CHAPTER 9 The Next Steps for Web Typography
They will often listen if you have a special request. For example, sub-
setting (removing all unnecessary glyphs) is one of the most convenient
methods of reducing the font file size and speeding up Web type perfor-
mance. If you need a particular subset for a project (for instance, small caps
or a lining figures subset), a Web font hosting company might be able to
create and deliver a separate font file and make your website feel lightning
fast. While that particular service might not be available free of charge,
it might not be as expensive either — especially if you can significantly
increase the performance of a website.
With the adoption of Web fonts becoming more common and wide-
spread, many font foundries have begun to appreciate and understand the
importance of performance, resulting in numerous foundries offering Web
font services via their own reliable CDNs. Foundries such as Hoefler &
Frere-Jones^21 , Just Another Foundry^22 , Monotype Imaging^23 , Typonine^24 and
Typotheque^25 have all recently entered the fray and join the usual suspects
such as Adobe Edge Web Fonts, Fontdeck, Google Fonts, Typekit, Webink
and Webtype who all primarily promote other foundries’ Web fonts.oS Rendering engine
There’s little you can do to influence OS manufacturers, but it’s useful to
know how different rendering engines affect typography and what we can
do to improve legibility. There are currently three major OSes that render
type differently: Windows, Mac OS X and iOS. On Apple’s OSes both type
and Web designers have little control, because the rendering engine com-
pletely ignores hinting. This results in somewhat thicker letterforms, but
that’s acceptable as rendering is reliable and consistent.21 http://www.typography.com/cloud/welcome/
22 http://justanotherfoundry.com/
23 http://www.fontslive.com/
24 http://typonine.com/
25 https://www.typotheque.com/