Notes

.wtf

Tal Leming’s article on WebType Fonts is an excellent overview of some of the potentials (and pitfalls) of embedding fonts for the web, culminating in a proposal that honors the work of type designers whilst opening the door to web designers to use well-crafted typography online.

Although Leming is a type designer and type technology specialist (and a former “jack of all trades” at idiosyncratic foundry, House Industries), he takes a balanced and constructive view, proposing a possible solution to the legal minefield of font embedding. Leming states:

I don’t like to predict the future, but here’s what I think could happen … you want to use a font from XYZ foundry for headlines on your site. You go to the foundry’s website, you enter the domain that your font will be used for, you buy a web embedding license for a small fee, you download the web font file and you put it on your site.

His proposed solution (.wtf, WebType Fonts), ties OpenType fonts to specific domains, allowing professional, foundry-crafted typefaces to be tied to registered domains, ensuring type designers are - deservedly - paid for their work. An interesting idea with potential.

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The Periodical

The most recent entries in the Periodical and Reviews sections:

• AIGA have long fought the good fight against crowdsourcing, clearly articulating the very real issues that plague the 'winner takes all' approach to sourcing design by subcontracting it to the masses…
• In 2009, Andy Baio - a writer and entrepreneur who helped build Kickstarter - ate his own dog food and launched a Kickstarter project called 'Kind of Bloop'. The idea was elegant, and one we immediately fell in love with…
• As the old saying goes, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." Launched amid much fanfare late last week, Color is, apparently, "a miraculous application," and one of the first of many, new life-changing applications for the 'Post-PC World' in which we now live. It's also guilty of a not insubstantial degree of hyperbole…

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HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions

Learn how to build hand-crafted web pages using well-structured XHTML and lean and efficient CSS. By embracing a web standards approach, HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions enables you to create web sites that not only look great in all modern browsers, but are also accessible to a wide variety of audiences across a range of platforms - from those browsing on everyday computers, to those accessing the web on the latest, emerging mobile devices.

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The Authors

In addition to their role as lecturers in interactive design at the University of Ulster at Belfast, where they have been active in promoting a web standards-based curriculum, Christopher Murphy and Nicklas Persson are practicing designers and digital artists. Their work has featured in a variety of design books and magazines alongside numerous internationally respected designers and they are regular speakers at design conferences and workshops worldwide.

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