It seems like JavaScript is really picking up, as more and more developers join open source projects to bring fascinating features to the web. The latest of which is a project called typeface.js that renders the fonts of a given website using JavaScript, <canvas> and VML. This means that, instead of creating images for all of the text that will be using anything other than the default system fonts, developers will be able to embed the font via a type of typeface add-on, and type away!

The project is still in experimental phase, but seems excitingly promising.

Some of the fonts that can be embedded using typeface.js

Whenever designing or developing a website, you are inevitably tied to the following fonts:

• Arial
• Comic Sans MS
• Courier
• Georgia
• Impact
• Lucida
• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet MS
• Verdana

There are a couple of others, but that is pretty much the safe list. After a while, websites become repetitive as everyone is using the same group of fonts for text (while relying on images for the special ones). Now, with the typeface project, the future looks bright.

Not only that, but the website actually offers a conversion tool that allows you to upload a font for it to be rendered in your website. The project in general is still requiring some work before it’s ready for wide deployment, but as always, open source projects can’t go wrong.