LibreJS style mentality and extension for web fonts?
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As we all know, there was the article by RMS about the "JavaScript Trap" and some extensions like LibreJS that block non-free JavaScript code. With that in mind, has there been similar thought about web fonts that are downloaded from the web? I know they aren't pure code like JavaScript, but there are a lot of fonts that get downloaded in the background when a page loads that aren't under a free software compatible license and get executed in the browser.
Some webfont sites like Google Web Fonts carry only open fonts under an SIL or Apache 2.0 license, but there are also a lot of sites that use TypeKit which more often than not, are not under a free software compatible license, are not free, and can restrict usage.
I'm sure this has been on some of your minds.
> With that in mind, has there been similar thought about web
> fonts that are downloaded from the web?
I had some thoughts and I cannot find my notes about it. Other
font-related writings (like the FSF recommending GPL-incompatible
licenses for them, or the issue of font sources) don't suggest them
being considered an important issue for free software hackers.
> I know they aren't pure code
> like JavaScript, but there are a lot of fonts that get downloaded in
> the background when a page loads that aren't under a free software
> compatible license and get executed in the browser.
They are works for practical purposes, there are good reasons to be able
to use/modify them (e.g. l10n, modifying documents: important with free
documentation or free software). TrueType fonts have real programs for
hinting, also any outline fonts are considered programs for legal
reasons, I don't consider this as important as what they are useful for.
I often disable downloadable fonts for technical reasons: many have
"bad" hinting (i.e. not like the Deja Vu fonts that I like) and usually
browsers display white or differently formated text before downloading
the font (this should be solved by caching, isn't).
I've actually been a fan of Lato recently from http://www.latofonts.com/lato-free-fonts/ which is totally free under an SIL license and Google hosts on their fonts service. It is the closest font that I could find that was free that almost matches Proxima Nova. Speaking of, I have been seeing a lot of Proxima Nova on the web and that is one of those non-free Typekit fonts.
Sans-Serif wise, Google Web Fonts also has the well hinted Arimo and Source Sans Pro fonts on their service.
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