Header - '3' logo and Three.co.uk wording

[papafed]

I've been told that the 'Three.co.uk' wording must be in Helvetica, and therefore to this end Luc's been experimenting with SVGs and alternative text, etc.

I would much rather that this be achieved using pure text if possible. Knowing that if you install native Helvetica on Windows looks crap, due to the fact that it's not hinted properly for Windows (MS respects the font grid over the shape, and OSX respects the shape over the font grid) I knew we could not just force helvetica if present.

Therefore I have experimented with the licenced Helvetica Webfont that is in use on the ROI site. I assume that this is OK to also us on UK, but someone better check. It works really well on Windows as well as Macs, and so my recommendation is that we implement the header using this webfont. In fact we could implement all headings using it if so desired.

[LucPestille-Three]

If we can use it, then the preference would be for all the headings to be in Helvetica - that's the brand - Chris M might give you a hug if it's possible.

[papafed]

Awesome. Now, who on earth might know about the font licence?

[jinky32]

I've had chat with Graeme. Apparently we can't use the ROI licence - their pricing is based on page views and they have significantly fewer that UK.

Apparently they use http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/plans-and-pricing - I'm guessing though that all *.three.co.uk visits is more than the 2.5m views that is set in the top end package.

Which of these http://www.fonts.com/font/linotype/helvetica?QueryFontType=Web#product_top would you be after and I'll have some more discussions here

[LucPestille-Three]

fonts.com's package lets you select up to 100,000,000 pageviews per month, though at £3,395 per month, it's probably a bit expensive.

We probably only need Helvetica Bold for now, though we may want Regular / Light in the future.

[jinky32]

I'm hearing that all page views across various Three sites (included those hosted externally such as out of funds page, MBB landing page) is around 10m per month. That puts us in the £340 per month category......

[papafed]

That's a lot of money for a bloody font. Especially a font that the vast majority of people cannot tell apart from Arial. Here's an idea. Let's ignore headings and do them in the Helvetica/Arial/Sans serif font stack. But, for the 'Three' header where you have a recognisable 'r' letterform that would give it away, what would happen if I fired up illustrator and created 4 SVG files that just happened to look exactly like the Helvetica T, h, r and e letters, then made a webfont out of them?

[LucPestille-Three]

Sounds like a really complicated way of doing it, when an image (svg with png fallback, or ideally a responsive svg?) with an alt attribute would do the same thing? You still have to serve another file, so why not combine it all in to one thing for every logo variant?

[papafed]

cos it sounds like (and is) a very bodgy way of doing it. code smell. Text should be text.

[papafed]

plus SVGs are much bigger than fonts

[LucPestille-Three]

With my hardcore designer hat on, I'd argue that the "Three.co.uk" / "Three" isn't just text, it's a logotype lockup, and has probably been tweaked to perfection in terms of kerning and spacing - mixing and matching fonts and enforcing inconsistent browser rendering on it is as much a no-no as colouring in the "3" bit of the logo, or any other brand rule.

[papafed]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/15/article-1170328-00259D0D1000044C-21_306x385.jpg

[papafed]

:-)