Permlink Replies: 1 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 23 Oct 23, 15:33 Last Post By: JeffTucker Threads: [ Previous | Next ]
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,219
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Avoiding Google fonts
Posted: 24 Aug 22, 22:14
  Click to reply to this thread Reply
As Laza has described in a recent blog post, the EU, or at least parts of it, have gone completely 'round the bend on the GDPR nonsense, and have decided that if a site uses Google fonts, it's "revealing" the visitor's IP address. These are people who must have a very strange idea about how the internet works.

https://jalbum.net/blog/entry/how-to-deal-with-google-fonts-data-breach

Laza's blog entry, and my comment on it, describe how to stay out of trouble. Pending some other solutions, or a miraculous restoration of clear thinking to the German judiciary, there is one workaround, if the skin you're using supports it.

All the best skins (i.e., mine ;) ), allow to you specify a WOFF file to use for fonts. Unlike a Google font, a WOFF file is something you have downloaded, and that gets bundled into the album you create. So, there is no "phone call to Google" when the album is viewed - all of the resources for the display of the album are coming from your site.

So, does Google let you download a WOFF file version of one of their fonts? Not directly - you can download a font, but the files are all in TTF format, which you would then have to get converted on some other site. But there's a well-known site that will take care of it for you in one shot:

https://google-webfonts-helper.herokuapp.com/fonts

Select the Google font on the left, download it, unzip it, and extract the file with a .woff2 extension (more compact than .woff, but otherwise the same). Then tell the skin to use that font for whatever you like - titles, comments, etc. In most of my skins, you add the file at Fonts > Album > WOFF File, then on the other Fonts tabs, select the elements that should use that font.
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,219
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: Avoiding Google fonts
Posted: 23 Oct 23, 15:33   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
  Click to reply to this thread Reply
An important update:

To avoid this problem, all of my skins, by default, copy any Google font that you have chosen, and bundle it with the album, so there is no "call to Google" on the album pages.

Laza's skins offer this as an option, usually selected by default under, e.g., Tiger > Advanced > Site admin > Server-related settings.
Legend
Forum admins
Helpful Answer
Correct Answer

Point your RSS reader here for a feed of the latest messages in all forums