Google Font API

One of the great products that came out in 2010 has to beGoogle Font Directory/API.

One of the most difficult parts of working in Web Design & Development has been the gap between fonts that arewebsafeand fonts that designers or worse, clients, want to use. For years, the solution has been to use images, flash or other workarounds todisplaythe font. Since fonts are based on the users installed fonts, just relying on installation base is not a good idea. While these past workarounds might achieve the desired look, the disadvantage to this approach is web usability and standards. For example if you have to design links/buttons in an image editor every time you want to change something on the site, it becomes a multi-step process, as opposed to just adjusting the text.

There have been solutions to this issue recently, including a promising offering fromTypekit. The technology and availability of these solutions is simply amazing, and it allows higher levels of web usability within the proven framework of web standards.

However, now that Google has stepped into the room, you can freely use any of the listed fonts that they have licensed freely. What does this mean? It means that we have come a long way from the old multi-step process to usestyled fontssimple on websites.

For a sample, check outhttps://sym.ph.