Re: New work on fonts at W3C

Aryeh Gregor wrote:
> If there were enough demand compared
> to existing font markets,

>From what I've learned in my economy master's program at university, in
most markets, you need offerings to create demand. Demand is often
created on a "me too" basis. Suppliers need to make a first move. Right
now, it's difficult to make even compelling case studies showcasing the
usefulness of web fonts because there are hardly any interesting fonts
to choose from -- simply because font foundries are very unhappy with
the OTF/TTF solution, for good reasons.

In HTML 2.0 times, there was no "demand" for multicolumn, accessible
website layouts, because the browsers did not have the means to show
them. It is the technology vendors who need to innovate, not the
consumers. The consumers will jump on the products if it's there. If
it's not there, they will not be able to "imagine" them, so their mental
picture of what is possible will stick to what they know and are used
to, to "the ways we used to things in old days".

If nobody had invented the computer, there would still be "demand" just
for electric typewriters.

The web is a medium that is in competition with other media. HTML is in
competition with other web media such as Flash. Seriously, I'd much
rather see good typography in HTML than in a closed, proprietary
container such as Flash. Not that I have anything against Adobe, quite
in the contrary, but I think their monopoly in print content delivery
through PostScript and PDF is good enough. We should not give them the
control over how we read on the web as well.

Best,
A.

-- 

Adam Twardoch
| Language Typography Unicode Fonts OpenType
| twardoch.com | silesian.com | fontlab.net

The illegal we do immediately.
The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
(Henry Kissinger)

Received on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 23:21:36 UTC