The past years we’ve seen some very interesting development regarding the broadening of font availability on the web. We are starting to see a lot of different techniques getting used to obtain the possibility of using your favorite font on the web. Today the most popular technique by far is sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), which is a combination of Flash, Javascript and CSS and works in most browsers, and scales nicely back to traditional CSS if the user does not have Flash/Javascript enabled. Recently, Cufón entered the market and it offers a much easier implementation and more bug-free environment and does not require Flash. This certainly is good news, and it proves that we might be heading into a very interesting time where designers no longer need to restrict themselves to the common, cross-OS fonts.
However, I still think today’s restrictions offer some interesting challenges. With only a few fonts available at your hands, you’re forced to consider, play and challenge your self through each and every design – and there are certainly examples out there that displays that it’s very possible to create some amazing results with these restrictions. And then I start to think – are they beautiful for everyone, or only the designers who know that the designer of that page has done some excellent work regarding the typography? Either way I believe that the restrictions in web typography makes the best designers stand out – not just because they’re talented – but because they’ve squeezed out the very best part of that font, through kerning, colors, size and position.
Dan Cederholm creates beautiful web typography.
Until the time comes where we can use our favorite fonts in everything from headings to paragraph’s I suggest we continue to strive to create extraordinary typography from what we have available.
What do you think?
First of all, it’s “do restrictions…” in the heading, and shouldn’t “[...] environment and does require Flash.” be that it does NOT require flash? ;-)
And yes, I do think restrictions make us better. Not just regarding fonts on the web and how to use them, but in all areas. They give us a challenge, and challenges are good. Sometimes, it can help to look upon them as opportunities or logical requirements, rather than actual restrictions.
Thanks for your comment Arve. What kind of opportunity do you see in this?
Nothing specific, really, it just fits sometimes. Maybe to dive deeper into what possibilities you have within your restrictions that you wouldn’t normally do, rather than seeing it only as a restriction. Maybe it doesn’t apply very well to font usage and typography, but in general problem solving it does.
Yes, the right restrictions is good. Bad restrictions like working your way around a ugly logo, is not good.
I think the web will be a better and more beautiful place with rich typography and more fonts.