Monotype seeks to simplify font shopping with specialized search results and easier purchasing mechanisms.A yearlong project has culminated in several big changes for Monotype Imaging Inc.'s Fonts.com, including expanded search capabilities and the ability to purchase large multi-user licenses online and establish user accounts.
Fonts.com also has debuted typefaces from the Font Bureau and FontFabrik foundries, adding more than 1,200 products.
"Our main goal was to bring this to the ASP.net platform," said Chris Roberts, Monotype's director of marketing for Internet development. "We also wanted to add a content management system. But our biggest goal was the algorithm search vs. the text search we had up until now."
The new search capabilities make it possible to find relevant results even if the user doesn't know how to spell the name of a font or only knows it's a TrueType font.
Users now also see a sample of the font in the search results to make it easier to find the right result visually. When users pick out a font, a sample of 50 similar fonts is also shown to help cut down on selection time.
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Search options have been further enhanced to include product searches by name, keyword, typeface classification, font foundry and typeface designer.
The ability to display sample font images automatically while searching can be turned on or off.
Visitors can also filter searches to limit results according to a specific computer platform or font format.
Additional detail is included on product pages when available, such as the typeface designer, font classification and whether the product contains the euro currency symbol.
Product pages display all fonts included in the product and list other packages that contain any of the displayed fonts.
"Users will get very relevant results now," Roberts said. "There's a lot more content about each font, and it makes it easier for like products to be found. We've also doubled the number of typefaces."
Multi-user licenses, when purchased through Fonts.com for most font products, automatically cover up to five users.
It used to be if customers wanted more than that, they needed to call.
Now, customers seeking additional users on a single license can simply increase the number of users displayed in the shopping cart, and a new fee will be shown to reflect that number.
A multi-user license is then created on a per-user basis at a discounted rate, instead of having to purchase the product multiple times to cover more than five users.
With the addition of user accounts, customers can now store contact information for faster checkout procedures.
Customers can also manage subscription preferences for Fonts.com's electronic and hard copy newsletters, Clicks and National Typographic.
And, according to Roberts, customers can now also e-mail fonts automatically.
Also added are more than 1,200 products from two font foundries new to Fonts.com: Font Bureau and FontFabrik.
Based in Boston, Font Bureau specializes in creating typographic identities for newspaper publishers.
Font Bureau's Interstate family is based on the signage alphabets of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.
FontFabrik of Berlin, Germany, is home to the LucasFonts collection.
"We still have more we want to do. The Internet has made so much more possible. Our business model has changed drastically over the past five years," Roberts said.
"We want to be the default choice if you're looking for a font, and we know we need to keep improving our site to make that continue to happen."
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