Comments on: Type rendering on the web

By: Hannah Hurst

Hannah Hurst — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:45:55 +0000

The annoyance of trying to get a font to look the same on all browsers can be very tedious. I have spent a lot of time checking the rendering of various web fonts on multiple browsers and I have come to understand the difficulty in finding a font that matches correct rendering on multiple browsers.

The resource of a list of web fonts which have the best rendering display on different Browsers would most definitely be really useful. I’m really looking forward to reading the next articles.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:30:21 +0000

In reply to Jan Henrik Helmers.

“…values crispness over geometrical correctness and that this creates problems.”

“Problems” like the one that I can the on-screen text is actually readable, unlike MacOS.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:28:11 +0000

In reply to Irune. Almost all fonts look horribly blurry on MacOS because they just don't fit the pixel grid. Makes MacOS completely unusable to me, despite how much I like the interface.

By: Will

Will — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 09:57:11 +0000

When blowing up screenshots of fonts rendered using chroma for sub-pixel rendering, it might be better to show them with the sub-pixels in their real positions. When you just show the colour pixel as a full-sized block, it could mislead people to think it looks worse than it really does.

By: Nicky

Nicky — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:26:13 +0000

In reply to Nicky.

Oops sorry wrong blog

Well said TJ hopefully rendering will become more accurate over all the main browsers.

By: Nicky

Nicky — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:23:29 +0000

What are your views on google fonts? i.e using a online source rather relying on the local users typeface library.

Also have you come across http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface

Thanks

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:50:26 +0000

There are many requests, above and in numerous other forums, for Typekit to produce a list of which fonts are certified as looking good in most major browsers. I really do hope they get this message, and do it, soon. Making it their customers’ problem is not the way to behave; I know I don’t have the time to test hundreds of fonts.

I thought the example of the letter ‘a’ was a wonderful illustration of how severe the issue is for font users!

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 01:39:08 +0000

Thanks Stephen.

In that case, it’ll be very useful to have a list of fonts that people have found working well across platforms.

Thanks!

By: Stephen Coles

Stephen Coles — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:36:01 +0000

In reply to Eric.

Sorry Eric, just re-read your post and caught your Cufón reference. My response is limited to type delivered by @font-face, whether self-hosted or via a service like Typekit. Type rendered by sIFR or Cufón may vary.

Of course, most of the good type isn’t licensable for Cufón, so what’s important is that manufacturers do the work to produce fonts that work well via @font-face.

By: Stephen Coles

Stephen Coles — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:27:17 +0000

In reply to Eric. Keep in mind, when fonts look hideous in Windows and Linux, it's not due to the "Typekit solution", it has everything to do with the fonts themselves. Fonts perform well (or not well) on various platforms simply because of how they are designed and hinted — regardless of how they are delivered.