Just saw this story about how Google is introducing a font directory and API that promise to let us web designy types a lot more freedom in the fonts we use on web sites. Currently we’re pretty much restricted to Arial or Verdana for sans serif and Times New Roman for serif.
Here’s the skinny on what Google’s bringing to the table:
The Google Font API provides a simple, cross-browser method for using any font in the Google Font Directory on your web page. The fonts have all the advantages of normal text: in addition to being richer visually, text styled in web fonts is still searchable, scales crisply when zoomed, and is accessible to users using screen readers.
And here’s an example of what something would look like in the new Google font “Tangerine.”
The quick brown tangerine jumped over the lazy tangerine.
Pretty neat, huh? Here’s a few other examples of the more distinctive/interesting fonts available. Note that I picked them not because they’re my favorites, but because they are the most different from what we’re used to.
This is IM Fell.
This is Lobster.
This is Reenie Beanie.
All I had to do was add
to the
It’s a very limited set of fonts for now, but I’m sure as it gets expanded I’ll find ways to use this technique to improve the typography of the sites I design.