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Embedded
FontsWeb Design in a Nutshell, eMatter EditionChapter 26Embedded FontsCHAPTER 26
Embedded Font Technology
Both Netscape Navigator 4.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support embedded font
technology, enabling them to render your web pages with exactly the fonts you’ve
chosen. Although they are called “embedded fonts,” the font information is actu-
ally in a separate compressed file linked to the HTML document. When the page is
downloaded to the client, so is the necessary font information. Although still in its
infancy, this is a great breakthrough for designers who want traditional control
over type display.
The W3C gave its blessing to embedded fonts by providing a means for importing
fonts (the @font-face function) in its Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2
Recommendation.
Not surprisingly, there are two competing embedded font technologies: TrueDoc
(developed by Bitstream and licensed by Netscape), and OpenType (developed by
Microsoft and Adobe). TrueDoc’s “Dynamic Fonts” can be viewed by Navigator
4.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ on Windows, Mac, and Unix platforms. TrueDoc
fonts creation and embedding tools exist for both Windows and Mac as well. The
current version of Microsoft’s OpenType works only with Internet Explorer 4.0 on
the Windows platform.
As of this writing, TrueDoc technology is presenting itself as the best solution for
embedded fonts. It offers cross-platform viewing on both major browsers, cross-
platform creation tools, the ability to compress both TrueType and Type 1 fonts,
and better security against font piracy. However, like any young technology, some
bugs still need to be worked out of the system.
Using Embedded Fonts
Although the two embedded font technologies differ at the detail level, the general
process for creating and importing them is essentially the same: