[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 nacin):

 I would prefer we bundle anything that is used by default, too. But in
 this case, practically speaking, it is a far inferior option.

 Google does some smart things. For example, it conditionally serves the
 file type (there are four of them) based on the browser. And it is a
 global CDN. If you visit multiple WordPress sites, that's going to be far
 faster to use.

 The problem with bundling Opens Sans is it is extremely heavy. We're
 talking six faces, seven character subsets, and four file types. Add those
 up and you're talking a lot of different combinations — four subset
 combinations times six faces times four file types. If you bundle
 everything together and serve all characters to everyone, you're slowing
 down every single site. Either way, you're adding a lot (we're measuring
 in the megabytes) to the download package size. Maybe someone could
 calculate how much, so we're not flying completely blind here.

 WordPress still works without this. If you already have Open Sans
 installed, then that gets used instead. And if you're running WordPress
 behind a firewall, your browser simply uses the default sans serif font.
 If Google shuts down the site (which it uses for its own site, and has
 clearly and openly encouraged others to use), your browser simply uses the
 default sans serif font.

 Something that has been proposed is using the WordPress.org CDN for this.
 I have zero qualms with this. But, there's a lot that needs to be built to
 actually serve all of the edge cases. If you want to do the research and
 scrape the few dozen font packages (and actually build a script to keep
 them updated — do they get updated?) and implement proper caching headers
 for the CSS file and such, then do it. There's a
 [http://make.wordpress.org/core/2013/11/11/open-sans-bundling-vs-
 linking/#comment-11426 comment on make/core] that describes all sorts of
 other possible considerations (as well as why trusting Google is probably
 a better play here), like hinting and CFF and such.

 I hate saying this, but vote with your feet. If you want WordPress.org to
 use its CDN for this, then come up with a plan and patch it. Because I
 don't have the time for it, and while I enjoy wearing a tinfoil hat from
 time to time, I also recognize that Google has done some good things for
 the web, just a few of which are hosting open source libraries and open
 source fonts. What Google has works, so when I'm wearing my let's-be-
 practical-here hat, this just isn't a priority for me.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26072#comment:16>
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