typeface

Through a deal with font specialist Monotype, Google's free fonts for Web publishing are spreading beyond the Web.

Monotype now lets designers use Google's 624 freely available fonts through its SkyFonts software for managing fonts on Windows and Mac machines. Although Google offers fonts for use on Web site, designers often need local versions on their computers for use in design software.

SkyFonts can be used to rent fonts from Monotype's library for short-term use. Tapping into the Google library of fonts, though, is free. Using the software will ensure people get the latest versions of the … Read more

What makes a great font for a smartphone? Aside from legibility, is it its simplicity, its brand recognition, or the way it influences people's feelings toward the product? From neutral and casual, to just plain wrong, we sit down with Steve Matteson, typeface designer extraordinaire, to get the lowdown on the typefaces featured in Windows Phone, Android, and iOS devices.

Segoe (UI) for Windows Phone: The beauty in neutrality Before Matteson, current creative director at Monotype Imaging, designed the typefaces featured on Android and Windows Phone devices, he created the aggressive lettering for Microsoft's Xbox (which was aimed … Read more

No one outside the font world will recognize Steve Matteson. No one on the street will ever stop him and ask for an autograph, despite the fact that his designs are seen by millions of people around the world.

If you ever used Windows Vista, read off a Barnes & Noble Nook, or played a game on an Xbox, Matteson's work has already reached your eyes. Open a Word document in your computer and pull down the font menu. He is there -- nestled in Andale Mono, Cambria, and Curlz.

But it is his contributions to two mobile phone … Read more

Monotype Imaging has opened up a batch of 500 more typefaces for use on the Web and announced a partnership under which those publishing on Acquia's Drupal Gardens can use the service.

Web fonts, after languishing for years, are giving typeface makers a new business opportunity with the arrival of new abilities in the formatting technology called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in modern browsers. With it, Web publishers can employ downloadable fonts to give their Web sites a more memorable look or to add some pizazz not possible with the limited number of "Web-safe" fonts that can be expected to already be installed on a browser's computer.

It's not that such typography wasn't possible before on the Web. It's just that it likely was done with graphics rather than type. Graphics, though, can be bulky to download, don't scale well to different screen sizes, aren't noticeable as text to search engines, and can't be copied and pasted as text.

Monotype Imaging now licenses hundreds of its fonts for online use through its Fonts.com site. Among the new arrivals to the online service is ITC Avant Garde Gothic, a widely used sans-serif typeface.

It seems likely that budget-minded publishers might steer clear of fonts with a fee, opting instead for free options such as Google's Web-font options. But Drupal Gardens also is used by corporations and others that might be more concerned about a refined look or proper brand identity.

Drupal Gardens also announced recently that it's now hosting more than 50,000 sites and that it's improved several publishing tools. … Read more

Nokia Sans, one of the most familiar typefaces worldwide and a brand recognition money can't buy, is about to become irrelevant. The world's largest phone maker has unveiled a new font dubbed Nokia Pure for mobile and digital environments.

"Logically enough, the starting point for our brand new typeface, Nokia Pure, was also on-screen legibility at small sizes--although now we're talking about the pin-sharp color screens of contemporary smartphones," Nokia said in a blog post on its Brand Book site. "At the same time, we also needed a recognizable corporate typeface, versatile enough to work well in all manner of different environments--from other screen-based formats, to a whole host of printed materials."

Based on the concept of a seamless and fluid motion, the Nokia Pure typeface comprises rounded letters without serifs that "flow into each other" to create an impression of forward movement.… Read more

For those who make typefaces, there haven't been many changes since the invention of the printing press: hot lead, electronic typesetting, desktop publishing.

But now, more than 15 years after its invention, the World Wide Web is finally becoming the next frontier.

The steadily gaining influence of the medium and a new technology for distributing fonts to browsers has led one of the biggest names in typography to embrace the Web in earnest. On Tuesday, Monotype Imaging will open a catalog of nearly 8,000 of its fonts, with more to come, for use on Web pages.

Monotype Imaging's Web font service drew 15,000 users in beta testing with a smaller set of 2,200 fonts, but now it's launching for mainstream use.

When it comes to typography on the Web, "that world has been stunted," Monotype Imaging Chief Executive Doug Shaw said in an interview. "We look at it as a very important evolution in adapting typefaces to this new world."

Well, not new exactly, but new to the font industry. To date, most Web designers have relied on a strained combination of:

• A few "Web-safe" fonts such as Verdana and Arial that can be expected to be installed on most computers. • Text rendered in graphics formats such as JPEG. • Adobe Systems' Flash Player plug-in that offers polish but that's somewhat isolated from the rest of a Web page.

The arrival of Web fonts is an important milestone in the development of electronic media. The future of reading is text on screens--whether a book on a Kindle, a magazine on an iPad, or a news app on a mobile phone. Bringing that era to browsers is essential to making the Web as polished as other electronic media and as the print publications it's often supplanting.

Making the case for Web fonts Monotype Imaging is betting that businesses will see Web fonts as worth the new expense to their Web budgets. There are several potential reasons. … Read more