July 30, 2010
Google takes web fonts to the next level. If you browse the internet you will notice to lack of creative use of typography. Unlike other media, such as print, web design typography is almost always very typical. This isn't necessarily the fault of the designer, but instead the lack of support across the many different platforms used for rendering websites.
There are a few fonts that virtually all computers have installed on them. These have been coined as
web-safe fonts - Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, and Verdana. When a website tells the browser to render font "Arial", the browser fetches the font from the local computer and displays it properly. The problem with using custom font faces are that all computers viewing a website may not have the font. Therefore most website are built upon this very limited library of typography. Designers know they're websites typography will appear correctly when using a web-safe font.
In the past, if a designer wanted to display more unique typography they would have to actually place an image.
