Retaining typography on the web
A quick font question
Are you stuck with the following fonts for your client's branding? -
No? I didn't think so! Why should the web be any different? Unfortunately it is and we have been stuck with the lowest common denominator for a while now.
Graphical Headers
A commonly used alternative is to replace headers with an image and shuffle off the text to make it invisible. This has the same visual effect but it is time consuming, requires graphical editing to make changes and can't be copy and pasted.
BUT there is a solution that allows us to retain your carefully chosen fonts without resorting to images!
A better solution
It's called sIFR and uses a technique where the web text is replaced with a Flash based alternative. It does require that you own the font in the first place to create the file but the advantages are -
- Retains the branding of the site
- Text can be changed (via a CMS for example)
- Can be indexed by Google (Google still reads it as text)
- It can be cut and pasted
sIFR Examples
Here are a couple of sites we have used the technique on -
and some better known brand's websites -
Did this article inspire you to work with Hambo Development?
Debra | 6th September 2008
Just wondering why you’d use sIFR on that resume site to replace Georgia, which is a standard web font.
Delphie | 3rd September 2008
This article is very useful. I love that we can use type styles from the brand and carry it through to the web.
Having done this on a few sites now with Hambo I know it is a really successful tool to maintain brand consistency.