Where are (web) designers going with web fonts?

A talk by @scottboms, @mrwarren and @luxuryluke given at TypeCon 2011 in New Orleans, LA about the state of web fonts today and what designers are striving to achieve with them on the web.

Transcript

1. WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD WHERE ARE (WEB) DESIGNERS GOING WITH WEB FONTS? TYPECON 2011: SURGE
2. WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
3. BRIAN WARREN HAPPY COG/BUTTER LABEL
4. LUKE DORNY NEWSVINE/BUTTER LABEL
5. SCOTT BOMS LL&S/BUTTER LABEL
6. THE PAST
7. 500+ YEARS OF PRINT
8. 15 YEARS of CSS TYPE 10 YEARS of HACKS 2 YEARS of WEB FONTS A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE ON THE WEB
10. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” MARSHALL McLUHAN “ This photograph is copyright © Henri Dauman/The Estate of Marshall McLuhan and may not be used without permission.
11. SURVEY The complete results are available at http://bit.ly/wfsr2011
12. A BIT ABOUT THE SURVEY
13. 13 QUESTIONS 5 DAYS 235 RESPONSES A BIT ABOUT THE SURVEY
14. 94% of web designers are using web fonts 6% 94% YES NO
15. HOW DESIGNERS ARE CHOOSING TYPE Optimized for Small Sizes Fallback Font Availability Range of Weights and Styles Number of Glyphs Language Support Availability of Special Characters Pairings from Same Web Font Service Appropriateness for the Project 0 50 100 150 200
16. 91% want better quality web fonts rather than just more of them 9% 91% QUALITY QUANTITY
17. 66% prefer hosted web font services such as Typekit, FontDeck, WebType, etc. 34% 66% HOSTED SELF-HOSTED
18. 84% sometimes or always talk to clients about using web fonts 47% 16% 37% YES NO SOMETIMES
19. WHERE WE’RE GOING
20. Web designers simply want the same control print has enjoyed for decades
21. BY EXAMPLE
22. SAGINAW by ? BASKERVILLE by Monotype
23. MOD REGULAR by Font Fabric HERO LIGHT by Svetoslav Simov
24. BREE by TypeTogether Skolar by TypeTogether
25. LIQUORSTORE by Chank Co.
26. COQUETTE by Mark Simonson
27. HELLENIC WIDE by Veer PROXIMA NOVA by Mark Simonson
28. 01. RENDERING
29. PLATFORMS & VIEWPORTS
31. 02. LITTLE DETAILS
32. We’re rediscovering typography.” JON TAN “
35. 03. IDENTIFICATION & PAIRING
37. 04. WORKFLOW & INTEGRATION
38. What would be most helpful to you as a designer to make web fonts better?” SURVEY QUESTION: “
39. It’d be really great to have some way to design in Photoshop/Illustrator with a font I have a web license for.” ACTUAL ANSWER: “
40. Original concept by Elliot Jay Stocks
41. 05. POLYFILLS
42. Polyfills close the gaps created by browsers that support more advanced features of the HTML and CSS specs
46. 06. BEYOND THE BROWSER
48. The future of the web is the future of typography.” NICK SHERMAN “
49. THANK YOU @scottboms @mrwarren @luxuryluke