W3C Opens Typography on the Web
August 17, 2010W3C attends TypeCon 2010 this week for community discussion about Web Open File Format (WOFF), the new open format for enabling high-quality typography for the Web. WOFF expands the typographic palette available to Web designers, improving readability, accessibility, internationalization, branding, and search optimization.
Though still in the early phases of standardization, WOFF represents a pivotal agreement among browser vendors, foundries and font service providers who have convened at W3C to address the long-standing goal of advancing Web typography.
“As a key Web font standard developed by W3C, WOFF 1.0 represents a universal solution for enabling advanced typography on the Web,” said Vladimir Levantovsky, W3C WebFonts Working Group chair and senior technology strategist at Monotype Imaging, Inc. “With the backing of browser companies and font vendors, who are making their fonts available for licensing in WOFF, this new W3C Recommendation-track document will bring rich typographic choice for content creators, Web authors and brand managers.
The standardization of WOFF reflects cross-industry collaborative effort to make a single, interoperable format for WebFonts. Participants in the Web Fonts Working Group includes representatives from browser vendors, font foundries and typeface designers: Adobe, Apple, Bitstream, Google, LettError, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging, Mozilla, Open Font Library, Opera, Tiro Typeworks, and Type Supply. Chris Lilley is W3C staff contact for the group.
Roger Black (the End User Perspective), Bryan Mason (Font Metrics), Raph Levien (Google Developments), and the members of the Web Fonts Working Group, will participate in a panel at TypeCon 2010 on Friday, 20 August.
