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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Monotype Imaging Announces Fonts for Verizon Wireless Mobile User Interfaces
WOBURN, MA - January 16, 2008 - Monotype Imaging Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE), a leading global provider of text imaging solutions, has announced that Verizon Wireless has begun to supply handset manufacturers with an eight-font typeface family from Monotype Imaging. Available in both scalable and bitmap versions, the fonts will assist manufacturers in designing user interfaces for Verizon Wireless phones with type optimized for legibility on the small screen.
“The new fonts offer significant benefits to handset manufacturers,” said John Seguin, executive vice president of Monotype Imaging. “Verizon Wireless OEMs who may be thinking about switching from the use of fixed-in-size bitmap fonts to scalable alternatives can now make that transition more easily, as Verizon Wireless is offering scalable fonts for UI development for the first time.”
While bitmap fonts require individual sets for each type size and style supported by the phone, a scalable solution requires just one font for each style to cover all sizes. “OEMs will be better able to manage the memory footprint of their device, as the burden of storing multiple bitmaps is removed. But perhaps the most visible advantage of the Verizon Wireless fonts is the one you can actually see: large or small, text remains sharp and clear,” Seguin said.
“The new Verizon Wireless typeface family is an important component in our UI software development,” said David Bowen, director of advertising for Verizon Wireless. “Highly legible fonts that are visually pleasing underscore our commitment to provide the best possible consumer experience.”
Guiding the project was R/GA, a creative agency based in New York City that works with Verizon Wireless in various capacities including the development of its UI specification. The goal was to produce a distinctive, versatile typeface family that was clean and legible. “While our objective seemed simple, we knew that difficult technical challenges loomed ahead, such as making sure the fonts would perform consistently on different display sizes and screen resolutions,” said Ryan Denning, group director at R/GA. “Monotype Imaging delivered on our requirements down to the most discriminating details.”
“The elegance of the Verizon Wireless typeface belies its technical makeup,” said Allan Haley, director of words and letters at Monotype Imaging. “Text stays sharp, even at small sizes, while the design retains an understated appeal. These are qualities desirable for mobile user interfaces. While clarity and legibility are critical concerns, a UI typeface design should not call undue attention to itself, as might be desired for a theme-based application or game. The Verizon Wireless fonts were also hand-tuned by typographic specialists to meet our ESQ® Mobile™ (Enhanced Screen Quality) guidelines for ensuring optimal display quality.”
The Verizon Wireless typeface family is a sans serif design that complies with the ISO-8859-1 Latin character set standard. Fonts for both scalable and bitmap sets include a regular, bold, italic, bold italic, extra bold, narrow, narrow bold and bold outline version of the design. The scalable typeface family is based on the TrueType® font format.
A scalable font rendering engine is required when using the new Verizon Wireless scalable fonts. Handset manufacturers developing products using either the QUALCOMM BREW® solution or Symbian OS™ are able to select Monotype Imaging’s iType® font engine to support the new fonts. The iType font engine is available from various BREW options: as an extension to the BREW client porting kit and BREW SDK®, as part of QUALCOMM’s uiOne™ product and as a pre-integrated component in the BREW TrueType Font Extension. The iType font engine is also available as a reference component in Symbian OS as part of developer and customer kits and has been incorporated into the Symbian OS software development kit, beginning in version 9.5.
Monotype Imaging’s iType scalable font engine renders characters based on the TrueType and OpenType® font formats, in addition to the company’s stroke-based format. The technology supports the company’s patent-pending SmartHint™ technology, engineered for high legibility of East Asian characters, including text that has been scaled to small sizes. The iType font engine also supports Fonts in a Box™ technology, designed to ensure the full and predictable display of tall characters - those with accent marks or long descenders - within the fixed parameters of mobile screens. In addition, custom typefaces, bitmaps, embedded bitmaps, font subsets and linked fonts are supported by the iType font engine.
About Monotype Imaging
Monotype Imaging is a global provider of text imaging solutions for manufacturers and developers of consumer electronics devices including laser printers, copiers, mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, digital cameras and software applications and operating systems. The company also provides printer drivers and color imaging technologies to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Monotype Imaging technologies are combined with access to more than 9,000 typefaces from the Monotype®, Linotype® and ITC® typeface libraries - home to some of the world’s most widely used designs, including the Times New Roman®, Helvetica® and ITC Franklin Gothic™ typefaces. Fonts are licensed to creative and business professionals through custom font design services, direct sales or e-commerce portals. Monotype Imaging offers fonts and industry-standard solutions that support all of the world’s major languages. The company is based in Woburn, Mass., with regional offices in the U.K., Germany (Linotype), Mt. Prospect, Ill., Redwood City, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Japan and China.
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