Here are some initial results for my survey of Web designers/developers and their opinions on issues that relate to prospective technologies for Web fonts, as discussed in my last post.

I caution that this is by no means a random sample. Instead it’s the result of my posting pleas for feedback on various forums, ranging from Typophile to Adobe’s User-to-User Forums for Dreamweaver. But I’d suggest it’s still a lot better than nothing.

The results shown below are based on the first 165 responses. I may update the results in the future if I have a lot more responses and the results change noticeably. You can also download an Excel spreadsheet of the survey results, if you’d like to look at the numbers more closely.

For each question, there is a graph of results, followed by summary and then comments.

Q1. How important is each of these factors to you in terms of the selection of fonts that is available to you for use on the Web?

• Encouraging everyone to use free and open source fonts (29% said “critical” or “very important” / 47% said “not very important” or “irrelevant”)
• Restricting Web font usage to free and open source fonts, as a way of encouraging everyone to use free and open source fonts.
  (12% said “critical” or “very important” / 75% said “not very important” or “irrelevant”)
• Being able to use the same fonts for the Web that I do for print.
  (65% said “critical” or “very important” / 9% said “not very important” or “irrelevant”)
• Being able to use the same fonts on the Web that are part of an existing visual identity (81% said “critical” or “very important” / 7% said “not very important” or “irrelevant”)
• Being able to use common retail fonts (65% said “critical” or “very important” / 12% said “not very important” or “irrelevant”)

Q1 comments: This was a general question about what factors users care about in terms of what fonts they’d be able to use. Seems like the bottom line is they want to be able to use the fonts they want to use, especially the ones they are already using elsewhere for the same purpose.

Q2. How well would a web font scheme meet your needs as a web designer/producer if:

• You could ony use fonts that are legally allowed to be freely redistributed? (Free fonts, some shareware fonts, no retail fonts, no fonts that come with common retail applications or operating systems: maybe 3-5% of all the world’s fonts) (15% said “superbly” or “well” / 66% said “poorly” or “not at all”
• You could only use fonts that have embedding bits that allow preview/print embedding, and whose license terms allow such usage? (Maybe half of all fonts). (54% said “superbly” or “well” / 17% said “poorly” or “not at all”)

Q2 comments: This boils down the previous question into which fonts each proposal would allow. What’s most interesting here is what’s implied but not stated (because I didn’t ask the question): what users really want is to use any font. Even being able to use about half of all retail fonts Is still not perfect – although massively better than being restricted to free and open source fonts.

Q3. How likely would you be to do each of these things when using fonts on Web pages under one of these proposals? (Please be candid; remember, this survey is anonymous!)

• Check the font license (EULA) to be sure it was allowed to be used in this way, even if it worked. (56% said “always” or “usually” / 30% said “rarely” or “never”)
• I’d just use whatever fonts would work, regardless of the license. (26% said “always” or “usually” / 55% said “rarely” or “never”)
• If a font didn’t work automatically, if I found a utility that allowed me to modify the font to make it work, I’d use it – even if that might not be legal. (13% said “always” or “usually” / 74% said “rarely” or “never”)
• If the font license (EULA) terms for Web usage were unclear to me, I’d just use the font. (38% said “always” or “usually” / 41% said “rarely” or “never”)
• If the font license (EULA) terms for Web usage were unclear to me, I’d contact the licensor for clarification. (24% said “always” or “usually” / 51% said “rarely” or “never”)

Q3 comments: This question is trying to survey users about behaviors that retail font developers are likely to be concerned about. I thought it was interesting that most users claimed they’d check the font license, although many would just use “whatever fonts would work.” Even with a utility to make it easy, only a minority would go so far as to hack the fonts – and differences in responses makes it clear that if hacking a font was required to make it work, that would deter a noticeable chunk of people who couldn’t be bothered to check the license to see if usage was legal. But font vendors need to make their licenses clear on these points – a lot of people would use the font if they weren’t sure what the license allowed, and most aren’t eager to contact their font vendor for clarification.