[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #26072: Bundle the Open Sans font

[WordPress Trac]

#26072: Bundle the Open Sans font
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 Reporter:  johnbillion     |       Owner:
     Type:  task (blessed)  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  high            |   Milestone:  3.8
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  ui-focus        |
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Comment (by iammattthomas):

 Replying to [comment:6 johnbillion]:
 > Sure, Google has almost non-existent downtime, but the reliance is still
 there. If the Google font service goes down, my admin area becomes a pain
 in the ass to use. Not to mention working on local sites while offline
 (it's just about possible to ignore Gravatars that don't load; not so with
 fonts).

 Could you share what steps you took to experience this result? In all of
 my testing, when I simulate fonts.googleapis.com being unavailable, my
 browser simply loads the default sans-serif fallback font.

 > Other concerns raised in [http://make.wordpress.org/core/2013/11/11
 /open-sans-bundling-vs-linking/ the make/core thread] include privacy and
 analytics, which should be heeded.

 Mostly what I've seen so far is along the lines of "what if Google..."
 (tracked us, shut down, whatever). I'm not aware of any concerns backed up
 by specific examples. If there ''are'' specific, documentable concerns we
 should detail them now so we can figure out how to overcome them.

 > We're introducing a default reliance on a third party service whose
 philosophies may not align with those of WordPress.

 Webfonts are an enhancement, not a matter of reliance. If we loaded jQuery
 from an external source, *that* would be a reliance. If the webfonts don't
 load, the admin doesn't look nearly as nice but no functionality is lost.
 This mirrors Twenty Twelve's reliance on Google Fonts for Open Sans.

 If we're considering philosophical reasons to remove Open Sans altogether
 or make it an option, the principles of designing for the majority and
 making decisions, not options are pretty applicable here. The vast
 majority of WordPress users will never know or care where Open Sans is
 loaded from, and most users, even if they were given an option to disable
 linking to Google Fonts, wouldn't use it.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26072#comment:8>
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