Blog.Kernest.com

Bug Fix in Web Font Package Downloads

Garrick Van Buren — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:21:49 +0000

I’m happy to report the bug that made the web font package downloading unreliable has been fixed.

My apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

RefreshMN – Kernest Demo Feb 1, 2010 7pm

Garrick Van Buren — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:20:22 +0000

I’ll be demo-ing Kernest to Minneapolis’ Refresh MN web design group at 7pm on Monday February 1, 2010 – at the refactr offices on 11 4th St NE, Minneapolis (above the Bulldog NE)

Discussing Open Font Licensing with David Crossland

Garrick Van Buren — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:30:26 +0000

David Crossland (Cantarell font family, Open Font Library) and I dive into font licensing – specifically open font licensing – and the cultural benefits of open licensing.

First Crack #125. Open Font Licensing with David Crossland

Happy New Year – New Nav, New ‘Similar Fonts’, and New Recommended CSS

Garrick Van Buren — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:29:52 +0000

I just finished freshening up all the fonts in Kernest and confirming they started the new year off right – working in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, IE. If a font isn’t rendering as expected – either send me a message or tag it with the word ‘remedy’ and I’ll investigate.

Also, I’ve updated and reworked the ‘Find More Fonts…’ section. It’s now at the top of the page and breaks out fonts by 3 high-level categorizations: serif, sans serif, script – with a text field for all the others (including any tags you’ve added).

The new Nav also includes a menu item for (non-Latin) Character Sets – Cyrillic and Greek have the most right now – with more Chinese and Japanese are on the way.

As I mentioned over on Twitter (@kernest) I’m very happy with the updated ‘Similar Fonts’ listing present on the individual font pages – the fonts listed are now much more, um, well, similar.

Which is great when you’re looking for the perfect humanist sans serif to replace Helvetica and Arial.

Lastly, in addition to the recommended line-heights, I’m also adding recommended word-spacing, letter-spacing to the fonts in Kernest – you’ll see my suggestions in the big box at the top of the page and in the ‘Font CSS’ on your website’s page. Many of the fonts (even the Web Native ones) were designed for print and are better opened up a little bit for the web. As with all the CSS Kernest delivers – you’re welcome to change it to suit your design and taste.

Happy @font-face.

Kernest is Now offering Web Font Packages for Download

Garrick Van Buren — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:33:25 +0000

Ever since Kernest.com launched, web designers have been asking for better ways to incorporate web fonts early in their design process – to more quickly determine if a font will work for their project.

As part of that, we’ve been adding more font previewing options within Kernest.com; this includes easily changing color, size, word spacing, letter spacing, and line height easily within the browser.

Today, I’m pleased to announce Kernest.com is offering downloadable Web Font Packages. This makes it even easier to try out fonts and provide a consistent brand identity across web and non-web designs.

The Web Font Packages include everything you need; the fonts, their licenses, sample CSS, and a sample HTML page.

To download the Web Font Package for the websites you’ve added to Kernest.com – sign in, click ‘Your Profile’ and click the ‘Download Web Font Package’.

While the vast majority of the fonts within Kernest.com are available for download – some are not. If you want to make sure the font you select is download-able, look for the ‘Downloadable’ style tag.

Happy Holidays.

What’s the Difference Between ‘Free’ and ‘Web Native’ Fonts?

Garrick Van Buren — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:48:04 +0000

Great question.

The Free fonts within Kernest can be used at no charge.

All Web Native fonts fonts are free. In addition they have the characteristics I identified in Web Fonts – Identifying a New Species that make them better for web use than fonts without the Web Native designation.

These characteristics are; a large x-height, low stroke contrast, and open counters.

Feel free to add the ‘web native’ tag as you see fit within Kernest – and if you see a font with the Web Native designation that you don’t feel deserves the designation, let me know.

Thanks.

Top 20 Web Fonts in Kernest

Garrick Van Buren — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:34:49 +0000

Here’s a quick snapshot of the most popular fonts in Kernest.com’s first 5 months of service:

Top 20 Added Fonts

Top 20 Used Fonts

Chunk

Jinky

Fat Finger

Monika

M+ 1p Medium

M+ 1p Regular

Learning Curve Dashed

Inconsolata

M+ 1p Thin

Komika Axis

M+ 1p Bold

Junction

M+ 1p Black

M+ 1p Light

Kontrapunkt Light

Kontrapunkt Bold

Tin Doghouse

M+ 2p Bold

Bitstream Vera Regular

Droid Sans

Interesting note: the first list is filled with relatively traditional letterforms while the 2nd list is filled with far more distinctive fonts.

Discussing Open Fonts with Ben Weiner

Garrick Van Buren — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:33:45 +0000

I recorded a podcast with Ben Weiner discussing the open font library, web fonts, and font licensing.

First Crack #124. Open Fonts with Ben Weiner

Photos from the ‘Ban Helvetica’ Web Fonts MinneBar Session

Garrick Van Buren — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:08:29 +0000

This weekend I facilitated a session on web fonts technologies at Minnebar entitled Ban Helvetica – Or Why Ignoring Web Safe Fonts Makes Your Website Better

My mind map of all the web font technologies, @font-face service providers, and common licenses.

Here’s a photo of the entire diagram from Robyn Flach (thanks Robin!)

“Garrick Van Buren dissected the diagram above in a discussion about not worrying so much about ‘web-safe’ fonts. Great session!”

My talking about the mind map.

Chank talking about how he handles embedded font licensing.

Thanks to Jamie Thingelstad for the great shots.

Garrick’s Leading a Discussion on Web Fonts @ MinneBar 2009

Garrick Van Buren — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:00:43 +0000

Ban Helvetica – Or Why Ignoring Web Safe Fonts Makes Your Website Better if you’ll be attending MinneBar this Saturday at Best Buy’s Corporate Headquarters, this is the 11am Design session.