In December, as part of 24 ways, I proposed that we web designers increase our font stacks with help of a font matrix. The font matrix is a list of all Western fonts installed with Windows and Mac operating systems and common software suites.
The implication is that there’s a high likelihood your readers will have more fonts installed than just the core web fonts, so why not specify these other fonts as well. But, as m’learned friend Stuart Langridge wrote (via email):
it would be approximately 975 times more cool (and I know this because I’ve measured it) if the font matrix was available in some form where those of us who don’t have all the fonts can still see what they look like.
And he’s entirely right; it would be great to see what all the fonts look like. There are a few resources which do show samples of most of the fonts in one place, and of course Google will happily lead you to resources for one font at a time.
But I think Stuart hasn’t set his sights high enough here. While it would be useful to see detailed samples of all the common fonts in one place – if I had the time I would put this together for one and all to use – what would be even better would be suggestions of font-family font stacks. Or even better, automatically generated font stacks, based on pre-determined associations between fonts. How would these associations be determined? Through the power of the collective, of course.
What I imagine (for I’m afraid this is all fantasy) is a website where folk can input a font, and then associate fonts they think would be suitable font-family back-ups. Some software magic could then amalgamate this community input and generate suitable font stacks, based on rules of including a generic font family, a Windows OS font, a Mac OS font, Linux OS fonts, optionally an Office font, and optionally a CS font.
So if that sounds like a challenge you’d be up for, I say go for it, and I’ll help where I can. Update Mulling this over in the shower (as you do) it occurred to me that, conceptually, what I’m proposing is a weighted tagging system where a given font is tagged with other fonts in order of preference. With the addition of some tags (fonts) being required from pre-defined pools.
Bryan Peters wrote:
That would be AWESOME! Something like color themes, but with fonts. I hope there’s someone out there with the talent, time and ambition to develop something like this.
Neil wrote:
Now that’s a grand vision. Sounds a bit like Adobe Kuler, only for fonts, and with a little more algorithm shenanigans. Let’s hope there’s a font fanatic with enough motivation to take up the challenge.
An additional request: Please make an incredibly viral Facebook application which forces the 70 million FB users to install the top font stacks.
James Justin Harrell wrote:
Fonts in web content will remain a sad sad story until browsers can use fonts from the web.
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-webfonts/
There’s no freedom when you are restricted to using fonts that are already locally installed.
Stuart Langridge wrote:
Oh, please, yes. In the same way that there are plenty of “colour matchers” to help non-designer people like me choose a set of complementary colours, a similar thing for fonts would be superbly useful for non-typographer people (like me again).
Thom Shannon wrote:
That does sound pretty cool. A simpler option might be an interactive version of your matrix, so when you select your preferred font it lists fonts from different os/software combinations to help you easily build a stack that covers all bases in a few clicks.
I’d be interested in working on something like this, although I couldn’t afford to buy all the fonts for server side rendered previews! Pre rendered samples would be doable though. People could create stacks and tag them, so you’d have tags on fonts and relationships between fonts, and you could even find neighbours of taste! Email me if you want Richard, this would be cool to work on.
Michael Montgomery wrote:
“...available in some form where those of us who don’t have all the fonts can still see what they look like.”
Perhaps the Type Tester will suffice: http://typetester.maratz.com/
A resource for font-family stacks would also be great.
Rich wrote:
Absolutely. I just meant some pre-rendered samples, particularly of the OS and application suite fonts.
Nicholas Mullen wrote:
I have been looking for a project to work on and this sounds doable, I have started playing with the database and so far I have the basics of that sorted.
I will be sure to let you all know when the project is up in its early stages so you can all start adding to the database :)
Rich wrote:
That’s great Nicholas. Keep us posted, and if you need any input just drop me a line.
Elaine Nelson wrote:
Heck, even just adding graphics of the fonts to your original matrix would be lovely. (If inordinately time-consuming.)
But I love the idea of a font-stack mixer, too! I’m looking forward to Nicholas’s project. :)
Steve Buell wrote:
I’d be happier with a design paradigm that respected the default setting that I chose for my preferences.
While I really do appreciate the creativity and stylistic care that goes into equating web design to the archaic desktop publishing world, people have to jerk around with the browser to be able to consume your intended content.
Patrick Kanne wrote:
Elaine Nelson wrote: [..] even just adding graphics [...] (If inordinately time-consuming.) [..]
doesn’t need to be so, these images can be generated on the fly, see www.dafont.com for instance..
I completely agree with the concept btw, good thinking!
If the font-family stacks are properly linked then one set could/should enable you to drill deeper, ie; the fonts in the stack might have other stacks associated with them. A user could then choose a certain amount of fuzzy-ness to cater to even more users.. A ‘level of decendants’ setting if you will.
Also, as a buisnessmodel you could look at type foundries with affiliate programs (for the non-free fonts) so the system funcitons as a selling point too.
I can defenetly see this working…
Rich wrote:
Technically you’re right – it’s pretty easy. But you need a licensed copy of each font to do it properly.
Tom H wrote:
Or convince a forward thinking font shop to provide an API for generated samples?
Nicholas Mullen wrote:
For those that are interested you can see my work in progress on the font matrix @ www.fontmatrix.org
Web Guy wrote:
Just stumbled across this, what an excellent idea!
Ottila Jordan wrote:
I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Your vision would be great to avoid being roped into locally installed fonts.
Typography is definitely one of the most underrated design skills, and certainly one of the most important. Automatically generated font stacks, based on pre-determined associations between fonts would certainly improve the web.