Developments are taking shape aimed at enabling OEMs and developers to more easily allow users to change fonts to customize menus, calendars, and other mobile features or switch to a font in a different language (Fig. 5). Individuals may prefer a font simply because they think it looks more fun. Alternatively, a user may choose a font that seems more legible. Solutions that address these features allow OEMs to better differentiate their offerings and appeal to a wider range of users across the globe.

Steve Martin is responsible for the development of software products, including font rendering subsystems, embedded downloadable mobile font solutions, multilingual technologies, printer drivers, and color imaging tool kits. He also oversees the development of typefaces that operate within Monotype Imaging technologies. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass., and his master’s degree in engineering at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he studied graphics rendering and user interface design.

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Today’s mobile phone designs usher in demand for richer UI content and application development, and fonts are central to this trend. A font solution that provides the ability to download fonts increases the flexibility developers have in a number of areas, such as gaining control over text layout and appearance, extending the multilingual capabilities of the device, and avoiding susceptibility to downloaded fonts that are corrupted, are unlicensed, or do not conform to font technology standards. And by offering users a wide range of typeface designs, customers can “flip” to use a different font or access additional fonts that can be previewed, licensed, and downloaded (Fig. 6).

Thanks to scalable fonts, font technologies, and embedded font personalization solutions, it’s possible to bring typographically rich products to mobile markets worldwide. Users benefit with high-quality text that’s easy to read, fun to look at, simple to use, distinctive in style, available in the users’ language, and true to the brand. Fonts and font technologies allow OEMs to gain an edge in the highly competitive handset industry.