FontShop Release 30 Beautiful “Web FontFonts”
Slowly but surely we’re starting to see some solid changes in the ability to use typefaces other than the limited “web-safe” fonts in web sites. Web designers have had to play it very safe with font choices in the past in order to ensure the text is SEO friendly. The alternative to using web safe fonts was to use an image with some alternative text, or to use Flash. But we know that updating images and Flash can be a pain, compared to simply changing text on the page.
Typekit is a service which hosts fonts and serves them in an optimized, secure way and now that technology is in place, many type foundries are signing up to provide web-optimized fonts.
Fontshop have announced thirty of their fonts have been specifically re-designed for web use, in conjunction with Typekit, which they are calling Web FontFonts. The fonts have been optimized for display on almost any screen. They are delivered in formats supported by Internet Explorer and Firefox. The formats being EOT Lite and Web Open Font Format (WOFF). For Chrome and Safari users, FontShop are offering a free Typekit hosting option.
They’re are some beautiful fonts available in this new set. Here’s a look at a few.
How To Buy The Fonts
The web fonts from FontShop come in formats that work only on websites and not in desktop apps but they will not have any sort of DRM to prevent unauthorized use. The web fonts will be made available using a new licensing model that differs from the “per-user” licensing that currently exists for offline fonts. The licensing will be based on monthly page views and the customer will choose what they believe is the right license for the number of page views their site has. This will undoubtedly be considered controversial but as exclusive web-only fonts are a fairly new concept, this is the right time to start testing these models and tweak accordingly.
You can read more about the fonts available on the FontShop blog.
Do any of these fonts interest you for use on the web?