[mathias]

You don't often see fonts embedded in sites. Why?

Been researching embedding fonts today and thought it wise to do a quick query here: What does it take to embed a font for body text and what's the rate of success?

I understand there are/were great difficulties with displaying non-system fonts on web pages and I wonder if the situation has improved or not.

[xENo]

Not enough support for it yet to make it worth while.

Probably by the end of the decade it will be commonplace. One major problem is that to embed a font, you make the font publicly available for download. Font creators don't like to work for free...

[evzx]

I have also looked at using non-system fonts on a page and have found sIFR, www mikeindustries com/blog/sifr/, it was designed to replace short passages of plain text with text rendered in a choice of typeface using javascript, css, and flash. Not a complete solution to replacing all body text, but work great to insert some rich typography into a site.

[StumpyXL]

Dafont.com (Tons of free fonts), add a small div on your page allowing the .zip download.

Minor note: I wouldn't use on a commercial page, unless you have a js function to start the download automatically and prompting the user what the download is.

[karloff]

Mike Davidson - sIFR

[mathias]

@ xENo: Yeah, that's the vibe I'm getting. Any font embedding solution I've came across involves re-encoding the font file to something casual users certainly wouldn't be able to use and if someone really wants commercial fonts for free, there are thousands of torrents waiting to be downloaded . . . for free.

@ evzx: sifr sounds scary from what I've read. For just doing titles and big headings I'd use a flash movie with only the specific characters embedded for a minimal file-size, flash is cool like that. I'm after body text.

@ StumpyXL: Offer the font for download and give installation instructions before users can view my site properly? Hmmm, I'd recommend against that, but I appreciate the advice anyway.

[.sleep]

@ evzx: sifr sounds scary from what I've read. For just doing titles and big headings I'd use a flash movie with only the specific characters embedded for a minimal file-size, flash is cool like that. I'm after body text.

That's pretty much what sifr does.

[freelancr]

Sorry I can't offer any suggestions as what you propose isn't really feasible at the moment, or will it ever be for commercial fonts. The best you can hope for is list the font in your css first, then let it degrade to Verdana or something, so at least if someone does have the font they get what you want.

sifr is a lazy solution to a problem better solved using image replacement. The flash player is very CPU intensive, and if you have lots of sifr embedded, people won't be able to scroll your page smoothly. Limit use of this only to h1 titles if you really can't be bothered to make the images (or a script to generate the images).

[xENo]

Yeah, sIFR is decent for headings, but it's probably "too much" for body text. There are decent options for body text in the standard realm of fonts, though.

[mathias]

Crap! Fonts are by nature troublesome technology, but it looks like browsers are being hindered from adding font embedding features, be it copyright/liability issues or whatever. There are plenty of good free fonts one could use on a site if only the support was there. It must be intentional; someone/group out there is keeping font embedding out of browsers, I assume W3C is playing a part. There's always a solution, it's just not being explored, to the detriment of our profession I might add. oh well

At least I have a new concept called "image replacement" to explore. I'll be looking into that now.

Thanks guys.

[pgo]

Uh - the web is just like anything else. If you want to view text, you have to have the specified font. That's standard protocol for almost any application - such as MS Office. You can't see the text if you don't have the font.

Repeat after me: The web is not print. The web is not print. The web is not print....

[flappypenguin]

sIFR (scalable inman flash replacement) is the best, and most standard complaint way of "embedding" fonts into a web site, users only need Javascript enabled and Flash installed, even then if they dont, it will default back to standard HTML text.

Search g to the oogle for "novermberborn sifr", current version is v3.

[Larixk]

I once heard something about a thing called sIFR...

You might want to check that out

[mathias]

@ pgo: ah shaddup!




















the web is not print. . .the web is not print. . .

[mentalsheep]

An interesting Microsoft attempt of embedding fonts in IE (last update 2003)

The Web Embedding Fonts Tool 'WEFT'
microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft3/

And, where all of it may be heading...
Web font embedding returns (2007)
blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2007/11/web_fonts_1.html

worth a read if interested in the subject (by no means a standard)

[Dusteh]

Can't fucking wait for your Comic Sans abomination.

[pgo]

Hahaha.

[mathias]

Bad day at the chicken plant, Dusty? Embed a system font, great idea.

[pringshia]

Yeah I think IE has some feature that allows you to embed fonts. Also the file gets encrypted or something so the client cannot download the font.