ONLINE PUBLISHERS are becoming frustrated with the limitations of HTML and are demanding more control over text in their documents. Relief is on the way, however, as several companies team up -- and face off -- in the effort to reduce typeface anarchy on the Web.
Not surprisingly, Web-domination contenders Microsoft and Netscape are the leading players in the fight to define type standards for the Internet. Microsoft's system, in which your Web browser would be sent TrueType fonts as needed, is being championed by such heavyweights as Hewlett-Packard and Macromedia. As might be expected, Microsoft says support for its technology will be built into a future version of its Internet Explorer browser.
In Netscape's corner are Adobe and Apple. Their proposal would let Web authors embed either TrueType or Type 1 PostScript fonts into their pages. Adobe developed the technology as part of Amber, the Web-oriented version of Acrobat, but says it can be used for text in HTML documents as well.
It's not easy to count out Microsoft, but its font-management proposal may be knocked cold even before the first bell has rung. Netscape will no doubt put its system into Netscape Navigator long before any standards organization has had a chance to bless either proposal, and the popularity of Navigator may be enough to cast the deciding vote. Furthermore, Netscape's standard enjoys the one-two punch of both major font formats whereas Microsoft's ignores the vast number of existing Type 1 fonts.
