Safari is starting to support downloadable fonts
October 9th, 2007 by Dustin Brewer
It looks like the technology behind Safari, Webkit, is starting to support downloadable fonts. This could mean we could use more advanced forms of typography within web sites in the near future. Currently Safari is the only one I know about that is supporting the CSS @font-face feature but it is expected that the other browsers will soon join suit.
It is exciting to think about using fonts other then the classic web safe fonts that you would find across various operating systems. To use the @font-face you would need to setup code as follows:
@font-face {
font-family:"FontName";
src:url(AvantGarde.ttf) format("truetype");
}
Then whenever it comes to using the font you would just use the FoneName as the font-family that you are wanting to use. It is simple and elegant and would allow for easily adding any font that you want to heading or the body of a web page. The typographical possibilities for something like this are endless.
Of course with any new feature that is added to CSS it has the risk of being abused. I can already see hundreds of MySpace pages using all kinds of ridiculous cutesy type-faces that will make most designers die a little inside.
However, it would be nice to apply any type-face we want to our web pages. I can’t wait for the other browsers to begin supporting this feature. It wouldn’t be backwards compatible but once Firefox, Opera and IE7 support it there really isn’t much of a reason to not apply it.
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October 9th, 2007
I would just be worry about virus or adware getting put on computers. This seems like it might add a hole for people to take advantage of for things like this.
October 9th, 2007
This will be an excellent advancement for web design. No more using images for special fonts, I can’t wait!