Monotype Imaging, the company that houses the Monotype, Linotype and ITC typeface libraries, has just opened its Fonts.com Web Fonts solution to the general public.
Fonts.com Web Fonts has been in beta for the last few months and Monotype has taken user feedback from that beta to make its web font solution better and more robust.
With Fonts.com Web Fonts, designers, creative agencies, publishers and individuals can infuse their web apps or web pages with more typography options.
Fonts.com Web Fonts joins a growing list of web font services, including Typekit, Fontdeck and Google’s
new Font Directory. Fonts.com Web Fonts is similar to some of these existing solutions, but it has some additional features and supports a few other platforms that make it a unique offering in the web font space.
new Font Directory. Fonts.com Web Fonts is similar to some of these existing solutions, but it has some additional features and supports a few other platforms that make it a unique offering in the web font space.Huge Library
As a company, Monotype houses some of the biggest font libraries in the world. Typefaces like Helvetica, Frutiger and Univers are all part of Monotype and available to Fonts.com Web Fonts users.
Just like Typekit’s recent partnership with Adobe, the ability to use premium type families and well-known fonts in web design is a huge step in the overall world of web typography.
Monotype has made more than 7,500 fonts available via the service and more will be added in the future. Monotype has also committed to bringing all ITC, Linotype and Monotype font faces developed in the ensuing years to the platform.
Beyond just the sheer number of typefaces, Monotype also supports more than 40 different languages — many non-Latin character sets are supported too. Extended character sets are available for many fonts and users can also access Asian-specific font foundries.
Through the course of the beta, Monotype has also changed how its international fonts are hinted and kerned, so that Chinese or Japanese fonts are easier for users to read. For big brands that rely on a typeface as part of its greater identity, having international support across languages can be very important.
Pricing Plans
Fonts.com Web Fonts pricing takes place at a few different tiers. Tiers are based on subscription type and then on page views. Regardless of the subscription, Fonts.com Web Fonts can be used on as many projects or domains as you want and you can use as many fonts as you want per project.
For instance, there is a free plan that gives anyone access to more than 2,200 fonts. The free is good for 25,000 pageviews each month, which makes it ideal for most individual users or bloggers.
