We’ve redesigned our site giving a new look, new logo and a more robust font browser so you can find the fonts your looking for! We’ve also created a partner program in which we’ve gotten together with some of your favoirte foundries and we’re going to bringing some really nice fonts to you guys. Take a Look!
In CSS2 a way to bring in fonts was introduced. The great @Font-Face command. Using @Font-Face your able to link directly to fonts and use them in your stylesheet and website. As simple as:
@font-face {
font-family: "fontname";
src: url("http://www.example.com/fonts/fontname.ttf")
format("truetype");
}
h3 {
font-family: "fontname", sans-serif;
}
Rather than using static images or non-functional images @font-face allowed you to link directly to any font you wished. Be it remote of locally stored. The retrieved font could be rendered right to HTML text. And not just for H1 headline tags, but for any body copy as well. It’s a great idea, except:
@font-face for TrueType (TTF) and OpenType (OTF) fonts, Internet Explorer does not. Instead, Microsoft supports @font-face only for the Embedded OpenType (EOT) format—which Microsoft itself invented. EOT discourages the copying of copyrighted font files via encryption, “subsetting” (using only needed characters rather than the entire font), and other techniques. EOT is a great alternative and in theory a service that delivered EOT and a licensed library of fonts would be great however the available fonts would be greatly limited, and the service would need to rely on CSS Font-Stack Methods.FontMeUp uses a different approach that doesn’t embed these fonts in the browser, however it allows the text to perform like a traditional font. Click here to learn more about FontMeUp.
Today we’re announcing that very much like regular web-fonts, FontMeUp now allows the typefaces to perform in the browser as regular text. Select blocks of text then copy and paste as if it were embedded fonts.
The announcement of this effort comes from the inability to do previously. Typically the work flow of using fonts on the web is Microsofts EOT, which doesn’t work in Firefox (the most used browser), or @font-face which has licensing issues and the complications from the lack of DRM that it provides. With @font-face users can firebug the page, and easily download the typeface. Understandably, the type foundries are not willing to allow their hard work to be easily downloaded from linked font files. At FontMeUp’s we use a unique model that doesn’t deliver actual fonts to the users browser, nor does it make linked font files accessible. This allows us to navigate around the complicated DRM issues presented with @font-face.
Recently the FontMeUp team enhanced the font algorithm allowing the dynamically delivery of text to be selectable among its many other organic css control abilities.
Stay Tuned for our upgrades and updates as we’re always working to make our service better!
Branding is everything. Recently Snickers launched a promotion which proved how their font maintained incredible branding. A colleague of mine and I we’re working on a project and him from a designers background kept pushing to bring non-web fonts to the site we we’re doing, as I - from a designers background insisted was not the way. He simply said, “Make a way”.
FontMeUp is the first product from Cre8tiveLab founded by developers Erik Alburg and Ryan Hickman. The idea is to provide a simple opportunity for non-developers and semi-developers to use non-web fonts on their sites. “No more complicated SIFR, jquery markup or issues with typeface”, says Ryan Hickman , “The service isn’t for everyone. Its for those who need the fix. A place to manage fonts, someone else to manage the backend, making it easy for someone who knows a little CSS”
Users receive access to a library of high-quality fonts, free for commercial usage. The users select a font, drop a line of JS in their site, and their running! Using regular CSS the user can access their fonts, modify color and size to create their ideal look.
Working in all browsers, this is a sure way to maintain your brand into the web.
“This fall we have some great and exciting new features we’ll be integrating”, says Erik, “We want the user experience to be useful, as with all of our products…”
We love to talk about fonts, the new web and wants happening with our company. So be sure to subscribe to our blog feed, follow us on twitter, or even signup for the service. Send us feedback on things you would love to change, cause we will change them.
