Re: @font-face and slow downloading

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:04 PM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 20, 2010, at 7:17 PM, Belov, Charles wrote:
>>> Maybe we should insist on a fallback list including at least
>>> one 'normal' font, for downloadable faces, and say that the
>>> UA 'may' show a fallback before the downloaded font is
>>> available, but if it does, must re-render using the
>>> downloaded font when it becomes available?
>>>
>> But it is an issue if I go to click something and the link is now as I
>> click going to some completely different page because the normal font
>> and the suddenly-available downloaded font have different metrics.
>
> That could happen occasionally if you happen to click at the exact wrong time. But at least you were able to read the text in the interim enough to know what link you want to click on. If nothing renders for a text block except for some underlines (which is what seems to happen in Webkit), then you're just left sitting there wondering if something is broken. I think rendering with a fallback font is by far the lesser of two evils, especially if the font never finishes downloading.

For example, every time I visit hsivonen's blog with a fresh cache, I
forget that he uses downloadable fonts and think that something's
wrong with the site for several seconds.  It's disconcerting and
annoying.

~TJ

Received on Thursday, 21 October 2010 06:26:45 UTC