The ongoing web font battle was again a hot topic at SXSWi. Now that there is a way to implement web fonts by using CSS3 techniques (in Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera browsers), they are gaining even more steam in the industry.

The history of fonts on the Web is a brief one. There are currently only about 10 fonts supported on the Web; every website in the world with any HTML content is using at least one of them. So why do you see other fonts when browsing the Internet? To make websites more interesting, designers and developers put text in images or Flash, which can support any font imaginable. But, among the many drawbacks, text found in images/Flash isn’t searchable, selectable or scalable (an increasingly important factor with the emergence of mobile browsing).

You may be wondering why more fonts still aren’t commonplace online. The real crux is finding a way for font designers to sell their fonts, while preventing site visitors from downloading them illegally. If agreed on by the major browsers, it appears the solution is the WOFF format: developers will be able to purchase and use fonts on the Web, but the end user won’t be able to download them.

Using web fonts would be the beginning of a whole new world in browsing for web designers and site visitors alike. With the implementation of CSS3, we hope to see a standard font format that will make web fonts an active part of the online experience.