What's the main difference between the web and the rest of your computer? One word: Fonts. HTML currently has two main font types built in: The default plain Helvetica and a monospaced font, like the one used for this article. This doesn't provide much flexibility in typesetting, but it does make sure that almost everyone is using the same-sized font, a big help for designers. This all goes well until some users change their font preferences, and then every page they see doesn't look at all like the designer wanted it to. If only designers could choose what font the browser sees... Why, that's a great idea! Why hasn't Netscape put that in yet? Well, in a way they have. The font tag, plus Java and ActiveX, give limited control over the fonts used on a page. The problem comes when you actually get down to naming the font to be used on a page. That font has to be installed on the user's system beforehand, and the only font that you can assume that with is (you guessed it) plain old Helvetica.

What we need is portable fonts. What this means is that the designer could link to a font file on the server, which would be automatically downloaded and installed. The page then loads with the exact font that the user intended. The main reason this hasn't happened already is the font file itself. Font files have been a mess for years, because Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple could never rely on one font standard. TrueType fonts were supposed to alleviate this problem, but it still isn't a 100% standard. To get the computer giants to decide on a new standard is pretty tough, although everyone wants it to happen. TrueType can't do the job in its present state, so several companies are trying to develop their own internet-ready font standards. The thing is, every one of them that isn't completely supported by Microsoft and Netscape is doomed to failure.

Aside from the main font problem, there are plenty more typeface dilemmas (accurate sizing, lack of tabs, whitespace controls, alignment, etc.) to be solved. And whatever company that fixes them first may have the real key to winning the browser war.