Our Thoughts on the Typekit Acquisition
The Fontdeck team was delighted to hear the news that Adobe has acquired fellow web font service, Typekit.
The web font world is a small and friendly one, and we know many of the folk at Typekit well, from both their work there and prior to the web font revolution. We talk regularly, have worked together on projects like the WebFont Loader, and we’ve had Typekit folk as guest speakers at our Ampersand web typography conference. So we’re extremely pleased for them, and wish Jeff Veen and his team the very best in their new careers at Adobe.
The acquisition of Typekit by a large company like Adobe has sparked a lot of discussion on Twitter. Much of this has been positive, but some people have raised concerns about the deal, particularly individuals who have had negative experiences with Adobe and are worried about the future development and stability of Typekit’s service. We suspect this concern is unjustified – at least in the short term – as Adobe will have most likely have secured the core Typekit team for a few years.
Some designers and foundries have also expressed concerns about Adobe wielding too much power in the web typography space. After all Adobe is a type foundry and font reseller, as well as a software vendor. As such, some people are worried about a loss of competition or being tied into particular services. We’re not too worried by these concerns. We believe that Adobe’s investment can only be a good thing for web typography and web fonts in particular. It goes to prove that what was once considered a niche technique for those on the cutting edge, will be the way to go for the majority of web designers.
Many people are asking about our plans for Fontdeck and whether we’re also looking to be acquired. While an acquisition isn’t something we’d ever rule out, it’s not something we have plans to pursue. Unlike some companies that were deliberately set up to be sold, Fontdeck has always been about pushing the field of web design forward. That’s why, with the help of our partners at OmniTI, Fontdeck has been incubated from the start by Clearleft and why we’ve never chased funding, and with our tight-knit team, who live and breathe the web and typography, we have some incredibly exciting partnerships and products just around the corner.
We are proud to remain resolutely independent. We know many of our foundries partnered exclusively with us because of that ethos, and we are committed to keeping Fontdeck the leading independent web font service for the foreseeable future.
