4 ms·

> Google Web Fonts library preloaded in it so that's just called installing fonts! I think the idea of web fonts is so that new fonts could be added and a use

by chii 4y ago

> Google Web Fonts library preloaded in it so that's just called installing fonts! I think the idea of web fonts is so that new fonts could be added and a user doesn't have to do something local to the browser. And this feature costs privacy. If people really understood the implications of loss of privacy, they would not want it. However, most people don't, and would gladly swap privacy for features (and then in the future complain about it when the implications becomes real or affects them).

kmeisthax 4y ago
Yes, but if you install the entire font library locally then you have all those fonts in your system font picker, which you may or may not want. You also have to continue checking for new fonts or have sites that use them break. Having an extension do this for you is easier. Also, there's no particular reason why webfonts need to cost privacy. The only reason to ever hotlink Google Fonts was to either... - Accelerate load times (which is dubious) - Be slightly easier to implement for lazy developers Google Fonts are all freely licensed and specifically allow you to rehost them. All you have to do is download the TTFs and link to them in a @font-face declaration. Adobe Fonts are the ones you can't self-host, because the actual CDN is a vehicle for calculating and charging a licensing fee. The privacy risk is deliberate, in this case - font owners need to know how many pageviews sites are getting so they can be charged the correct amount. Even then, this is something that could be done by having each site report their own usage statistics... except then the font vendors have to trust you, and they don't want to do that.
- dylan604 4y ago
  and exactly how large of a download would be "download entire font library"? all that just to use one font? that's like downloading an entire JS library to use one thing from it if not worse.
  - kmeisthax 4y ago
    If you're selfhosting you only need to have the fonts you actually intend to use, not the entire library. Having the entire library would only make sense for an extension that replaces Google Fonts requests with itself.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      isn't that exactly what was being proposed? if not, that's how i interpreted it.
- behnamoh 4y ago
  on macos you can install fonts and put them in categories. so i can have a category called “web fonts”. anytime i wanna pick fonts in other apps i’ll just look through my favorite categories instead of the whole fonts book.
- toastal 4y ago
  Please don't use TTFs for your webfonts. They are far too big for the task and the optimized option, WOFF2, is so well supported that barring a future formats, I would consider all other formats deprecated for the web—don't even host them or include them in @font-face.

by chii 4y ago

kmeisthax 4y ago

Yes, but if you install the entire font library locally then you have all those fonts in your system font picker, which you may or may not want. You also have to continue checking for new fonts or have sites that use them break. Having an extension do this for you is easier. Also, there's no particular reason why webfonts need to cost privacy. The only reason to ever hotlink Google Fonts was to either... - Accelerate load times (which is dubious) - Be slightly easier to implement for lazy developers Google Fonts are all freely licensed and specifically allow you to rehost them. All you have to do is download the TTFs and link to them in a @font-face declaration. Adobe Fonts are the ones you can't self-host, because the actual CDN is a vehicle for calculating and charging a licensing fee. The privacy risk is deliberate, in this case - font owners need to know how many pageviews sites are getting so they can be charged the correct amount. Even then, this is something that could be done by having each site report their own usage statistics... except then the font vendors have to trust you, and they don't want to do that.

dylan604 4y ago
and exactly how large of a download would be "download entire font library"? all that just to use one font? that's like downloading an entire JS library to use one thing from it if not worse.
- kmeisthax 4y ago
  If you're selfhosting you only need to have the fonts you actually intend to use, not the entire library. Having the entire library would only make sense for an extension that replaces Google Fonts requests with itself.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    isn't that exactly what was being proposed? if not, that's how i interpreted it.
behnamoh 4y ago
on macos you can install fonts and put them in categories. so i can have a category called “web fonts”. anytime i wanna pick fonts in other apps i’ll just look through my favorite categories instead of the whole fonts book.
toastal 4y ago
Please don't use TTFs for your webfonts. They are far too big for the task and the optimized option, WOFF2, is so well supported that barring a future formats, I would consider all other formats deprecated for the web—don't even host them or include them in @font-face.