You can already embed fonts easily without using a service such as this site will provide. The problem is of course the license to do so. There are a lot of fonts out there that are free and allow website embedding, but the majority of fonts from major type foundries are not included. So assuming Typekit gets more of the type foundries onboard that would be useful.<p>The question is what will make these foundries jump onboard if Typekit isn't introducing a new DRM or other protections? I think this is how it might work:<p>1.) Check the site referrer to ensure that fonts from Typekit are only delivered to websites that have purchased the font (or are signed up for the free fonts).<p>Of course since there aren't any drm protections, you can simply take the font file and put it on your own site, which leads to....<p>2.) They might have custom Typekit versions of well-known fonts, so that if any website is self-hosting a font file that is from Typekit, it's plainly obvious they're doing it illegally. Also, if a type foundry only licensed their font to Typekit for web embedding, then any hosting of their font on a site other than Typekit is forbidden.<p>This is different than how it would work now, because let's assume that a type foundry licensed fonts for embedding on websites. It becomes very hard for them to search the web finding their embedded fonts and then checking their records to make sure the person who created the site actually purchased a license. This would take a lot of time and effort that these type foundries don't have. However, if the font is only licensed to be hosted by Typekit, then Typekit can do the checking and accept reports of other sites infringing, etc. It just makes the whole effort easier because only one website will have the license to self-host that font.<p>So to me, the biggest downside is that you have to have your font files hosted on a 3rd party service. Also, they claim you'll embed the fonts via javascript, whereas if you were self-hosting your own fonts there's no need for javascript at all.<p>I wish the type foundries would just get over the fact that some people may commit copyright infringement on their fonts. Instead they should just provide all of us honest people the ability to purchase a license to embed fonts on our websites instead of constantly trying to find drm'ish ways of fighting it.
Thanks, but no thanks. Web pages already assume too much about the way that they'll be rendered -- I have pages looking funny when I force a minimum font size so I can actually read them. I know, it's a crazy idea wanting to read web pages. What can I say? I'm weird that way.<p>I can't imagine allowing custom fonts making this situation any better. I don't want the web to be pixel perfect, I want the end-user to have control over what they see, without sites breaking.
This will be great for talented web designers who want to use non-standard fonts, but I know that it'll result in us seeing websites covered in 'grunge' fonts and other illegible crap just because the 'designer' thought it looked cool.<p>I'm happy and scared at the same time.
This is interesting, but I'm not sure how well it will work when there is already a method (SFIR <a href="http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/sifr/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/sifr/</a>) that works around this licensing issue completely.<p>I suppose it will really come down to pricing, but they're going to really need to cut into those expected royalties if this is going to fly. It'll be interesting to see if font designers are as pig headed as music labels, or if they can understand that a lessor percentage of a larger total is the better deal.
It amuses me that there is still good money to be made from lying to paranoid rightsholders about how great your DRM scheme is. Not only do we get middlemen, we get middlement that either don't understand their own technology or are happy to lie about it.<p>Unsurprisingly they don't go into details about how this all works, but if it can deliver standard font files to browsers that support @font-face then the font can be downloaded and used. It's on a par with javascript hacks to prevent right clicking on images.