     
(While
both Netscape and Microsoft are calling their systems
"font embedding," in fact, the fonts are not
embedded in the HTML files, they're called using a tag,
the way images are now.)
Netscape
4 is shipping with Bitstream TrueDoc font
embedding. This means that
web designers can, at last, embed fonts in web pages so
that viewers will see web pages as designed--complete
with typefaces. To see a screen shot of what a web page
can look like using the new technology, click here.
TrueDoc legally
"records" font shapes and stores them in a
highly compact "Portable Font Resource" file.
This file is called much the same way an image file
currently. This file is "played back" at the
receiving end. For security reasons, TrueDoc now uses
"direct rendering" so that a font file is never
created on the viewer's computer. This should help calm
some font designer's fears that embedded fonts will be
pirated.
While pirating
is a major problem (many sites claiming to offer
shareware and public domain fonts are illegally offering
commercial fonts), secure font embedding should be safe.
Two questions
remain: The first is, "What web site authoring
software will support TrueDoc?" The authoring
software will have to recognize which fonts are used in a
document (and even which characters, since TrueDoc can
send only the characters used to save space), and send it
to TrueDoc to record shapes and create a PFR. Currently HexMac has
software for Mac users, PC users, and FrontPage users.
Most major HTML editors will support the system later
this year.
Another
questions is whether Microsoft will adopt TrueDoc so that
it's compatible with all pages designed for Netscape.
This seems unlikely, though it's possible that Bitstream
or some other company may produce an ActiveX control that
could support TrueDoc in IE.
Microsoft IE4 is
shipping with "Embedded OpenType," a version of
its TrueType font embedding.
Microsoft's
browser has been font-savvy longer than Netscape's, and
Microsoft has long taken a keen interest in fonts on the
web and on-screen. For example, they commissioned the
typefaces Verdana and
Georgia for on-screen
readability--and let anyone download them for free).
Microsoft
originally announced that IE would have TrueType
embedding in 96, long before the Netscape/TrueDoc
announcement. But later in the year Microsoft announced
that all previous announcements were superceded by their
joint OpenType
announcement with Adobe.
OpenType was
supposed to be in browsers by the end of 96, but sources
at Microsoft later said that OpenType wouldn't be in
browsers until the OS's supported it, which didn't sound
remotely like "soon."
So it's not
surprising (in fact, I predicted it) that Microsoft's
response to Netscape/TrueDoc is to announce that it's
including Microsoft's TrueType font
embedding (a system that
has been in use for years--mostly in Microsoft's own
Office applications) into Internet Explorer 4, after
all.The new version os called OpenType embedding, but the
embedded files are really still TrueType and don't have
all the additional features to be found in the full
version OpenType when it makes it's first appearance in
Windows NT5.
The main
differences between Microsoft's old TrueType embedding
system and this new one are two-fold. First, the fonts
are not actually embedded into HTML, they're contained in
a separate "font object" that is called much
the same way images are now. The second difference is
font compression and file size.
Microsoft's
Director of Typography, Bill Hill says, "The
embedding DLL (written in the Microsoft Typography
group), also supports subsetting, and incorporates the
MicroType Express lossless compression technology we
licensed from Agfa. Our tests showed that this reduces
the size of typical fonts used in a Web page by anywhere
from 75 percent to 99 percent (in the case of Far East
fonts)."
Microsoft claims
their solution is better because it preserves hinting
information (for better on-screen appearance).
Hill
continues "It's key to understand that OpenType
is really TrueType Open version 2 with additional support
for T1 outline data and some other things. So OpenType
fonts which contain TrueType glyph data will just work in
Win95 and NT4."
"We're
looking at how we can support this in Win95 and NT4,
where it's unlikely that a T1 rasterizer (ATM) will be
present. One solution is to convert the T1 data to TT
glyph data at font install time; we have a converter that
does this - in fact, our results with this so far show
that the fonts are better quality on screen than the
originals, since we add some diagonal control, etc. in
the conversion process."
Microsoft
has software that converts Type1 fonts into TrueType
format on-the-fly because until very recently, ATM as not
available for WindowsNT. That same code could be used
here.
Hill
says, "I'd also like to say publicly that
Microsoft and Adobe have mended a lot of fences in the
past few months. We have been working closely with Adobe
on the OpenType specification and the font embedding
submission to the W3C. Other groups in MS have been
working with them on ActiveX development, and on font and
driver technologies for Windows NT5. Speaking for
Microsoft Typography, we're enjoying the relationship
that's building between us and the type folks at Adobe.
We think it can do nothing but good for users of both
companies' products."
Indeed,
the agreement between Microsoft and Adobe is
good news for font users.
(For
its part, Adobe had promised a freely downloadable
version of ATM on their site over six months ago. Now
they say they'll sell it on-line for $19.95 instead. This
is not a smart move on Adobe's part, if they want people
to use their Type1 fonts and their rasterizer.)
Now the
questions are: Will the two standards converge? Will
designer have to support both formats as they often do
with TrueType and Type1? Will OpenType take over when
it's finally available, or will TrueDoc's compact
footprint make it more popular in small devices and
TV-for-the-web?
WebFonts
Analysis
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