Comments on: New from Typekit: Favorites

By: Mandy Brown

Mandy Brown — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:59:31 +0000

Typekit provides a web license for fonts in the library, according to page views and number of sites: http://typekit.com/plans

By: jeremyhawes

jeremyhawes — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:16:15 +0000

What’s the license on these fonts?

By: ggarmento

ggarmento — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:19:22 +0000

In reply to Mandy Brown.

What is wrong with both review schemes? An orderly alphabetical review (for those who have the time) and the ADD MORE FONTS review (for those in a hurry).

I have just been in advertising too long to watch a very good thing (typekit), induce a self-inflicted FAIL In most business models, SUCCESS is defined by maintianing the current customer base and expanding (not limiting) its future customer base (in this case, by inclusiveness and avoiding error messages.)

The ADD MORE FONTS review still fails under Chrome “Whoa, too many fonts…”.
“New “does not always mean “Improved”.

By: Mandy Brown

Mandy Brown — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:10:11 +0000

In reply to ggarmento.

The new interface is designed to let you filter and switch between different criteria very quickly, rather than slowly trudging your way through pages and pages of fonts. We tested this with users, and they emphatically agreed it was better. IE can’t show as many fonts per page, but it does permit a very similar filtering and browsing experience. And, since IE users are an exceedingly tiny percentage of the audience using typekit.com, we decided that was a fair tradeoff.

I respect that you disagree with that; and if we find that we have more users like you, we may adjust our strategy. At any point in a product’s design, you have to make decisions which will work for some users and not others. It’s just not possible to please everyone all the time. At the moment, however, praise for the new design far outweighs criticism, so we will be moving forward, not back.

By: ggarmento

ggarmento — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:05:57 +0000

What was wrong with just reviewing the font library alphabetically, twenty fonts at a time? That kind of review is orderly and avoids duplication, and allows me to see all the fonts (without duplication). Plus, when I found a font of interest, I could right click and open it in a new TAB to scrutinize the font more (before adding it to a KIT).

Support for IE8 and IE9 is limited to the first 32 fonts. All fonts K thru Z are lost. So when I try to recommend TYPEKIT I know have to add an asterik* to the conversation, * the Browse Font Library does not work in IE. If I built websites that did not work in IE then i would be out of business.

The new ADD MORE FONTS filtering interface is nice, but not a complete replacement to a tried and true, orderly, page review.

By: ggarmento

ggarmento — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:50:59 +0000

In reply to Brendan Falkowski. excellent choice, a Classic.

By: eheiser

eheiser — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:39:46 +0000

Great!
+1 for adding them to the individual pages and for making available public favorite pages, similar to what a bookmarking service linke pinboard does, that’s what I was using up to now to bookmark typekit fonts.
https://pinboard.in/u:eheiser/t:typekit

By: Jay George (@SparrwHawk)

Jay George (@SparrwHawk) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:10:08 +0000

Definitely think the idea of public favourites would be awesome. For example, I collect my own favourites, but I also group together recommended favourites from favourite designers which I often refer to if I’m out of inspiration.

By: josh force (@josh044)

josh force (@josh044) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:14:18 +0000

In reply to Gareth. Yeah, I'd definitely like to see other's favorites.

By: Mandy Brown

Mandy Brown — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:13:19 +0000

In reply to Will. Right now, it's only from the browse page; but we're working on surfacing it elsewhere.