1060404 - Use local font before the specific @font-face download finish

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, defect)

Description

[dindog]

The title is quite self-explanatory.


There are more and more sites use @font-face, I knew that... because many of them using google's font in "http://fonts.gstatic.com", and for some reason, the connection status is always poor in China, so all page specific @font-face won't display any words before the woff font download is completed, sometime, it will never be...

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

We fall back to a fallback font if the download doesn't complete soon enough, no?

Comment 2

[dindog]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky [:bz] from comment #1)
> We fall back to a fallback font if the download doesn't complete soon
> enough, no?

If that's true, there must be something else... or how soon. I see pages with no words then a few second words come out...

Comment 3

[dindog]

ehmmm, I make a local test, Firefox will fall back to local font in about 3 second seconds. 

Chrome is same. about 3 secs

IE has no delay.

Personally, I like IE's way

Comment 4

[dindog]

> a few second words come out...
a few second later.

> 3 second seconds. 
3 seconds

Sorry. been a while since last time typed in English.

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

The 3 second thing is very purposeful: the other option caused flicker and a lot of complaints from both users and web site authors.

You can, of course, set the "gfx.downloadable_fonts.fallback_delay" preference to whatever number of milliseconds you personally desire for your own use.  You're not forced into the 3 second default.

Comment 6

[dindog]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky [:bz] from comment #5)
> The 3 second thing is very purposeful: the other option caused flicker and a
> lot of complaints from both users and web site authors.
> 
> You can, of course, set the "gfx.downloadable_fonts.fallback_delay"
> preference to whatever number of milliseconds you personally desire for your
> own use.  You're not forced into the 3 second default.

I think the strategy here should reconsider.

1. IE's way:
Local font --->(when download complete) URL font
flick once, from Local fallback font to specified font, but it's just the style of the text, user can read the text content from the beginning.

*****************************
2. Firefox current way:
a. bad connection:
Wait... -->(3 seconds passed) fallback to local font ---> (download completed) URL font
flick twice, no words --> fallback font --> URL font

b. good connection:
Wait... -->(download completed) URL font
flick once, from no words to URL font

*****************************

I think IE's is apparently better

Comment 7

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> but it's just the style of the text,

No, it's also the font metrics, which can cause relayout of the whole page.

Seriously, please go read the extensive existing discussion about this before suggesting that the wrong decision was made.

Comment 8

[dindog]

all right. this is an invalid