Better rendering, expanded language coverage – and other notes.

Yet a new and also a final version of the roman in the 4 weights is coming. This version takes advantage of the last 6 months of research and experience testing rendering in the large group Google web fonts that Sorkin Type Co. has released into service.* In addition to better rendering this version will be prettier and more consistent in its construction.

Perhaps the best things about it will be the addition of glyph coverage for a far broader range of languages including Czech, Hungarian, Maltese, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Turkish, Western Apache (Diné bizaad), Welsh, and many others.

In addition, this version will also cover non-letter glyphs that are present in the Mac Roman encoding, ISO 8859 or Latin 1, and Windows ANSI. It seems unlikely that anyone will make much use of these but this will make Merriweather complete.

Because this version will be final it will be also (finally) be hinted for Windows in VTT.

*These include: Hammersmith, Pompiere, Black Ops, Voltaire, Short Stack, Fjord, Contrail, Spinnaker, Ovo, Limelight, Pinyon Script, Supermercado One, Vast+Shadow, Gravitas, Passero, Atomic Age, Asset and Goblin.

The updated serifed roman has been added to Google web fonts

The updated serifed roman has been added to Google web fonts. This version renders better than the previous one did and has many fixes. A final update with hinting for windows along with a sans serif Merriweather is what is coming next.

Got any requests?

If you have any requests for changes in the Merriweather get ‘em in quick because the new version (1.3) is almost done. When it is I will post a guide to what is new & improved or simply different.

Missing weights in IE

There is also a problem that the lightest and heaviest weights do not render in IE even in the latest version on Windows 7. This isn’t a problem with the fonts per se. Not at all – I know this because a re-named font renders just fine in IE. So I am thinking of trying to find a way to make the weights accessible. Maybe Merriweather should be split into two family names to make that work. How important is this to you?

A new edition is coming with a raft of improvements

The next edition will contain:

• even more glyphs than before
• altered diacritics to solve for a problem in MS Word on Windows
• letter shape and spacing refinements

and hopefully a solution for a problem that the Regular has in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

This done the real hinting will also get done and then I will return to work on the Sans Serif designs.

New weights!

There are new weights of Merriweather at Google Web fonts!

http://www.google.com/webfonts/family?family=Merriweather&subset=latin#variants

I expect to update what is there again fairly soon and to add additional hinting.

Work on the sans serif has also begun.

About the delay and what is coming next.

I promised VTT hinted Merriweather some time ago now. I need to explain why you don’t have them, what is happening now, and what to expect next.

The primary reason for the delay was the formation of a new company to provide Google Web Fonts with many many more fonts than Merriweather. These new fonts will be in a wide range of styles and are almost all display types. The name of the company is Sorkin Type Co. I have been able to show some early proofs of these types to people I respect and the reactions has been very positive. The process of arranging for all of that is now complete and I have been back to work on Merriweather.

I am doing the final testing and adjusting of not just of Merriweather Bold now but also the Heavy. This means that quite soon there will be 4 styles – a Light, Regular, Bold and Heavy. The first 3 weights share widths and will take up the same amount of space. The heavy has its own set of of widths.

When these are done I am expecting to quickly produce a matching set of Merriweather San Serif fonts in the same 4 weights for a total of 8.

After this you can expect italics for both serif and sans designs.

Here is an example image showing what the design was like a few days ago. The heavy is becoming more subtle and should make a nice headline text.