Brief thoughts about web typography in 2015

Last week Digital Arts online featured me, among others, in a piece on web fonts in 2015. My main points were twofold:

Firstly I’m really hoping to see more interesting use of type in the near future. More attention is being paid to the quality of type setting and web typography in general, but I want to see bolder use of typography to differentiate sites. Bigger text where the space allows, more varied and inspired choices of typeface, more interesting typographic treatments. Although there’s now more choice than ever regarding usable typefaces for the web, it all seems a bit copycat, but that’s the nature of design. It takes a bold designer and a brave client to stand out from the crowd.

My second point is far more positive, and extends plaudits to our friends in the world of type design. You might wonder whether innovation can still exist within typography at all, given the sheer variety and quality of existing typefaces on the market, and the 500 year history of contemporary typeface design. After all there’s only 52 letters in the bicameral English alphabet, yet designers keep creating new, fresh typefaces, and much of that is fuelled by web fonts — the ‘new’ market for type designers. Keeping your finger on the pulse of new type design is very exciting – I Love Typography’s this month in type is a great place to start.