Typotheque

Web Fonts FAQ

If you are not sure about how it works, please read the Frequently Asked Questions here first.

If your question is not answered please write directly to We are more than happy to help.

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  • What’s this all about?

    Up until now, if you wanted to use fonts on a website, you were limited to one of the dozen or so ‘web-safe’ fonts (Verdana, Times, Helvetica—you know, the ones you see everywhere on the web). Using other fonts required you to convert the text into images, or to use some hacky Javascript or Flash solution such as sIFR or Cufón.

    In a relatively recent development, browsers which support the @font-face rule can access fonts embedded in websites, but most font companies have been reluctant to permit use of their products on the web because of the high risk of software piracy. Typotheque, however, now offers the Typotheque Web Font Service, a font-embedding system which is based on W3C standards, providing a secure, reliable way to use fonts whose files are hosted on a global network of servers (cloud hosting).

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  • How does it work?
    Owners of Typotheque font licenses can create embeddable fonts via their Typotheque accounts. Simply enter the domains where the font will be used and the languages to be supported, and our system instantly generates a short block of CSS code. Paste the code into your website, and you are ready to start using the font. You will not work with actual font files, just with the CSS code linking to the font files.
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  • How is it different from sIFR or Cufón?

    sIFR is a workaround which uses Javascript, Flash and CSS to replace the given text with small Flash files. The lengthy processing times involved make it unsuitable for longer texts. Cufón, on the other hand is a Javascript package that draws type outlines. Like sIFR, it is rather slow, difficult to set up, and has some issues with text selection and screen rendering.

    Our system uses real fonts, just like the other fonts that your computer uses to display websites. The only difference it that the font files are not hosted on your computer, but on a secure server.

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  • How do I use the CSS code?
    We wrote a simple tutorial how to implement CSS code generated by the Web Font Service.
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  • Can I embed any font in my website?
    Fonts are software, and their use is defined by their End-User Licence. At the moment, most commercial fonts don’t permit font embedding, but all Typotheque fonts can be embedded via our secure server.
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  • Does your system work in all browsers?

    The @font-face rule is supported by Firefox 3.5, Safari 3.1, Opera 10 and Internet Explorer 4.0. Our system is thus compatible with more than 95% of all browsers in use. For older browsers you can define a list of default web-safe font stacks.

    For more information see the Wikipedia article on browser usage statistics

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  • Can I place the fonts on my server?

    Our Web Font Service licence doesn’t allow placing the font files on your own server. Use Typotheque’s font-embedding method instead. It automatically generates a block of CSS code that you can use on your site.

    Typotheque also offers separate Server licensing, which is designed for large companies. This licence is priced at €1500 per font. For more information please get in touch.

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  • How do I embed a font for viewing in Internet Explorer?
    Typotheque’s font embedding system works with any browser supporting the @font-face rule, so you don’t have to worry about the technical differences between Explorer and other browsers. For the curious and the technically-minded: Internet Explorer supports embedding of EOT (Embedded OpenType) fonts, whereas other browsers use standard TrueType (TTF) and OpenType (OTF) fonts. Typotheque’s system, however, creates both TTF and EOT fonts on the fly, so the CSS code it generates works correctly in all compatible browsers.
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  • Where are the embedded fonts hosted?

    We use a global network of geographically distributed servers (cloud hosting), so you can be confident that the font files will be available at all times. Specifically, we use Amazon Web Services (AWS), a backbone infrastructure that guarantees the highest possible uptime. The hosting is scalable and can adapt to any kind of application, no matter how fast it grows or how big it gets.

    Furthermore, hosting font files on external servers makes loading faster, as font files are subject to the same connections-per-hostname limits as other resources. Loading them from the same server might block other downloads. Using reliable external hosting means avoiding the blocking issue and faster download times.

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  • My client doesn’t accept having their fonts installed on external servers. What to do?
    While the licence of the Typotheque Web Font Service doesn’t allow installing fonts on external servers, we do provide a specific licence to allow installation of fonts on web servers. The fonts must be installed following special instructions. This license is priced at €1500 per font. For more information please get in touch.
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  • I am concerned about the reliability and speed of hosting fonts on third-party servers. How does it work?

    Typotheque hosts fonts on a global content delivery network using Amazon.com’s redundant server architecture. This makes Typotheque web font hosting faster and more reliable than most of our clients’ sites.

    Because browsers have limits on how many simultaneous requests they can make to individual servers, hosting images or fonts on third-party servers will utilise more connections, loading files much faster than if they were hosted on the same server.

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  • How are the fonts secured?

