For Technology I have researched Typekit, an online service that is currently owned by Adobe and was co-created by Jeffery Veen. Typekit was launched in 2009 before being purchased by Adobe in 2011. The online library of web safe font has revitalized typography.
Typekit allows subscribers to utilize beautiful, high-quality webfonts. With a subscription, fonts can be used under a single licensing agreement with the Typekit font library, which has more than 1,100 typefaces from a variety of type designers and foundries. This one step access allows designers to use these fonts without having additional licenses with individual foundries.
Typekit makes it easy to search and find typefaces based on visual characteristics. Classifiers like serif and mono, properties like weight and width make narrowing the selection easy and efficient. With already compiled lists of alternatives to well known fonts like Helvetica and Georgia are great starting point when users feel overwhelmed by the choices. The searchability of Typekit’s library is a streamlined process and a major strength of the platform.
When I have been designing these definition pages I used Typekit to find a typeface that blended the beauty of print based type with technology. I decided on Museo Slab because of the variation within its font family and its strong characteristics. The closest webfont on Google Font is Slabo 13px, which doesn’t have any variation and is on the thicker side. Hopefully the change won’t be that dramatic in the final iteration!
Early homepage of Typekit highlighting how revolutionary webfonts will be for designers and the future of web design.
Typekit’s new logo is now compatible with the look and feel of Adobe, although the subscription service is still available without purchasing further Adobe software.