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A comment on Should we stop using the Google font service and host on our own?. Parent comment

Re:Should we stop using the Google font service and host on ... by gkya on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @11:01AM (#15653693)
Letters and punctuation are not icons at all. They are symbols. Icons are images, i.e. likenesses of concrete or abstract objects which they refer to. Letters have no meaning on their own, they represent sounds, which differ based on language (e.g. c sound like see, chee, key, gee, that &c in different languages) or its position in a word (caps, ace, click).

And if its not an abuse of fonts to use them as icon packs, its an abuse of the users who wants to use their bandwidth for better things (e.g. cat gifs). I have them disabled and my day is full of fun: What this "f" means? What happens when I click "ff" or "p" or what not? And some are kind enough to provide alt texts, which is soooo helpful: https://imgur.com/cHdSxcO

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Re:Should we stop using the Google font service and host on ... by matthewmacleod on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @11:28AM (#15653967)
Okay, I was being a bit facetious, I admit :)

In practice I don't consider it an anti-pattern to include icons in fonts. Fonts are designed in such a way that they're pretty convenient to use for icons.

There are of course other approaches now available, and they should probably be used preferentially. But it's much like complaining here that you have blocked images, and therefore can't see any images. It's your choice, and I'm glad you have it, but…

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Re:Should we stop using the Google font service and host on ... by jameskegel on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @12:00PM (#15654293)
I'm curious what benefits would be evident while using a font that also combines icons in its character space. I can only imagine slight drawbacks.
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Re:Should we stop using the Google font service and host on ... by omg_ketchup on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @11:59AM (#15654285)
I feel like this is a bad trade... let me break every website I visit, so I don't have to download Font Awesome and Material Icons?

Why would you do that to yourself? What's the benefit? A couple KB?

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