A glimpse into the future of CSS
Posted at: 2:56 PM by Lewis
I often try to keep up-to-date with the latest developments at the W3C, and in particular with CSS. There are many useful and promising features outlined for CSS3 (the next spec for CSS standards, which are in development as I speak) that have already got me excited probably more than is really necessary. One of the more obviously inspiring advancements though, will be with web fonts.
For years web designers have been mostly stuck in a rut with web typography; restricted to a only a handful of fonts because developers such as myself have to keep a tight reign on what's possible, knowing that fonts on one particular computer will not be the same on another's. Although the solution to these restrictions has traditionally been to create imagery to represent such fonts, this and other methods present their own set of problems and required work-arounds for developers, and in general we remain restricted - stuck in the past. It's amazing how little progress (though some would say obvious given the circumstances) has been made with web typography over the years, despite the capabilities being there for some time.
CSS3's font selector should eradicate all of that. With it, it will be possible for developers to specify not just another boring old font, but actual TrueType fonts. How? By simply referencing the location of the font file itself in a CSS, so if the user has the font installed on their machine or not, it won't matter because the CSS can pull them in accordingly and render them on the page (providing they are using a web browser which supports CSS3, of course.)
Currently, only the latest version of Apple's Safari browser has implemented the spec - but it's there, and it works. Both Opera and Firefox plan to include the selector in upcoming versions of their browsers.
Problems? As always, Microsoft (in their own non-standard ways) are unlikely to be keen on such a method, and instead propose a font format of their own. Although they are beginning to demonstrate better understanding and willingness to comply to standards with their upcoming Internet Explorer 8, only time will tell if the specs are properly implemented. Hey, we can hope, right?
In the mean time, we can all declare support for features like this by supporting, using and actively promoting the use of standards-based browsers such as Firefox and Safari, which do take the time to follow these exciting proposals, and in turn send out a clear message to those who don't. Because in the end, designers, developers and the general public want feature-rich functions like this, making the web just that little bit more engaging to use in the process.
Use this button to bookmark this post.