}}}
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== Typefaces for Screen Display ==
Back in 1975, AT&T wanted a new typeface to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary. AT&T indicated that the requirements for the new typeface must fit more characters per line without reducing legibility to reduce paper consumption, reduce the need for abbreviations and two-line entries, increase legibility at the smaller point sizes, and be used for the phonebook directory. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Carter|Matthew Carter]], a now very famous and successful type designer, got the job and created the new typeface [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Centennial|Bell Centennial]].
Carter’s new [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif|sans-serif]] typeface was more condensed, increased the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-height|x-height]], and used more space in the open counters and bowls. Aware of the printing limitations, he used letters with deep "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_trap|ink traps]]," which allowed for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter_(typography)|counterforms]] to be open making them more legible at smaller point sizes instead of becoming filled with ink; this also reduced ink usage, a serious consideration by [[http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marktwain135280.html|those who buy ink by the truckload]]. His typeface was not effective at larger point sizes or on stock paper because the ink traps, little gaps in the corners of the counters, would not fill in and could be seen.
For its intended purpose, at small sizes, in poor paper, it was very effective. A particular typeface often must be selected, or designed, for the specific context. In 1975, available technology, the medium, and users were considered. As designers and developers today, these considerations remain throughout the design process. You need to understand that when choosing a typeface, context of use is key.
* Headlines, especially large ones, will often need to be a different typeface or font than the body copy.
* Italics have been ineffective on digital displays, but very high resolutions will allow their increasing use. Consider them carefully, and understand the difference between a simple oblique version of a font, and a true italic.
* Type can express a hierarchy beyond just size and weight. Should your captions, or bullet lists use another size, weight, style or font?
* As in the Bell Centennial example, legibility, readability and appropriateness are key. If making type small enough makes it illegible, maybe this can be solved with a new font, instead of larger type.
* Show restraint. Designers mock designs with too many fonts as "ransom notes." There is no hard and fast rule on a number, though.
=== Challenges of Mobile Typography Technology Today ===
While some devices are beginning to allow effectively unlimited type selection, support vector glyphs, and have large amount of storage and running memory, most mobile devices are still resource and technology constrained. General issues of storage on the device, running memory, download times and cost of network access, limit availability of type for mobile application design. As almost all devices require raster (bitmap) faces, each size is loaded as a complete, different typeface. Most products end up with the device's default type, or with a very limited set of choices for their application.
=== Digital Fonts Today ===
Digital fonts used today are constrained by the technology display capabilities and the device OS. Most current mobile phones use anti-aliased fonts. Because of the display’s square pixel layout, anti-aliasing is used to render some of the pixels shades of gray along the edges of the letter. This helps users to perceive the letter as being smooth. Anti-aliased text is more legible when using larger font sizes for titles and headings; however, using anti-aliasing text in small font sizes tends to create a blurry image. Consider the mobile display’s capabilities when choosing the font size and font family because they might not be available for that mobile device.
Companies such as Microsoft, Bitstream, Monotype, and E-Ink have introduced their own type of font display technologies to improve readability for such devices. Some of these font technologies are constrained to a specific fixed arrangement of pixel display technology. ClearType, Microsoft’s subpixel rendering technology, is orientation specific and will not work on devices whose display orientation can change. However, ClearType works very well on LCD displays because of the fixed pixel layout. On some OS, there may be an "automatic" font setting which to detect if the display is an LCD or CRT to turn on or off sub-pixel rendering.
=== Font Rendering Technologies ===
The following are examples of some of the available rendering technologies used to improve type legibility on digital displays.
* ESQ Mobile Fonts by Monotype Imaging (http://www.monotypeimaging.com) are optimized for smart phone and feature phone displays in addition to other consumer electronics and embedded systems. ESQ Fonts also include WorldType, which offer wide language support on mobile devices.
* Bitstream Font Technology by Bitstream (http://www.bitstream.com) uses Font Fusion and Panorama technologies optimized for resource-constrained mobile devices.
* Apple Advanced Typography, or AAT, is Apple Inc's (http://developer.apple.com/fonts) advanced font rendering software. It is a set of extensions to the TrueType outline font standard, with similar smartfont features to the OpenType font format.
* ClearType by Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.mspx) has greater pixel control by turning on and off each of the colors in the pixel. This makes on-screen text more detailed and increases legibility.
* TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s. TrueType is common for fonts on both the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. TrueType was developed to ensure a high control of how fonts are displayed down to individual pixels.
Be aware of display technology. ePaper, for example, is a series of technologies used for electronic digital displays such as eReaders (note that "E-Ink" is but one of many brands, and is not a generic label). ePaper generally relies on reflected, not emitted light, by suspending particles in a liquid; a charge causes the dark particles to rise and be visible, or bi-color particles to rotate from light to dark (technologies vary) and display dark areas on a lighter surface, much like ink on paper.
While the stochastic nature of the display elements, contrast and low speed of the display change make ePaper design very different, current display technologies can only drive them with conventional backplane technology, so pixels are effectively square, as with all other display types.
While ePaper is a dramatic departure, every display technology has it's unique attributes. OLED and AMOLED displays, for another example, are lit-pixel displays (without a backlight). White text on black will, unlike a backlit display, use much less power than black text on white. This may be a key design consideration for those devices.
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