Re: New work on fonts at W3C

Adam Twardoch wrote:
>  Right now, it's difficult to make even compelling case studies
>  showcasing the usefulness of web fonts because there are hardly any
>  interesting fonts to choose from -- simply because font foundries are
>  very unhappy with the OTF/TTF solution, for good reasons.

Actually, that's probably because OTF/TTF Web fonts have only been 
implemented in WebKit so far. Once Mozilla Firefox and Opera jump on 
board and people have upgraded their browsers, one will better be able 
to make a case for or against OTF/TTF since authors will be able to use 
it with EOT, conditional comments, or some other WIE-centric hack. Of 
course, Microsoft could jump on board; I wonder if they will do that or 
try to hold back the Web again.

Also, there are compelling use cases besides design, like making sure 
that characters are rendered with something other than the Replacement 
Character glyph. That case is about usability and accessibility and 
doesn't require a commercial font.

Adam Twardoch wrote:
>  In HTML 2.0 times, there was no "demand" for multicolumn, accessible
>  website layouts, because the browsers did not have the means to show
>  them. It is the technology vendors who need to innovate, not the
>  consumers. The consumers will jump on the products if it's there. If
>  it's not there, they will not be able to "imagine" them, so their
>  mental picture of what is possible will stick to what they know and
>  are used to, to "the ways we used to things in old days".

People have been able to make multicolumn, accessible Web site layouts 
for awhile now and many people still "stick to what they know and are 
used to" and use tables for layout or teach their students to use tables 
for layout (even in 2009 based on the classes I've taken). What is your 
point?

Adam Twardoch wrote:
>  If nobody had invented the computer, there would still be "demand"
>  just for electric typewriters.

And if nobody implements support for TTF and OTF Web fonts, there will 
be no demand for those things. What's the problem?

— Patrick Garies

Received on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 07:25:27 UTC