OS and Browser Previews Now on Fonts.com Web Fonts

If you’re currently using Web fonts or are closely following the Web font movement, you’re aware of the role that a vistor’s operating system and browse plays in the display of a Web page using Web fonts. Because of the various approaches to font rendering taken by OS and browser providers, type appears differently between OS and browser combinations. This should be a consideration for Web designers when deciding which typefaces to use and how to use them.

To help aid this process, we’ve added an OS and browser preview feature to Fonts.com Web Fonts. To try it out, go to any product page and click the “Browser preview” tab. You’ll be presented with a waterfall image of the font displayed using a particular OS and browser. Use the OS and browser dropdown menus to go directly to the combination of your choice or use the arrow controls to scroll through each preview image. The tool currently provides previews for the following OS environments and browsers. Which others would you most like to see next? Let us know!

OS environments

• Windows XP (font smoothing)
• Windows XP (ClearType)
• Windows 7 (ClearType)
• Windows 7 (DirectWrite)
• Mac OS X

Browsers*

• Firefox 5
• Firefox 7
• Chrome 12
• Safari 5
• Internet Explorer 8
• Internet Explorer 9

*Some browser options are available only with certain OS combinations.

Johnathan Zsittnik is the eCommerce Marketing Manager at Monotype Imaging. Johnathan holds both a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in business administration from Bentley University.