Distribution of documents in electronic form, often called soft copy, permits more rapid sharing of information and the acceleration of new knowledge; however, barriers to soft-copy document distribution have arisen out of the diversity of the tools currently available in publishing technology. The authors address solving these problems by means of the development of a public font standard, and novel tools and services. They describe a cooperative effort now under way among graphic arts professionals, representatives of industry, and national and international standards-making organizations to develop such a standard along with the associated tools and services.