    Instead of providing a font file directly to clients, we provide a block of dynamically-generated CSS code for use on the client’s site. The actual font file is hosted on our secure servers, and its URL is not visible to the end user. Furthermore, the fonts are subsetted, using only the characters required by the specific website, which makes downloading of the fonts very fast. And since about 95% of the font information is removed, even if the file is pirated, it only contains 5% of the font.

    Additionally, specific font tables that are required for normal use of the fonts are removed, which makes the web fonts unusable in standard computer applications. Finally, all fonts carry a digital watermark which enables tracing of unauthorised users.

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  • What is font subsetting?
    Regular Typotheque fonts support over 100 languages and advanced typographic features such as small caps, different numeral styles, alternative characters and special symbols. Web browsers, however, can access only a small fraction of those characters. Removing these inaccessible features makes the files much smaller, so they download much quicker. Users can specify which languages to support.
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  • What is @font-face?

    The @font-face rule is a W3C standard allowing authors to specify online fonts for displaying text on their webpages.

    Example:
      @font-face {
        font-family: "Example Font";
        src: url("http://www.example.com/fonts/example");
    }
      h1 {
        font-family: "Example Font", sans-serif;
    }

    For more information see the W3C article on the @font-face rule

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  • Is this a one-time fee, or a subscription model?

    You pay one time fee for the font licence. If you stay within the allocated bandwidth limit (500MB per font per month), there will be no more costs for you. Additional bandwidth costs €0.005 per megabyte, per month.

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  • Do web fonts support OpenType features?

    Unfortunately, web browsers do not support OpenType layout features (yet). But the Typotheque web font system generates font files on the fly, and can apply OpenType features directly to the file in the process. This enables us to support true small caps as well as various styles of numerals. You can control these advanced OpenType features via your online account.

    Don’t use font-variant:small-caps; property in CSS as this would mathematically scale the characters, rather than using true small caps.

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  • Do web fonts support languages such as Russian or Arabic?

    Typotheque web fonts support all languages supported by their print versions. That’s over 100 languages, including those using Cyrillic, Greek and Arabic scripts.

    Latin, Greek, Armenian and Cyrillic scripts render consistently in all browsers, but complex scripts such as Arabic or Devanagari require AAT fonts for correct shaping on Macintosh. That means that on Windows fonts will be rendered correctly, but Mac renders in the fallback font (rather than showing unshaped glyphs). We hope that Apple will extend their support for OTF and TTF fonts to render complex script correctly.

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  • How much does it cost?
    If you have already purchased an OpenType font license from us, you can use the licensed fonts on the web via our font embedding system. It also entitles you to 500MB of free bandwidth per month. Additional bandwidth costs €0.005 per megabyte.
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  • How much does bandwidth cost?
    To ensure optimal file availability we use a global network of distributed servers. We allocate 500MB of free bandwidth per month per used font. For a typical font file size (approximately 20kB), that translates to 25,000 visitor views per month. Additional bandwidth costs €0.005 per megabyte. Users can monitor usage statistics, so they can know in advance how much they will be billed.
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  • Does it handle SSL/secure sites that require authentication?
    Yes
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  • Does it work when JavaScript is disabled in browsers?
    Yes.
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  • Can I use the fonts I licensed both in print and on the web?
    The Full Licence of our OpenType fonts permits you to download the font files and use them in your favorite print applications. When you want to use them on a website, log in to your account to generate a block of CSS code for your webpage.
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  • What is a Full Licence and a Web-Only licence?
    We now offer two different font licences. The Full Licence entitles you to download the font files to your computer and use them in print applications as well as on the web. If you only need to use the fonts on the web you can save 80% by buying the Web-Only licence, which gives you access to the online CSS code generator rather than to actual font files.
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  • Can I try the fonts before buying a licence?

    Yes, in addition to Full and Web licenses, we also offer a Trial Licence. The trial licence gives you a bandwidth limit of 50MB and 30 days to evaluate the fonts. After 30 days or 50 MB (whichever comes first), you will be prompted to upgrade to a Web or Full license. If not upgraded, the licensed fonts will expire.

    The trial licence is also limited to a single language font subset, and two domains.

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  • If I buy a web font licence, can I upgrade to a Full Licence later?
    Yes you can. Just log in to your account, open your order history click the ‘Fonts’ and then ‘Upgrade’ button.
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  • I bought a font licence from you many years ago. Can I use the the webfonts for free?

    For technical reasons, PostScript fonts can’t be used to create web-embeddable fonts, so if you bought PostScript versions of our fonts, you will first need to upgrade to OpenType versions.

