THE EVOLUTION OF FONT MANAGEMENT Presented by Jim Kidwell

Agenda

Linotype machines Letraset Phototypesetters

Evolve to Survive

Macintosh + PC (r)evolution

Digital Font Formats

•  Bitmapped •  PostScript •  TrueType •  TTC, Multiple Master, dfont, AAT, etc. •  OpenType

More Fonts, More Problems

•  Limited disk space •  Limited system memory •  Printer fonts didn’t render well onscreen

Adobe Type Manager

Font Suitcases

Mac OS X

•  Native onscreen PostScript rendering •  ATM no longer required •  Font Book application

Font Book

Windows

Windows 7 & 8

Single User Font Management

Modern, Professional Single User Font Management

Modern Single User Font Management

Activation States

Library Organization

Multiple Preview Types

Detailed Font Data

Searchable

Plug-in based font activation

Panel-based management

A little Fontspiration

And… for Windows as well

Server-based Font Management

Font Distribution & Synchronization

Why Distribute & Synchronize? 1.  Solve technical issues

a.  Missing fonts

b.  Incorrect fonts

2.  Brand control

3.  Font compliance

Workgroup Organization

Organize by User Type

Production

Design

Editorial

Organize by Client

Ford

Macy’s

Nike

Organize by Project

Website

Collateral

Event

Font Compliance

Font Licenses

•  Typeface designs cannot be copyrighted

•  Fonts are licensed as software

Compliance Strategies

Compliance through workgroup access

Compliance through user permissions

Extending Compliance to ALL users

Fonts and the Web

•  Old problem

•  The new solutions

•  How to deal with it?

Previous font use on the web

•  Design for end user’s machine

•  About 12 “web safe” fonts

•  Clunky & boring

•  Text locked in images

The @font-face Revolution

•  Browsers modernize

•  @font-face tag

•  Fonts can now be on web servers

The rub

•  Most fonts were not licensed for

distribution on web servers

Web Font Solutions

•  Type foundries sell new licenses &

font formats

•  Web font services

Web Design Process

Designing with Web Fonts •  License desktop fonts from foundry

•  Plug-in for Photoshop

Evolution…

Resources Font Management Best Practices: Single User & Server-based •  www.extensis.com/fmbpg

Web Font Plug-in for Photoshop •  webfontplugin.com

Connect on Twitter •  @extensis •  @webink •  @jimkidwell