Web Fonts Quality

AscenderFonts.com has over 10,000 fonts available for license for use on desktop computers. Unfortunately the vast majority of these fonts were designed for print and not for use on screen with web sites.

The Webtype service from Ascender features a collection of high quality fonts that we have meticulously reviewed and tested for on-screen legibility and readability to ensure they meet our demanding quality standards. Only those fonts that render well on-screen across all browsers on both Windows and Mac OS X are approved for the Webtype service.

Ascender is well-versed in the challenges of designing and tuning fonts that provide optimal legibility and reading on screen. We helped create User Interface fonts found in Windows, Android, Palm Web OS, Xbox 360 and many other devices and software titles. Tom Rickner, who heads Ascender’s font engineering team, is the leading expert on tuning TrueType fonts for on-screen legibility through a process called “hinting”. This allows us to create fonts that have superior display, with attributes such as consistent spacing, alignment, weight and readability.

For website designers, it is vitally important to select fonts that are legible and readable at the intended sizes. Not all fonts will render well at small text sizes – many decorative and script fonts are best used at larger sizes such as headlines. Each Webtype font from Ascender includes recommendations for minimum pixel size usage.

It is important to note that a font will display differently across platforms and browsers. There are differences in the font rendering software at both the OS and application level. Some differences are significant and others are more nuanced. Each Webtype font is tested with this in mind.

Desktop Browser support

A screen capture of the Webtype service in various browsers on Windows: