1 Font DRM?

So this would mean the world needs font-DRM now? How far do we have to sink before we hit rock bottom?

I wonder what the Mr. Berlow’s view is on that Cufon font replacement? More information here: http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/

posted at 11:44 am on April 21, 2009 by Maurice van Creij

2 Free fonts?

When all popular browsers will be able to support @font-face, I expect a good number of good quality FREE fonts to be available.
This will make happy 99% of web designers, and make unhappy 99% of font designers, doh!

posted at 12:11 pm on April 21, 2009 by Andrea Doimo

3 Letraset

When I was young in the early seventies I could not afford Letraset dry transfer sheets but their huge catalogue was free – hours of fun tracing letter forms and hand drawing headlines kept me off the streets and out of trouble.

I think we would all love to see real typography on the net but in a way we do if we render text as images. Finley crafted typefaces are not really required for accessibility reasons and so using a myriad of fonts on the web might cause more problems than the aesthetic ones we have now.

posted at 12:19 pm on April 21, 2009 by Simon Cox

4 Bring on the engineers . . .

He’s not talking DRM, or rather he’s not talking about DRM protection schemes, but simply defining the licence conditions in an electronically readable way. There have been similar proposals for other files, like images – for instance as a way of electronically saying ‘this photo is free for personal use, but not commercial use’.

Sure, it’s not going to stop pirated usage, or people hacking the conditions file, or using a crack that tells the browser to ignore font permissions, but it does make it a lot easier for legitimate firms to manage their assets, if the licencing is machine readable, and the big firms will stay on the right side of the law. It would also be good to see ‘web magazines’ not needing to go with PDF or Flash.

As for whether there will be lots of good quality free fonts, which ‘99% of web designers’ will use, that’s another question. I don’t think 99% of web designers are obsessed with ‘free’ in the same way that developers are – otherwise they would all use Linux & Gimp over Apple and Adobe software. Of rather, there is a difference between ‘web designers’ in the sense of app designers, and graphic designers. The latter group tend to see ‘added value’, largely because I suspect that is what their job is about.

posted at 01:23 pm on April 21, 2009 by Julian Lawton

5 Font Control

I’m not surprised when that he brought up a need to control font use on the web, basically via a form of DRM. He’s in a bubble. That’s never going to happen. There are enough free fonts out there and there will only be more. People are more than willing to leave the paid fonts behind on the web. Even Microsoft, who could afford to license fonts, chose to create their own fonts instead. (Much to our dismay, but still.)

If font makers think the majority of the web is going to be paying them license fees, forget it. Technology will move beyond them, it happens all the time.

posted at 03:37 pm on April 21, 2009 by Matt C

6 Not quite what it says on the tin?

The dek for this article makes it sound like it answers a lot of questions about Webfonts, but the article actually turns out to be an interview with a couple of Berlowian zingers thrown in at the end.

Truth in advertising?

posted at 04:21 pm on April 21, 2009 by Joe Clark

7 Is the answer not in browser standards?

Maybe I have an overly naive view of the technical obstacles involved, but if browsers contained their own type rendering engine instead of relying on the operating system’s (as I assume they do now), would they not be able to “ring fence” the downloaded font within the browser space thereby obviating the need for new licences and meta data?

posted at 04:54 pm on April 21, 2009 by Phil Houghton

8 Thought provoking

Very interesting article, Mr. Berlow and Zeldman.

I have done a little bit of design work online, nothing to earn much – more of a “light hobby”. I’m very glad to have stumbled upon your thoughts, suggestions, and tips.

Thanks!

posted at 05:22 pm on April 21, 2009 by Tanner Queen

9 Does this become standard?

Interesting Mr. Berlow and Zeldman.

I am wondering if this will help web designers to make their life easier or more complicated.

posted at 01:18 am on April 22, 2009 by ed pudol

10 Required steps to give "us" more web-fonts:

1. Design an awesome typeface in all weights and variations that looks great even with 9 pixels height and anti aliasing turned off. Make it contain all unicode characters. These are the requirements for web fonts, thanks to Microsoft and Apple for putting some work into this.

2. Put this many years of work in the public domain.

3. Lobby all operating system vendors to include this typeface in all their operating systems.

4. NEW FONT AVAILABLE!!!1

Type-Designers seem to me like the music industry of design, they try to sell something to the internet that is not really useful or needed anymore. If they want to change something, work on FREE high quality typefaces.

posted at 04:22 am on April 22, 2009 by Dragan Espenschied