No. Our desktop fonts are provided in the OTF-CFF format, with PostScript outlines, Our webfonts, on the other hand, use TrueType outlines, and each style has been painstakingly manually hinted for optimal rendering with both the ClearType and DirectWrite rendering engines in Windows XP and later. Fonts that have been automatically converted from .otf files will not have this hinting data included, and will at best include automatic hinting. We feel that, although auto hinting has improved in the last couple of years, it still does not match the quality of manual hinting.

The fonts come bundled with html and css files that show how to use the @font-face css code used to implement the fonts on your site. We recommend that you keep the fonts in their own folder to keep your site organized. Then you can link from your html file to the bundled css file which contains the @font-face code used to access the fonts, along with simple classes for each font.

Using webfonts shouldn’t cause any noticeable affect on loading time. Webfonts are very small files and don’t require much bandwidth. Even better: they’re cached by the browser so after downloading the fonts once, they’re available for all other pages on the site.

Using a serif typeface like Publico Headline as an example, the WOFF files (the format delivered to most browsers) are about 65kb each for fonts with full character sets. If you use four styles, that’s only 260kb, which is about the same as a single image, but will be used to render the text on an entire site. A sans family like Graphik is even smaller: less than 50kb per style.

That being said, it’s a good idea to limit the number of fonts you will be using. We had a client a while ago who wanted to use 12 styles on their front page, which caused the page to pause briefly before loading. After cutting back to to 5 styles, the site loaded without any delay. A good rule of thumb: using 6 or fewer fonts will not have any effect on page loading time, and if you’re extremely concerned about bandwidth, limit yourself to 4 or fewer styles.

If you do have issues with page load times, we can help by subsetting the fonts (removing characters your particular page doesn’t need) or through a number of additional technical tricks.

Yes. Webfonts can be used with any platform where the site admin can modify the CSS file. 

Using a webfont on Squarespace which you've licensed from us is pretty straightforward, with just one extra step. When you purchase a webfont license from us, we send you the font files used to display the fonts (woff and woff2), along with html and css files showing the @font-face code. The @font-face code looks like this:

@font-face {
       font-family: "Graphik Web";
       src: url("Graphik-Regular-Web.woff2") format("woff2"),
            url("Graphik-Regular-Web.woff") format("woff");
       font-weight: 400;
       font-style: normal;
       font-stretch: normal;
} 

When you load the fonts into squarespace, the files are assigned a special url:

ex: http://static.squarespace.com/static/3280c8fj9cotb6154/lotsoflettersandnumbers/Graphik-Regular-Web.woff

You simply need to copy that url into the @font-face urls like this:

@font-face {
        font-family: "Graphik Web";
        src:url("http://static.squarespace.com/static/
        3280c8fj9cotb6154/lotsoflettersandnumbers/
        Graphik-Regular-Web.woff2") format("woff2"),
        url("http://static.squarespace.com/static/
        3280c8fj9cotb6154/lotsoflettersandnumbers/
        Graphik-Regular-Web.woff") format("woff");
        font-weight: 400;
        font-style: normal;
        font-stretch: normal;
}

Once you’ve done that, you can style the text in the css editor using the font-family, font-weight and font-style settings.

Maybe, but probably not. Unfortunately most email systems still actively strip out CSS styling and @font-face, which is how web fonts are implemented.

All webfonts are stamped internally with the related order number. We can cross-reference the order number to the customer information in our order database, but none of your identifying information is embedded in the fonts. If an outside party is using fonts you have licensed without permission from the licensee or Commercial Type, we can use the order number to demonstrate that their use is unauthorized, but no third party will be able to trace the font license back to you.

We do not track pageviews, unique visitors, or any other information about your usage. Instead, we rely on the honor system, and trust our customers to upgrade their license if they have more domains or find that they have more unique viewers each month than their license covers.

Many, but not all, browsers support some OpenType functionality and we have included most of the alternate characters and supporting OpenType features in the web fonts. Until OpenType feature support is more widely supported in the most common web browsers, you can contact us for a custom version of the webfonts that have the character forms you prefer in the default character slots.

Adobe Photoshop uses a proprietary rasterizing engine to display text on screen that is not used in any operating system. We recommend that you examine the screenshots from various OS and browser combinations before committing to a web font license.

All of our webfonts are built for use on the web only, and only work in a web browser.

Yes, you may use the fonts on a temporary server for as long as you like, so long as it is not open to the general public.

No. Webfonts are built to order, so all license sales are final.

Yes, you may load any webfonts you’ve licensed from us onto a CDN used for your other assets, so long as they are used only for the number of domains and unique monthly visitors specified in your license.

We have found that webfonts are delivered much faster when they come directly from your site. We also believe that you should be in control of your website, including all of the assets. Self hosting is the most reliable way to ensure that the fonts load every time.