Typekit allows web designers and developers a way of embedding non-system-specific fonts using the font-face CSS property and jQuery.

After a quick and easy registration process on the Typekit website, selecting my fonts, and adding 2 lines of javascript code to my website, I was up and running. Simple as that.

So whats the problem?

Well, I’m not really going to moan about the limited amount of fonts available on both the free and paid versions. I think Typekit has opened the eyes of many font foundries and is doing a fantastic job as a ‘licensed font distribution platform’. As Typekit matures, we’ll no doubt see the catalogue swell in size, and might even see a version of Helvetica included!

Conclusion

My main problem is not anything to do with Typekit but the way Windows render fonts. Perhaps Typekit has made many designers forget just how terrible these fonts render. On the other hand, its making the problem more apparent. The above picture shows an example font from Typekit rendered in Safari on OS X (top) and IE8 on Windows 7 (bottom).

In some respect, maybe I’d be happier sticking with sIFR or Cufon from a rendering perspective (although they both have limitations and issues of their own), until we can use font-embedding with no draw-backs, as ultimately this is the way forward.

With the launch of IE9 the “dark side” might finally be able to render fonts appropriately.