Re: Protecting web fonts

I heartily agree with Glen's assertion that fonts should 
*not* be embedded in web documents. They'd just be too 
easy to steal. In fact, as I think Erik van Blokland said,
it would be a challenge for the hackers to crack them - 
like Atari games (while these guys are not usually 
considered part of the market for purchased fonts, the
proliferation of free fonts would do nothing to help the 
perceived value of real type design - even the big guys 
like Adobe are devaluing the work of type designers by 
giving away 300 fonts with Illustrator, for example - 
I know - it's marketing, and they've already made their 
millions on these resources, but it hurts). 
   If the reference to  a web font server doesn't slow 
downloading significantly, this would seem to be a workable 
solution. I'm not so very familiar with the technology but 
I am a professional graphic designer and occasional (read 
dilettante) type designer. I would like to be able to specify 
a particular face for a web page but I wouldn't want any 
face I created to be included with it for thieves to easily 
grab.
    I sure hope someone figures it out soon, however, 
because my patience with this discussion is wearing thin. 
I'd like to get on with designing - for paper, the web, 
kiosk screens, the sides of trucks, whatever - and not worry 
about the technology so much. So - my only question for now: 
what is the problem with Glen's proposal? Bandwidth? 
Technological limitations? Desire? 

__________________________________
Jay Rutherford
Professor of Visual Communications
Bauhaus University Weimar
Geschwister Scholl Str. 7
99421 Weimar
tel: +49 / 3643 / 58 33 61
fax: +49 / 3643 / 58 33 73
__________________________________

Received on Thursday, 22 August 1996 09:57:02 UTC