WordPress Theme Authors Are Moving to Host Fonts Locally – WP Tavern

The WordPress Themes workforce is poised to vary its tips on distant internet hosting Google Fonts and is as soon as once more strongly urging theme authors to host their fonts regionally. Yoast-sponsored contributor Ari Stathopoulos revealed an update immediately to reply some questions the workforce has been receiving about fonts in themes:

Traditionally, WordPress themes hosted within the w.org themes repository weren’t allowed to make use of third-party assets. This included photos, javascript recordsdata, CSS recordsdata, webfonts, and different belongings loaded from a distant server.

Google fonts was an exception to this rule as a result of, on the time, there was no dependable option to implement locally-hosted webfonts, and typography is an integral a part of a theme’s design.

Google fonts, nonetheless, can not be thought of an exception to this guideline due to the GDPR and privateness implications.

The workforce is responding to a latest German courtroom case, which fined a website owner for violating the GDPR by using Google-hosted webfonts. This case spurred a number of different threats towards web site homeowners and lots of questions for the Themes workforce.

What was beforehand a robust recommendation from WordPress.org is now a warning that tips will probably be altering imminently.

“A theme shouldn’t be allowed to make use of exterior assets,” Stathopoulos stated. “The rules proper now enable for distant Google fonts, however that may most likely change quickly. If the theme is utilizing exterior belongings, then sure, it ought to name a privateness perform and be sure that these belongings don’t get loaded with out the person’s express consent.”

A ticket for updating WordPress’ default themes to load Google fonts regionally has a patch however the milestone is about for WordPress 6.1. It will make all of the core themes GDPR compliant however won’t arrive till October.

Some theme authors noticed the writing on the wall a number of weeks in the past and have been working to replace their themes to load fonts regionally.

“I’ve determined to do that too,” Tough Pixels founder André Jutras stated. “Though a number of themes have a font-choosing possibility within the Customizer with the complete Google choice. That is going to be onerous to vary with current customers that use it. My new theme will certainly have native fonts.”

Providing font choice for customers contained in the theme shouldn’t be as simple as merely together with one or two fonts bundled with the theme.

“I’ve been making an attempt to do the identical with Blockbase,” Automattic developer Jason Crist stated. “However Blockbase ships with a LOT of fonts to select from so it’s been a little bit of a novel problem.”

In 2020, the Themes workforce created a package that helps theme authors host their webfonts regionally. It was created in anticipation of eradicating Google Fonts because the exception to the rule prohibiting using CDNs to load belongings.

Bunny Fonts are are an alternative choice to Google Fonts that some plugin authors have on their radar now that some European jurisdictions are cracking down on Google-hosted fonts. It’s an open-source, privacy-first internet font platform with no monitoring or logging and is totally GDPR compliant. Bunny Fonts is appropriate with the Google Fonts CSS v1 API so it may perform as a drop-in substitute to Google Fonts by simply switching the hostname. If the Themes Crew was so as to add any service to its exception record, Bunny Fonts could be a extra privateness respecting possibility than Google Fonts.

The Themes Crew is ready on core to implement better support for loading local fonts earlier than making a sweeping requirement for themes hosted within the listing. Within the meantime, WordPress theme authors have the time to replace their themes to load Google Fonts regionally earlier than a requirement is put in place.