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thomaspark / bootswatch

Themes for Bootstrap
https://bootswatch.com
MIT License
14.54k stars 3.67k forks source link

Bootwatch should remove Google Fonts saving the internet and man-hours #1142

Open wshawn opened 2 years ago

wshawn commented 2 years ago

As a 4 decade veteran of internet and web based content I thank you for your much appreciated efforts at providing packaged themes based on Bootstrap.

But therein lies the problem: a library should serve one purpose.

As a developer I understand the nuances of Sass, etc., but I would suggest that the majority of Bootswatch users may not have the skills to use Sass tools to REMOVE a non-significant dependency in order to use another -- or none at all.

By forcing a hit by loading fonts from Google, I would have to wonder on the accumulated waste of bandwidth that can be attributed directly to Bootswatch, especially when users are unaware of it and load another font - or struggle to remove it.

I would also have to wonder as to the number of man-hours expended at the release of every Bootstrap, and subsequently Bootswatch, to remove those fonts by an unknown number of users.

There have already been issues created related to entire nations being disallowed Bootswatch access due to the font imports. This point of view is not new either as it crops up periodically.

A link to a Bootswatch theme should only provide the theme. As should, a link to a font that provides a font.

Similar to Bootstrap5 removing dependence on jQuery, Bootswatch should follow suit. It would take minor effort to add a suggested Font to each template page linked to google or (in many cases) jsDelivr.

The alternative would be to offer a "bundle" version with the only difference being the import link added.

XhmikosR commented 2 years ago

@thomaspark I too believe Google Fonts should be removed.

  1. the current way of loading them is one of the worst possible; the Bootswatch CSS has to be downloaded and parsed for the font to even start downloading
  2. using Google Fonts posses privacy issues since they are tracking users
jipexu commented 2 years ago

Hi ...As google is not friend too ... and for the arguments exposed by @wshawn and @XhmikosR i share their opinion : Google Fonts should be removed.. @thomaspark i have any idea if it is a big work for you and what will be the exact(s) alternative(s) ...But in waiting thank to you for maintain this great repository !

JensSpanier commented 2 years ago

This topic is currently becoming much more interesting in Germany. In January, the Munich Regional Court decided that the integration of Google Fonts violates the GDPR. For this reason, there is currently a large wave of cease-and-desist letters.

Here is a German article about it.

aaronhudon commented 2 years ago

If this goes through, please revise the v4 themes, as I'm stuck on v4 bootstrap for some time to come.