Font embedding allows you to publish HTML documents with the assurance that your readers will see what you wanted them to see, regardless of language or font, the process works by sending the fonts used on html page along with the document. The browser then dynamically renders the page with the relevant fonts.

Both Netscape 4 and IE4 have incorporated support for font embedding, however, in their wisdom both companies have opted for different standards. Microsoft have opted for the OpenType format jointly developed with Adobe, whilst Netscape uses the alternative TrueDoc format developed by Bitstream.

Both standards are incompatible, in order for both browsers to natively recognise an embedded font, you will need to use both proprietary formats. However, Bitstream has produced an ActiveX control that allows TrueDoc fonts to be displayed in IE.

Both formats use a subsetting as a method of compression, this works by only sending characters of the font that are used on the page. All the fonts and different weights used on the webpage are included in the final file sent to the client, the files are vector based and usually weight in between 20-40K.

The process of font embedding has raised some interesting issues regarding font licensing. Most commercial fonts come with some sort of licence that forbids you from distributing the font you’ve bought for your own use, or maybe only allowing you to use the font one particular computer. Most freeware fonts also require you to distribute the font in its original format. So it seems embedding some fonts on your site may be illegal.

Bitstream has addressed this concern in it’s TrueDoc format by not actually sending the original font glyphs in the final file sent to the client, TrueDoc recreates the font outlines in a new format, thus overriding the copyright protection. This is similar to creating a gif image of some text from a font, since you’re distributing an image produced from the font and not the original font file itself, the copyright protection forbidding the font distribution does not apply to the image since you’re not distributing original font file itself.

The OpenType format from Microsoft offers no such protection, the original font file is embedding in the final file used for download. However, the format does include some protection, the tools used to create the downloadable fonts will not embed typefaces that do not include authorisation from the designer.

The OpenType format also includes further protection that encrypts the downloadable file, so font data cannot be extracted to reconstruct a font file someone could use in their applications. Also, the file will only work on the html page it was embedded for, so people cannot steal embedded font files for use on their own pages.

Both formats have their own individual programs for creating the embedded files. Microsoft produces an application called WEFT (Web Embedding Font Tool) for embedding fonts for the OpenType format, this is available free from their website.

There are two programs that create the TrueDoc files for use in Netscape, the first is Typograph available from HexMac and the other is called WebFont Maker from Bitstream itself, both carry a modest pricetag.

The split in standards between the two browser companies is certainly stifling the adoption of the font embedding technologies. A collaboration of standards, more free embedding tools with greater compress would certainly set the pace for grater adoption, however this dream remedy applies to all the conflicting standards from Microsoft and Netscape. There is also a split over the way the fonts are linked into the webpage itself, CSS2 incorporates the @font-face command to dynamically load fonts into webpages, this is the method IE uses, Netscape uses a more arcane <link> tag, this is set to change in the future though.

At the moment it seems the TrueDoc format has the upper hand, since it ‘s supported in both Netscape and Internet Explorer (with a free plugin) it also offers greater copyright protection. There are also two solid authoring tools available for TrueDoc, on the downside both carry a pricetag which looks rather unattractive compared to Microsoft’s free WEFT tool, however the WEFT tool only embeds fonts in the OpenType format which is currently only supported by Internet Explorer, and the tool is also buggy.