Google fonts api, aka downloadable fonts Options

[Brian Chandler]

Somewhere else drew my attention to http://code.google.com/apis/webfonts/

"API" seems an extremely overblown name for what amounts to this stylesheet:

CODE

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Tangerine';
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: normal;
  src: local('Tangerine'), url('http://themes.googleusercontent.com/font?kit=_jMq7r9ahcBZZjpP8hftNA') format('truetype');
}

And in the end, this relies on CSSn for some value of n being sufficiently widely supported by browsers. Last time I read anything (probably here) about "downloading fonts" the answer was that the commonest browsers simply couldn't agree on how to do it. Has that now changed? Does the @font-face definition work in "most" cases?

[Frederiek]

I found that same page only a few days ago.

@font-face has been around since a while already.
ALA wrote about it in 2007: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/cssatten .

There is a browser support page at http://webfonts.info/wiki/index.php?title=...browser_support .
(You might have to go to their home page (http://webfonts.info) first and then choose Browser Support in the General menu, or the link might download a folder with an index.php and .plist file.)

The main problem with @font-face is the web licensing of the fonts from founderies. Just google for @font-face.

[pandy]

After Netscape 4 that had its own method it's been @font-face. Problem was that only IE supported it and you needed to use MS' cumbersome program Weft to convert fonts to their EOT format.

I haven't kept up, but I think major browsers now support "webfonts". Don't know what formats are acceptable and if newer IE versions still require EOT.

[Frederiek]

See http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator .

[wgabrie]

The original problem with adopting the @font-face rule was that different browsers and different operating systems use different font formats. There was never an agreement over creating and porting a standard font format.

Now its even more complicated. SVG wants to get into the act with its own glyph drawing system. Microsoft has three font formats now: OpenType, TrueType, and ClearType, and I don't know what they will keep or kill in the future. Microsoft already killed the Web font initiative only to years-later recommend a new web font format. There is also Linux and mobile devices to think about.

Ideally you could just create a font in many formats and put them in a font-family list, but that requires font conversion and a lot of work.

This post has been edited by wgabrie: Aug 9 2010, 08:47 PM

[wgabrie]

Okay, I'm looking deeper into this Google Font API.

Technical Considerations

What is the Google Font API serving?
When a browser sends a request for a Font API stylesheet (as specified in a <link> tag in your web page), the Font API serves a stylesheet generated for the specific user agent making the request.

In other words: Google generates the stylesheet with a server-side script. Google being the 800-pound gorilla worked/paid for multiple font formats. So, each browser can get the font in its own preferred font format.

[Frederiek]

With a bulletproof @font-face syntax too.
See http://paulirish.com/2009/bulletproof-font...ntation-syntax/