Despite being billed as a general typographic discussion with two speakers from different career backgrounds, with the future of type on the web debate in full swing it was unavoidable not to touch upon the subject at the SCDF’s BrightType seminar. It was however particularly interesting to attend a talk that discussed this subject with both sides of the argument presented face to face. Personally, and in a nutshell, I could see the point from both sides; designers want the freedom and variety to use professional, well hinted fonts online, and the font foundries want honest payment and security to ensure that their fonts are not pirated, something that can easily be done if the font is linked.
I have a lot of respect for type designers. It is an incredible, painstaking skill and to create a balanced, functional typeface is no mean feat. Listening to Maag talk through their working process and craft you can understand why they are protective over their work and also their hard earned profit margins. I can also understand why they wouldn’t want to be bundled in with the all-the-fonts-you-want-online-for-$5-a-month-subscription crowd, as are the offerings of some sites that allow you to link to Open Type fonts, often including fonts that are a little on the, let’s say, rough and ready side.
From a branding point of view, a typeface is key to the aesthetic. A brand without a supporting typeface is like a brand without a logo. Although it is often unfeasible to commission a bespoke typeface due to budget, we will still spend a lot of research time looking for an appropriate font that communicates the correct brand tone and one that communicates clearly. If a client is going to be translating collateral into other languages, we will ensure that the typeface supports the additional characters. If it is a particularly decorative font, suitable glyphs will need to be part of the typeface. Often these vital issues are only addressed in the “quality” typefaces. And once we’ve found the perfect face, we would love to be able to extend it to our clients’ online presence.
The bulk of the font foundaries are working hard to find viable and sensible methods for using their fonts online securely as this will no doubt form a large percentage of their future revenue. As designers we can’t wait to have the chocolate box choice we currently enjoy off line, whilst continuing to credit and respect the font foundaries.