It should go without saying that text and design go together like peanut butter and jelly. Text is everywhere. It’s in print, on the screen, in ads, on our phones, text is everywhere. In web design there are many things you can do with text. And by using CSS there are some pretty cool things you can do with text. Size it. Colorize it. Emphasis it. Change its weight. There are some really cool things you can do with text. The one thing you cannot do with text is use any font you want to use. The web designer has limited choices for font selection. This problem has been a long time issue for web designers. It’s frustrating that you are limited to using only a few types of fonts. This problem has somewhat hindered the creative process. The problem is that on order for your website fonts to show up the user must have that font installed on their computer. So compared to print media, web designer have always had to deal with this limitation -Until now!
The good news is that we are heading in the right direction when it comes to being able to expand our font selections for our web design projects. Introducing TrueType web fonts. They have reappeared onto the web design scene. No more use of images to display nice looking fonts. This is a heavy and tidious method web designers have been using for years if they wanted to go beyond just the user installed fonts on people’s computers.
Using TrueType web fonts is as easy as adding a @font-face declaration with the url of the location of that web font right into your CSS. You can now find some free websites where designers have created some great web fonts for you to use. Just point your url to the location of the web font you want to use on that website and you are ready to go. Just open your favorite search engine and type in “TrueType web fonts” and you will be on your way to finding just the right font for your next project. You will also find some website that will actually charge you a fee for using their service.
There are some things to keep in mind as this new format picks up steam. The first issue is a legal one. Fonts are intellectual property and cannot be publised on the web. To publish any copyrighted material you need to seek permission from the owners. But as mentioned above there are more and more designers creating great fonts and who are even allowing you to use free of charge. The last thing you need to keep in mind is that not all browser makers add support for web fonts. Having said all that things are changing rapidly and browser support for web fonts in only just right around the corner.
I am as a web designer very excited about TrueType web fonts. This will open a whole new approach to web design and greater creativity, which only makes the web better. So grab your favorite design program, look for those great web fonts that have already been created, and let your creative juices flow.
For more articles on web design technology check out the Technology New website.
Tags: CSS, web, web design, website