Typophile

Help: True State of Web Font Embedding; Interstate "ñ"

Hrant H Papazian

I'll be giving a presentation at a conference in early October* and so far there are two things I need that I'm missing and am having trouble finding. Any inadvisably kind person is requested to please help.

* http://www.esummit2006.am/

1) A summary of the current state of web font embedding. Until ~2 years ago I had a good grasp of it, making some PFRs and even "delivering" Mana via MS embedding (thanks to the help of Mårten Thavenius) but I can't say I really know what's on the ground these days - like how effective Fairy (now called something else) is in practice, what else might be out there now, etc. Of course I can find articles online, but I'm interested in the aggregate de facto reality, not a collection of various de jure "official party line"-type statements.

2) The "ñ" glyph from Interstate. An EPS of it would be ideal, but if a person who has the font feels uneasy about that, a really large (like 800 pixel tall) black-on-white rendering of it should do. Weight/width: no need to have a perfect match, but the closer I can get to what's on the following sign the better:

My email: hpapazian_at_gmail_dot_com

hhp

blank

SIFR is generally considered the state of the art for font embedding right now (even though it's really a flash trick), google it and you'll find plenty of information. In general designers seem to be staying away from embedded type, due to poor support for the the older proprietary formats and SIFR being too complicated for a lot of implementations. It might be worthwhile to survey designers who threw in the towel on HTML and went to Flash, just to see how many of them did it to get away from the font limits of HTML/CSS.

Hrant H Papazian

James, thanks for the input. I also got some offline info about the embedding discussion at the recent TypeCon, and you're right, it seems pretty bleak. Flash: I agree that it's filling a gap on something the Grand Concensus Boys fell on their faces.

hhp

aluminum

"A summary of the current state of web font embedding."

I believe IE still supports the MS method (though not sure about IE7), but Firefox, AFAIK, and most of the newer non-IE browsers don't bother supporting any embedding at all.

(And, IMHO, this isn't really a bad thing).

Using flash or an image is the only way to truly get the typeface you want, but introduces a variety of accesibility and usability issues that should be carefully weighed.

Hrant H Papazian

All we need is a simple mechanism for delivering bitmaps.
But that's not sexy enough for corporate managements.

hhp

ndmike

In the "Cañada" photo above, is that supposed to be a tilde above the n? It looks like a macron, and isn't how the ñ glyph of Interstate looks nor the official FHWA alphabet either. Truth be told, the official alphabet doesn't even have an "n" with a tilde (see their guide to the fonts here). But, I have seen it around, specifically on road signs near Cañon City, Colo. (like in this photo, small as it is, cropped below).

To clarify, are you looking for a straight macron-like tilde, or the real deal?

Hrant H Papazian

Well, until about 2-3 weeks ago that "n" didn't have any diacritic on it at all! I guess somebody complained (damn mexican-speakers ;-) and it resulted in a macron... Actually, it's not even a decent macron from a font - look at how it spans the entire width of the "n", which makes it seem to extend more rightward. The thing is, the small homey white street signs along secondary intersections feature a real tilde... but that's because they're hand-made. And that will be one of the points in my talk: technology can demote culture. The more convenient something is, the more you have to care.

> are you looking for a straight macron-like tilde, or the real deal?

I'm looking for a real "ñ" with a tilde (which only exists in
Interstate, or actually other FHWA clone fonts too I guess).

hhp

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