Typekit

Thanks to Becky I also have a trial account with 5 free invites so if she's run out feel free to pm me your first / surname / email and I'll send them your way
 
Ok... so it's a new text replacement technique... Alternative to sIFR, Cufon, etc. ?
 
That's right Onartis yeah - There's two main players about to kick off TypeKit and FontDeck both do pretty much the same from what I understand. Font's pulled in via javascript. Although FontDeck are working with clearleft which mean's it will probably be a really cool site / app. not that TypeKit seems bad at all tbh
 
Hi guys, does anybody have an account on TypeKit / invites to spare? Please PM me, I'd be really glad :)

Cheers :)
 
Typekit is more than just a text replacement technique like sIFR/Cufon.

It's a subscription service that takes advantage of @font-face (new to CSS 3). @font-face basically allows you to specify which font to use on your website by specifying the file, rather than just the name. Obviously this will mean you can upload and use any font on your website without the need for it to be installed on others computers.

Typekit allows you to access fairly small (at the moment) library of fonts that you can use legally. It embeds the font into your page using JavaScript. It's an interesting venture! More on my experience here - Playing around with Typekit - David Bushell - Graphic Design

It's nice to experiment with but probably not ready for commercial use yet. At least not until the latest browsers that support it become more mainstream.

I also have a few invites spare :)
 
Hi David,

Welcome to Design Forums, thanks for posting your thoughts on TypeKit, and your link, found the article very interesting, I think as you mentioned, the one drawback I would be most concerned about is;

The second major issue is that you are relying on a 3rd party. If the Typekit servers are taken offline for maintenance or are loading slow due to traffic the best case scenario is that your website eventually loads with a fallback font like Arial.
Will be interesting to see what fonts they have access to, and of course the all important subscription charges!
Greg
 
One of the reoccurring twitter comment is: "How do I design with the Typekit fonts without owning them?" (in Photoshop).

I'm curious to see what they'll say...
 
That's a very good question. I don't think there is a solution. They could have an automated service where you upload a design to preview it in a font before purchasing, either as HTML or even a PSD is possible. Not ideal but the best solution I can think of.
 
I was looking for answers with regards to how to use century gothic font on a webpage (without embedding in an image)... this looked like the best place!

can it be done with coding?
 
I would be very careful with what fonts you use. You can convert any font ready to use with @font-face (see font squirrel) or Cufon (see here) but unless you have a license for web-embedding this is illegal - so do it at your own risk!

Most fonts are not provided with the right licenses yet so make sure you find one that's free (for all uses) from a site like fontsquirrel.com.
 
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