Comments on: Comic Update: Typekit Comes To Font-Face’s Rescue

By: Yuvalik

Yuvalik — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:24:37 +0000

What is it exactly what requires you to buy a license for a font? Is it the actual typeface or the file you buy/rent?
I mean, I see a lot of flash sites and a lot of images with non-free fonts on the web, are those actually legal? Or should that use also had to be paid for?
I am with you, when I design a site, it usually is live for at least 10 years, which means I must rent a font for 10 years. Is that viable?
I can see benefits for short-lived sites (for example promotional sites) but not for long term use.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:13:25 +0000

Hmmm I am not sold I’d rather target OS with good font’s people already have. The price well they can go $uck themselves and most clients will not pay for it maybe Million+ companies but most no.

Fail.

By: Thomas Phinney

Thomas Phinney — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:47:42 +0000

Browser-side caching will achieve neither of the benefits Jacob and Janae posit above.

At least as initially envisioned, TypeKit will be delivering font files which are modified for each particular web site, with site-specific subsetting, etc.

Caching is also relatively temporary. If TypeKit (or any other web font service) stops serving up a font, existing users will see it go away soon enough, cache or no cache.

Cheers,

By: Kyle Weems

Kyle Weems — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:09:05 +0000

@Jacob – I don’t know how browsers handle font-caching, so that might be a good point. On the flip side, Jeff Croft brought up the potential downside of centralized font-linking to the effect of: What happens when/if Twitter and Facebook use Typekit? Does the massive resource drain cause fonts everywhere to break?

@Janae – Yeah, if Typekit loses a font for some reason, I could see that being a major issue. I don’t know how likely such a scenario is, however.

@Michael – It’s not really an issue of whether fonts are illegally shared now. Obviously they can be, and as such, are. It’s an issue whether @font-face exposes fonts online (it does), and thus if it became widely used would it present a problem where fonts were suddenly much more available for stealing (it would). The idea solution preserves @font-face (or some similarly easy technique) while preserving the safety of the fonts. Typekit is a proposed way to do both.

Since legitimate fonts usually cost money (genuinely “free as in beer” fonts exist, believe it or not), I’m not opposed to paying through a service like Typekit. I’m opposed to renting it past the point where I’d normally own the font outright, only to have the font disappear if I stop renting. I’m not sure if this will be an issue, but it’s a concern.

By: Michael Kozakewich

Michael Kozakewich — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:44:50 +0000

After @font-face: User clicks on a site and a font is temporarily downloaded and installed.
Before @font-face: Link with “Hey, download this .ttf file and install it and you can see the font I’m using!”

Mind you, I only ever saw one site like the second, with myself at some point thinking of doing the same.
Using @font-face is less secure than using only default fonts, but I’d say it’s more secure than the above method of getting the fonts you want on your site.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, ultimately. If you were using a font with font-face, it would either be free (so you’re free to use it), or you’ll have paid a couple hundred for a license (same as Typekit, really). The benefit lies entirely with the foundries, so they had better make it easy for those who are on the fence about subscribing or just bittorrenting fonts.

By: Janae

Janae — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:11:55 +0000

@Jacob And perhaps take care of another issue, such as fonts disappearing off Typekit but still be stored, at least for regular viewers, on their browser?

It won’t negate the issue of what will happen if Typekit removes a font and new users come to a website, but I suppose it’s a little bit of a relief.

By: Jacob Rask

Jacob Rask — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:56:04 +0000

Another benefit of centrally hosted fonts is caching, depending on how browsers handle that. Some font files will be quite heavy, and if the user has already gotten a font from for instance Typekit they’ll hopefully not have to download it again, speeding up the rendering/replacement of the font.