Use Scalable Fonts In Your Mobile Environments

The hot chips and fancy technology inside the handset are invisible to the user. It’s the user interface that really differentiates one cell phone from another.

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Scalable fonts can be rendered at desired sizes, regardless of screen size or resolution. Whether sourced from an existing mobile typeface library or custom designed, scalable fonts engineered for memory-constrained devices enable the display of high-quality text.

Figure 2. Five fonts from the Univers family are part of the “Bell User Experience.” Monotype Imaging collaborated with global strategic-creative consultancy Frog Design, which worked with Bell Mobility to create an embedded, customized mobile user interface in Canada. The fonts complement Bell Mobility’s corporate brand fonts. Users have access to a broad range of characters to support Latin-based languages. (images courtesy of Frog Design)

Figure 2. Five fonts from the Univers family are part of the “Bell User Experience.” Monotype Imaging collaborated with global strategic-creative consultancy Frog Design, which worked with Bell Mobility to create an embedded, customized mobile user interface in Canada. The fonts complement Bell Mobility’s corporate brand fonts. Users have access to a broad range of characters to support Latin-based languages. (images courtesy of Frog Design)

Unlike fixed-in-size bitmap fonts, which require a separate font for every text size supported by the phone, you need only one scalable font per typeface design to do the same. This allows you to better scale your production requirements when implementing fonts and therefore reduce time-to-market.

Scalable fonts also provide typographic flexibility. For example, in addition to having the freedom to implement multiple sizes of text used in your UI, you can integrate special effects, such as embossed, engraved, shadowed, or even glowing text (Fig. 2). You can also control how much of an outline you might want to give text to ensure that it stands out from busy backgrounds, such as maps.

Figure 3. Leveraging advanced font technology specifically engineered for rendering East Asian text, such as Edge Technology by Monotype Imaging, fonts can be tuned to ensure that display quality is at its highest and is consistent across a range of devices. For example, font stroke thickness can be adjusted to make characters appear thinner or thicker. Contrast can be modified to control text sharpness. Additional sharpness can be applied using high-contrast settings to increase legibility at small text sizes, while lower-contrast settings retain the softer look often preferred for text displayed at large sizes.

Figure 3. Leveraging advanced font technology specifically engineered for rendering East Asian text, such as Edge Technology by Monotype Imaging, fonts can be tuned to ensure that display quality is at its highest and is consistent across a range of devices. For example, font stroke thickness can be adjusted to make characters appear thinner or thicker. Contrast can be modified to control text sharpness. Additional sharpness can be applied using high-contrast settings to increase legibility at small text sizes, while lower-contrast settings retain the softer look often preferred for text displayed at large sizes.

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