now.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about webfonts.  The new WOFF proposal is a step in the right direction, but getting your head around things is like herding cats.  Thankfully  Technology Review has published a nice article summarizing things. A Note on the Type: Font designers imagine a better-looking Web. If this article is too much I recommend H&FJ’s recent Show and Tell entry: FONTS ON THE WEB. It is distilled goodness.

If you have not been following the recent .webfont proposal by Tal Leming and Erik van Blokland check it out.  The proposal is rational and workable.  Quite a few foundries have voice their support including (these were gleaned from the H&FJ twitter feed)

• H&FJ
• Klim
• Process Type Foundry
• Fonthead
• Mark Simonson Studio
• Porchez Typofonderie
• House Industries
• Stone Type Foundry
• Emigre
• Feliciano Type Foundry
• Typotheque
• Letterror
• FontShop
• Type Supply
• Village
• Typotheque

Typotheque has an excellent expalnation and demo here.