Taking a quick break today from the technical, I want to comment on the hype machine that's sprung up around today's announcement of TypeKit.  The entire post is worth reading, but the primary paragraph is:

That’s where Typekit comes in. We’ve been working with foundries to develop a consistent web-only font linking license. We’ve built a technology platform that lets us to host both free and commercial fonts in a way that is incredibly fast, smoothes out differences in how browsers handle type, and offers the level of protection that type designers need without resorting to annoying and ineffective DRM.

Obviously, this sounds fantastic.  A legal way to use any font in our designs for the web is something that just about everyone in this business has been interested in for years.   Excitement is natural (take a look at #typekit on Twitter to see the overwhelming response).

There's just one problem; the aformentioned blog post contains no details on how this system actually works.  It's very light on details and, let's be totally honest, is nothing more than a press release about an upcoming product.  I want to stress that there's nothing wrong with being excited.  However, things take a nasty turn when the web hype machine spins up.  Andy Clarke pontificates that Typekit will change everything.  The comments on the original post are filled with quote such as:

An amazing piece of work, thanks for cutting through the issues so effectively.

Genius idea – exact solution that web needs right now! Thanks, can’t wait!

Keep it UP! Get it GOIN’! Congrats all around.

Wow this is beyond huge I’m interested to see how this all plays out.

The best news i have heard in a long time.

I don't mean to insult Jeff or his team in any way--and I don't want to be seen as the most cynical person on the web today; but aren't we getting just a little bit ahead of ourselves?  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they are working with the foundries and trying to find a workable solution that makes everyone happy.  But an advance press release is no reason to start a Typekit Love-Fest.

Should this solution turn out to be everything it's promised, I'll be the first to congratulate the team on solving one of the biggest problems that web design has faced.  Until then, I'll leave the hype machine to its own devices and watch comfortably from the sidelines.