Page 2 of 2

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 20 Jan 2023, 23:15
by mjau-mjau
I just came across a service fonts.bunny.net, which is pretty much a drop-in replacement for Google fonts that is fully GDPR compliant. Please check:
https://fonts.bunny.net/about

As noted in the link posted by @ed_f, it's clearly illegal to send  "blackmail" emails to website owners in Germany that use Google fonts. However, German website owners may still prefer to avoid using fonts served by Google servers due to GDPR and unclear legal implications.

What about self-hosted fonts?
Yes, it is possible, but I can't really "automate" this from X3. When you select fonts in X3, it can't automatically download the necessary fonts for you to your server (it could try, but this could easily fail). Downloading selected fonts to your server would have to be done manually, something which is a bit clumsy, similar to the initial post in this topic. And if you want to change fonts, you would have to repeat the process. Clumsy at best.

So in next release, I will implement TWO additional options for fonts in X3:
  1. Use fonts.bunny.net as a GDPR compliant replacement for Google fonts. Just select the option from panel and no further action is required. Fully automated recommended option.
  2. Self-hosted fonts for die-hard users who for some reason don't trust Google OR the above. This would require manually downloading fonts into location on server. Clumsy, but can remain an option.

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 21 Jan 2023, 03:11
by alfie
bunny fonts solution sounds fair enough for me. :ok_hand:

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 30 Aug 2023, 04:07
by AJF
mjau-mjau wrote:
Great news! :heart_eyes:
No. This message says only something about 'mass adhortatory letter'. But there are court decisions and some lawyers do it due to existing rights. In normal cases you HAVE to pay.

So the danger is still there and NOT smaller anyway

Now it is 9 months ago and a switch in X3 would be very helpful. I like X3 very much but sometimes I miss some practicaly things. Another point is european/german date format DD MM YYYY oder DD month YYYY in blogs, I am waiting for this for 3 years since you have said you will realize this.

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 30 Aug 2023, 04:40
by metallissimus
AJF wrote: Now it is 9 months ago...
Self hosting the fonts isn't that hard actually. If the matter is that important to you, I think in 9 months you could have easily implemented that, it's not even 20 minutes of work.

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 31 Aug 2023, 00:03
by mjau-mjau
I don't think anyone is arguing that "now it's safe to use Google fonts" on websites in Germany. It should probably be avoided, no matter the history or opinions on the matter. I am currently working on an X3 update with "Bunny Fonts" option as a simple replacement for Google fonts.
https://fonts.bunny.net/about
https://fonts.bunny.net/faq
AJF wrote:But there are court decisions and some lawyers do it due to existing rights.
I doubt that very much. Where are these "court decisions" (plural) you are referring to apart from the single ruling in Munich that caused this mess in the first place? You mean some lawyers in Germany are checking the source code of all websites they visit, just to check if they are using Google font? How are these lawyers not doing this just to earn money? If they felt offended (and not just interested in money), they would take it to court, but they don't.

But this is not the point. You need to avoid Google fonts in Germany, and this will be possible from a simple switch in next X3 release coming in a few week.
AJF wrote:In normal cases you HAVE to pay.
Got any source for this info? If you pay them, do you get a receipt that you can use in court in case they decide to take it to court even if you pay? Paying someone in private, who sends an email "pay me or else" is not a legal procedure. It's like taking a video of a guy driving his car on the wrong side of the road, and then telling him you will send the video to the police unless he pays you €500.

But same as above, discussing this is pointless.
AJF wrote:Another point is european/german date format DD MM YYYY oder DD month YYYY in blogs, I am waiting for this for 3 years since you have said you will realize this.
Do you have a post reference for this? The challenge here, unless you can use the "timeago" format (which is translated into most languages already), is that you are asking your server/PHP to output the date. This will be in English, unless you assign something like "setlocale(LC_ALL, 'de_DE')" in the PHP (see stackoverflow). It's a bit clumsy.

Of course, there is already an option to assign your own date format, but as long as you want to output NAMES of months, it will by default be English from PHP.
Image

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 04 Sep 2023, 17:06
by AJF
Hi,

thank you for your answers. I am using date format here:

https://www.fotojell.de/blog-andreas-jell/

Of course i am using the 'only possible' (for europe) format. But that '3 years ago' looks always a little 'old'. I don't need immediatly 'written out' months like 'Januar,Februar,März' an so on. I would be happy just with 'DD.MM.YYYY' - this is the most common version in Europe. I will try it with your solution, thank you.

To the problem with google fonts: You may have a competitor who is not liking your face. Then you have a good chance that he will take a lawyer and you will get an expensive letter.
On the other side I have a dentist as a custumer. She showed me a messsage from the dentist association: They had have more than 50 cases with this problem. I didn't changed it manually because I just had no time. And I hoped that there will be a switch soon - because this is the smarter solution for me.

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 04 Sep 2023, 17:11
by AJF
Thank you very much: This works wonderful for me (with d.m.Y).

https://www.fotojell.de/blog-andreas-jell/

Image

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 12 Sep 2023, 06:18
by mjau-mjau
Since X3.32.0, the fix in this topic is no longer required. Google fonts are now replaced by fonts.bunny.net for improved privacy and to avoid issues with GDPR. See bunny.net About and FAQ.

Re: X3 self-hosted Google fonts

Posted: 18 Sep 2023, 03:27
by AJF
Thank you very much! This looks very good so far!

And like every time, updating is so easy and simple. Perfect!

What I would like to have at least, are more blog capabilities. At first tags for showing similar content. And perhaps something like 'most visited' or 'favourites'. Users likes and reads that. X3 could be a perfect base for very stylish blogs.