Web fonts have quickly moved from concept to reality this past year, and now over 96 percent of all desktop Web browsers have support for Web fonts.

1. Updates/Changes to Browsers

Recent advancements and introductions of new browsers on desktops and mobile devices highlight one of the key benefits of a hosted Web font service: Changes are automatically applied – you do not need to worry about new versions of Web browsers!

The Fonts.com Web Fonts service is continuously being updated to address changes in browsers and Web font formats. All of this happens behind the scenes. Our development team performs extensive browser testing with Web fonts so our customers don't have to.

For example, the Blackberry® 6 OS found in the newest model Blackberry smartphones includes a new Web browser that supports Fonts.com Web Fonts. And the new Internet Explorer® version 9 RC includes support for both EOT and WOFF Web font formats. It also added a feature to change the browser mode from IE9 to the older IE8 and IE7 modes. Each of these changes can cause problems for users who self-host Web fonts if their CSS font stack is not properly constructed.

2. Worldwide Delivery Platform

Another key benefit of a hosted Web fonts service is performance. The Fonts.com Web Fonts service uses a world-class CDN (Content Delivery Network) to ensure consistently fast download speeds of Web font files, no matter where in the world a user is located. We are supporting very large websites with huge traffic demands. Our service has proved to be robust enough to satisfy some very discerning clients.

3. Flexibility to Change Your Website

Lastly, websites themselves change often. Our hosted Web fonts service provides a powerful set of tools to make it easy for Web designers and developer to work collaboratively and to quickly change their Web fonts as their site typography evolves.

We built the Fonts.com Web Fonts service to provide automatic, seamless updates to customers using our hosting service. While we do offer extended licenses to customers who require a self-host option, we are finding that the vast majority of our customers are very happy with the benefits that come with the hosting service.