WordPress contributors have updated the legacy default themes to bundle Google Fonts locally in the theme folder, instead of loading them from Google’s servers. In years past, loading fonts from the the Google CDN was the recommended practice for performance reasons, but new privacy concerns have emerged following a German court case, which fined a website owner for violating the GDPR …
New Tool Checks If Google Fonts Are Hosted Locally
Earlier this year, WordPress’ Themes Team began urging theme authors to switch to locally hosted fonts after a German court case decision, which fined a website owner for violating the GDPR by using Google-hosted webfonts. Since that ruling, German website owners have continued to receive threats of fines for not having their fonts hosted locally. The makers of the Fonts Plugin, …
WordPress Punts Locally Hosted Fonts for Legacy Default Themes to 6.2 Release
In June 2022, WordPress.org’s Themes Team began strongly urging theme authors to switch to locally hosted webfonts, following a German court case, which fined a website owner for violating the GDPR by using Google-hosted webfonts. For years, theme authors have been enqueuing Google Fonts from the Google CDN for better performance, but this method exposes visitors’ IP addresses. The Themes Team …
WordPress Theme Authors Are Moving to Host Fonts Locally
The WordPress Themes team is poised to change its guidelines on remote hosting Google Fonts and is once again strongly urging theme authors to host their fonts locally. Yoast-sponsored contributor Ari Stathopoulos published an update today to answer some questions the team has been receiving about fonts in themes: Historically, WordPress themes hosted in the w.org themes repository were not allowed to …
German Court Fines Website Owner for Violating the GDPR by Using Google-Hosted Fonts
In late January, a Munich regional court ruled that a plaintiff was entitled to injunctive relief and damages of 100 € from an undisclosed website owner for passing on the visitor’s IP address to Google through the use of Google Fonts. Since it is possible to use the fonts without connecting to Google, the court deemed this a violation of …
Typography Tips for a More Comfortable Read on Your WordPress Site
Typography can make or break your WordPress site. The right typography makes your content more readable and keeps visitors around for longer. Bad typography is distracting, makes visitors work too hard, and pushes up your bounce rate. The web is massive. I don’t need to bore you with statistics about how much information is out there, but you can be …