Now, according to some experts, the next big thing on your handset screen is printed text. But not just any text. A multitude of typeface fonts are said by some to be the new battleground for mobile handset applications.

At least one company, Monotype Imaging (Woburn, Mass.) is banking on the premise. On Tuesday (May 19), Monotype rolled out a mobile font download application called "FlipFont" that allows consumers to license typefaces from the company's mobile e-commerce Web site.

The company claims it technology lets users switch out fonts on their phone's user interface, menus and a variety of applications. This is accomplished by installing a FlipFont typeface and overriding the phone's factory-installed, default fonts.

Flipping fonts on mobile phones is easier said than done, however. "It's because mobile handsets are incredibly fragmented," said Satoshi Asari, director of product marketing at Monotype Imaging. "All mobile platforms deal with fonts in different ways."

Compounding the problem further is the fact that current mobile services like Apple's App Store are expected to deal with hundreds of different applications. Ensuring that flipping fonts doesn't foul up a phone's whole font structure for various applications is a huge issue.

Anyone who has fiddled with fonts on different operating systems has likely suffered the annoyance of missing characters. When a font doesn't contain a character, for example, a small, unhelpful square represents the missing character.

Monotype Imaging claims their font engine prevents this from happening.