    If you already have OpenType versions you can now use them on the web at no extra cost. Just login to your account, and click on Webfonts.

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  • I also sell fonts. Can I use the Typotheque system to embed my own fonts?
    We are working on creating an API so that other font vendors can also sell web font licenses using our system. More information will be available via: www.type-applications.com. Please get in touch to discuss the possibilities.
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  • How many domains do you allow the font to be displayed on per licence?
    There is no limit on the number of specified domains.
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  • Can I update the list of domains after purchase?
    Yes, you can update the list, adding or removing domains at any time. There is no limit on the number of domains.
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  • I am a web designer who used the fonts for a client’s site, but would now like to transfer the web project and all future charges to the client. Is that possible?
    Yes, it is possible. Please contact us directly when you are ready to do so. Both users will have to have a Typotheque account and agree to the terms of the licence.
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  • Can I set my own monthly budget for the bandwidth?
    Yes, you can do that. To set a monthly bandwidth budget, log in to your account, go to Web Fonts, and click on Stats. After the monthly limit is reached, the next font specified in the font stack will be used until the end of the month. From the 1st of the next month, the first font will be used again until you reach the limit, or change the budget limit. You will receive an email notification when the limit is reached.
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  • What happens to the website if I stop paying monthly bandwidth charges?
    If you have defined a font stack, the next typeface in the stack will be displayed.
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  • Can I also use my locally installed fonts for test purposes?

    Yes you can. Our CSS is designed to recognise local fonts, and if the given font is installed locally it is used first. In that case the web fonts are not used, so no bandwidth is consumed.

    When you use locally installed fonts, you will not be able to control the OpenType features such as small caps or various numeral types.

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  • Firefox briefly displays another font before it loads the font I selected. Why does this happen?

    In some browsers, most notably Firefox, you may see a barely noticeable ‘blink’ before the real font loads in (a.k.a. Flash Of Unstyled Content). This is a result of Firefox’s handling of the @font-face rule.

    As a work-around we offer a JavaScript solution that hides content until browsers are finishing loading fonts.

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  • Why don’t the fonts look the same in Windows and in Mac OS?

    Font rendering is handled by the operating system’s rasterizer. While Apple’s OS X does a great job of rendering all fine details of type on screen, the Windows rasterizer is less refined, so fonts in small sizes don’t look as good as in Mac OS.

    You can enhance font display on LCD screens by turning on Windows ClearType. You can further fine-tune ClearType by using the ClearType Tuner.

    Follow these steps to enhance screen fonts on Windows:
    How to Use ClearType to Enhance Screen Fonts in Windows XP
    ClearType Tuner
    ClearType Tuner PowerToy

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  • Can I see some samples of your fonts in use?

    Sure. Below are links to pages that we made.

    http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts/sample
    http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts/sample_2
    http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts/sample_3
    http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts/multilingual_sample

    And here are the first clients using their fonts online.

    http://www.typotheque.com/news/selection_of_websites_using_typotheque_web_font_service/

    If you have implemented Typotheque fonts on your site, please drop us a message and we'll include a link here.

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  • How do I use the true Small Caps

    Because web browsers do not support OpenType layout features, we built a system that generates font files on the fly, and can apply OpenType features directly to the file. This enables us to support true small caps as well as various styles of numerals. You can control these advanced OpenType features via your online account.

    This means that selecting the check box Small Caps will replace the standard lower case letters by true small capitals. You can turn the small caps on and off at any time, while keeping the same CSS code.

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  • Fonts on iPhone and iPad

    Mobile Safari in the current version of iPhone and iPad doesn't support OpenType, TrueType or WOFF fonts. The only way at the moment to display custom fonts is to use SVG fonts.

    In order to support custom font rendering on iPhone and iPad we include experimental support of SVG fonts.

    There are however some known problem with Mobile Safari and SVG fonts. Rendering multiple fonts may cause Mobile Safari to crash. We experimented with number of rendered fonts, but don't have conclusive results. Sometimes 8 different fonts would render well, in other cases already two fonts crash Mobile Safari. Sizes of font files seem to not matter.

    SVG fonts have number of other limitations. It doesn't support hinting. Mobile Safari does not synthesize a bold, italic, or bold italic style from the normal weight of an SVG font. Finally, SVG fonts have some selection issues - and only parts of the text can be selected. All these issues are reported with Webkit, and we can only hope that they will fixed soon.

    There is a separate issue with non-ASCII letters, which render as missing characters. Typotheque is working on a solution for this.

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