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In Firefox they can be disabled via the gfx.downloadable_fonts.enabled about:config switch. Unfortunately that will really highlight the accessibility nightmare

by sdkmvx 13y ago

In Firefox they can be disabled via the gfx.downloadable_fonts.enabled about:config switch. Unfortunately that will really highlight the accessibility nightmare that icon fonts are, as they don't display and have no alt-text like images. I've also noticed that disabling JavaScript has a huge effect on some websites' speed. But other sites don't even work without it nowadays.

weland 13y ago
This is precisely what I do on my laptop. I regularly have to access the web over rather poor connections like public hotspots or not-quite-so-glorious Internet connections, and web fonts make this quite messy. I really like typography (calligraphy has been one of my favourite pastimes for many years) but I think its implementation on the Internet is very bad from a usability perspective.
wwweston 13y ago
As of last summer, my experience was that Firefox (and IE) would render text in a fallback/default font if waiting for another font to download. Has this changed?
- elehack 13y ago
  FF uses fallback. Chrome and other WebKit-based browsers, however, do not.
  - jarofgreen 13y ago
    Anyone know a good reason why not? This seems like a great answer to the issue. (I suppose you may get web page layouts "jumping" if the downloaded font had very different spacing to the fallback font. EDIT: Ah, just learnt this is called FOUT. http://www.paulirish.com/2009/fighting-the-font-face-fout/ http://www.paulirish.com/2009/fighting-the-font-face-fout/ Still, I'd personally prefer FOUT to being unable to read the page.)
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
You could install the popular icon fonts (bootstrap and font awesome) locally, should work for Open Sans etc too.
- bhaak 13y ago
  Q: How do you that on a smart phone or tablet? A: You can't!
  - dublinben 13y ago
    I'm sure it's possible on an Android device.
  - andybak 13y ago
    I'm fairly sure you can on Android. No idea about iOS.
nettletea 13y ago
Regarding icon fonts: I override all web fonts, I just want to use a readable one. There's a noticable trend with embedding icons in fonts. Yahoo mail uses them. This doesn't feel quite right, even if it is a neat hack, and it can be annoying. How I view Yahoo mail: http://postimg.org/image/unnwg0d9p/ http://postimg.org/image/unnwg0d9p/
- sosborn 13y ago
  What's interesting to me is that even in that state, it is not difficult to understand what the menu item does, so why even bother with the icons?
  - nettletea 13y ago
    Mail selection with Yahoo is tricky, but it's mostly usable. The current iteration is way better than it has been. (They've fixed back button integration. ) Google use a lot of buttons without text, using icons instead, which a lot of the time are background images. This lends to a lot of mystery meat navigation. Google+ is a bit of nightmare on that front for me. I don't think my setup is that exotic, all I'm doing is trying to use consistent background and foreground colours, font and text size. It's amazing how many sites seem to gloss over accessibility. An instagram page: http://instagram.com/p/ieluJhv-V7/ http://instagram.com/p/ieluJhv-V7/ How it looks to me: http://postimg.org/image/an1jbvf65/ http://postimg.org/image/an1jbvf65/ Yup, pretty useless. I've never been able to use/see Instagram pictures without flipping between browsers!

by sdkmvx 13y ago

weland 13y ago

This is precisely what I do on my laptop. I regularly have to access the web over rather poor connections like public hotspots or not-quite-so-glorious Internet connections, and web fonts make this quite messy. I really like typography (calligraphy has been one of my favourite pastimes for many years) but I think its implementation on the Internet is very bad from a usability perspective.

wwweston 13y ago

As of last summer, my experience was that Firefox (and IE) would render text in a fallback/default font if waiting for another font to download. Has this changed?

elehack 13y ago
FF uses fallback. Chrome and other WebKit-based browsers, however, do not.
- jarofgreen 13y ago
  Anyone know a good reason why not? This seems like a great answer to the issue. (I suppose you may get web page layouts "jumping" if the downloaded font had very different spacing to the fallback font. EDIT: Ah, just learnt this is called FOUT. http://www.paulirish.com/2009/fighting-the-font-face-fout/ http://www.paulirish.com/2009/fighting-the-font-face-fout/ Still, I'd personally prefer FOUT to being unable to read the page.)

ZeroGravitas 13y ago

You could install the popular icon fonts (bootstrap and font awesome) locally, should work for Open Sans etc too.

bhaak 13y ago
Q: How do you that on a smart phone or tablet? A: You can't!
- dublinben 13y ago
  I'm sure it's possible on an Android device.
- andybak 13y ago
  I'm fairly sure you can on Android. No idea about iOS.

nettletea 13y ago

Regarding icon fonts: I override all web fonts, I just want to use a readable one. There's a noticable trend with embedding icons in fonts. Yahoo mail uses them. This doesn't feel quite right, even if it is a neat hack, and it can be annoying. How I view Yahoo mail: http://postimg.org/image/unnwg0d9p/ http://postimg.org/image/unnwg0d9p/

sosborn 13y ago
What's interesting to me is that even in that state, it is not difficult to understand what the menu item does, so why even bother with the icons?
- nettletea 13y ago
  Mail selection with Yahoo is tricky, but it's mostly usable. The current iteration is way better than it has been. (They've fixed back button integration. ) Google use a lot of buttons without text, using icons instead, which a lot of the time are background images. This lends to a lot of mystery meat navigation. Google+ is a bit of nightmare on that front for me. I don't think my setup is that exotic, all I'm doing is trying to use consistent background and foreground colours, font and text size. It's amazing how many sites seem to gloss over accessibility. An instagram page: http://instagram.com/p/ieluJhv-V7/ http://instagram.com/p/ieluJhv-V7/ How it looks to me: http://postimg.org/image/an1jbvf65/ http://postimg.org/image/an1jbvf65/ Yup, pretty useless. I've never been able to use/see Instagram pictures without flipping between browsers!