True Font Family

Last few days the website was offline due to sever server problems. The problem is that we are depending on third party to manages our server. They had to do an investigation first in order to see if they could fix the server or move everything to another one. This took more time than expected and in the end we did had to move everything. Then we decided to also upgrade the database software since we were offline anyway. What was supposed to be a fast upgrade resulted in a waterfal of problems. In the end we got everything back online again without any data loss, but we did loose a lot of time.

New design

Since we were offline, we decided to update the website to the new layout also. We hope you like it. The website has been adjusted to be compatible with the new webfontz layout. There is actually a switch which can turn the complete site into the webfontz site.

WebfontZ news

Meanwhile, at the secret hideout, we are setting up the main webfontz beta server where all testing will be done. It is hard to fit everything into our busy schedule. But we've set a new target for the beta launch. First we wanted to go into the beta without a control panel, but we then decided we really need this in order for people to use WebfontZ during the beta more easily. Also this will give a good example of how the WebfontZ service will work.

So please, bear with us just a little longer. And we promise you will not be disappointed!

Thank you for all your patience!

Again, it has been a while... quite a while.

The project has been in hibernation for a little while with a busy personal schedule and the holidays. But we've recently picked up the project again and have started to set things up technically.

The website is ready. The script is ready. And the technical architecture is almost ready. We are expecting to go public next month. I could say April 1st, but then nobody would believe me, haha. :-)

As a teaser, here is a little sneak preview of the new front page.

It has been a while since my last blog entry. Mainly because I have been too busy to take the time to write about it. A lot of interesting things have happend. For starters the new version 1.4 of True Font Family has finally been officially released.

The most important new changes are

• A lot of bugfixes
• Faster replacement of text
• Automatic hiding of text replacement
• Text replacement starts before the onload event
• Zero configuration, all options are enabled by default
• New support for text rotation (still under development)
• It now comes with all examples and a free font by Ray Larabie

There are a lot more new features like the copy option which will be in the updated documentation that is still to come. I wanted to get the update out first and in most cases there is no extra configuration needed.

The new version 2.0 branch is coming soon also. Actually, the 1.4 took so long because a lot of the new 2.0 code has been used for the 1.4 version. Because the feature set has not changed dramatically we have decided to still call it 1.x and start with 2.0 for the future version.

This 2.0 branch will be release under another name too. It will be called WebfontZ. We think this new name suits the product better. The name leaves no room for discussion over what it is about. The beta testing will be public so anyone can try it. The signup procedures are being set up and will start within a few weeks. Check the front page for the official announcement.

Exiting stuff!

These last few weeks have been great. A lot of new ideas came to me and I could not resist to see if they could work. From these experiments a lot of new exiting features have been developed. Two of which I would like to annouce here. They will not be available in the upcoming version, but they will be part of a new version 2.0 branch of True Font Family.

Text-texture

This option enables you to use any image as a texture for your text. This means you can have text in flames, text in love, text made of wood, text that looks like it is ready for a party, or any crazy background image you like.

You can control it by a CSS property called text-texture. It is shorter than text-background-image and texture is a widely used term for this effect. You can use to specify a wood texture.

Text-effect

And for those who like to go even further there will be a CSS property text-effect. This enables you to use any effect you can think of. It works with a plugin system so people can write, use and share their own effects. The CSS behind this still needs some work, but currently it supports effect parameters and piping multiple effects.

For those interested, you can see some text examples of textures combined with effects here, here and here.

Text-rotation

As for the upcoming release, there will be new feature as well called text-rotation. You can already see this one in the previous example used on the web 2.0 badges. Basically, it rotates text using an angle specified in degrees while respecting the set line height. Check out this example for more examples of text rotation. It also shows a new accessibility feature which allows the text to be accessed as normal text at any time.

Added a blog to the site today so everybody can read about the latest developments. Also there is a new links section for friendly sites. The new upcoming version is almost ready. It has been tested in almost every browser on every platform totaling over 50 browsers! Some of which I never knew existed. Best of all, it works on all of them.

There are a lot of new features including the following

• Improved transforming performance
• Removed the onload event in order to start transformation right away
• Direct use of cached images which reduces the PHP usage to one single usage per image ever!
• An option to hide the page completely while it is being transformed for fluid transformations.
• Lazy loading option to load replaced images right before the images are scrolled into view.
• A new setting that enables copy and paste of replaced text in Internet Explorer.
• Support for input elements of text and button type. This is still a bit experimental.

The new version should be online in about a few weeks. So check back here and keep your eyes open, or leave your email to stay updated.