[Spliff]

The Next Big Thing in Online Type

Microsoft will ship six new fonts in 2006, designed especially for on-screen reading. Personally, I like the look of these and I'm sick of the current batch of MS fonts. But I don't understand why Mac users won't be able to use these fonts. Doesn't OS X support ClearType and OpenType fonts? The six new fonts are Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and Corbel. The article linked to above has samples of each.

Bill Gates wants computer users, well, Microsoft users, to have a more enjoyable on-screen reading experience -- so much so that he made improving reading on the screen one of his top five priorities.

Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading.

The new ClearType Font Collection incorporates improved ClearType and OpenType technologies, and a boatload of research, to improve the structure and the clarity of the letter forms. Basically, that means a story will be easier to read because the letters and words won't be as soft and mushy looking.

The Microsoft collection includes two serif, three sans serif, and a monospaced face for use in programming environments. They are intended to be text typefaces as opposed to display faces that are used in larger sizes for headlines. Some of the new fonts are suitable for print as well as on-screen applications.

If you're using a Mac, like me, you may have already figured out that these new fonts usually won't work on your machine. The fonts can be viewed on Macs only if the operator of a website has licensed them for embedding or if an individual user has licensed them for personal use. Although it's not likely that many sites -- or individuals -- will take such costly steps, I hope you'll keep reading. These fonts are worth looking at regardless of platform -- and you never know when someone will take your baby away and replace it with a PC.

[Ω]

From your link:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article reported incorrectly that these new fonts could not be displayed on Macs. In fact, they can be -- but only if the operator of a website has licensed them for embedding or if an individual user has licensed them for personal use.

[Spliff]

Originally Posted by _?_

From your link:

Why don't they just say that they are compatible? From the way the article was written, it sounded as if it was an OS or Font type compatibility problem.

[OwlBoy]

Sounds like more proprietary Tech from MS...

And names that could confuse you to boot!

-Owl

[godzookie2k]

its not that they won't work, from a technical standpoint they will, its just that they won't ship with the OS and will require a manual install, meaning that well, they're not a safe bet to design with.