Having learnt mostly traditional print at university, the restrictions placed on designers by the internet came as something of shock, especially when you consider the unparalleled opportunities for communicating that the web promises. It seems ridiculous that fonts online have, up to now, been limited to just a few generic styles, rather like an actor, who once up in front of the cameras is told he can only perform in a Glaswegian accent. With a lisp.

Of course there are good, practical reasons why type online is so restricted. For one thing it was never originally meant for designers to be let loose on. For another digital type has progressed at leaps and bounds, but whilst online stores like Fontshop and MyFonts put literally thousands of variations at your fingertips, there has been no co-ordinated effort to bring these advances to the internet in a consistent and accessible way.

For a while people struggled through with Flash headers and text-as-image or hacks like sIFR until there stepped forward CSS and the @font-face property opening up the whole spectrum of fonts to everybody. Of course this has led to some badly misjusdged type-usage online, and of more serious concern, copyright issues over how font files will be uploaded and potentially pirated.

Typekit, and others like it, might offer an answer. Now in almost-total-complete-launch stage, they’ve created an online type repository that designers can subscribe to and use to create secure and reliable web typography. And for those like me who are seriously code-challenged, it takes a lot of the stress and strain of building accessible and standards compliant sites!

Tags: fonts, typekit, web typography