Font embedding on the Web

Font embedding on the Web refers to the ability to embed fonts into web pages. This allows for more flexibility when deciding about what font to use, and is especially useful for web pages that use foreign characters that are not widely supported. However, embedding font necessarily increases the time a web site takes to load, and it is controversial because it can potentially allow copyrighted fonts to be freely proliferated through the web.

Font embedding is not widely used on the web.

TrueDoc

Bitstream developed TrueDoc, the first standard for embedding fonts. TrueDoc was natively supported in Netscape Navigator 4, but was discontinued in Netscape Navigator 6 and Mozilla because Netscape could not release Bitstream's source code. A WebFont Player plugin was available for Internet Explorer, but the technology had to compete against Microsoft's Embedded OpenType fonts natively supported by Internet Explorer 4 and up (Windows versions only).

Embedded Open Type

Internet Explorer 4 and above have supported font embedding through the proprietary Embedded OpenType standard. EOT fonts are embedded with the @font-face CSS rule. They use digital rights management techniques to help prevent fonts from being copied and used without a license.

TrueType

The CSS2 specification adopted Microsoft's @font-face rule as the standard method for embedding fonts. However, Safari is the only browser other than Internet Explorer that supports @font-face, and it supports TrueType fonts instead of EOT fonts. As of July 2008, the Firefox web browser is developing the capability to support TrueType fonts for @font-face rules; the code is currently scheduled to appear in version 3.1 of the browser (see, e.g., https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70132), though this is subject to change.

See also

• Web safe fonts
• Scalable Inman Flash Replacement

External links

• Bitstream Inc.
• TrueDoc Technoolgy
• Font Descriptions and @font-face
• Font embedding for the Web
• Microsoft's forgotten monopoly