> With that in mind, has there been similar thought about web
> fonts that are downloaded from the web?

I had some thoughts and I cannot find my notes about it.  Other
font-related writings (like the FSF recommending GPL-incompatible
licenses for them, or the issue of font sources) don't suggest them
being considered an important issue for free software hackers.

> I know they aren't pure code
> like JavaScript, but there are a lot of fonts that get downloaded in
> the background when a page loads that aren't under a free software
> compatible license and get executed in the browser.

They are works for practical purposes, there are good reasons to be able
to use/modify them (e.g. l10n, modifying documents: important with free
documentation or free software).  TrueType fonts have real programs for
hinting, also any outline fonts are considered programs for legal
reasons, I don't consider this as important as what they are useful for.

I often disable downloadable fonts for technical reasons: many have
"bad" hinting (i.e. not like the Deja Vu fonts that I like) and usually
browsers display white or differently formated text before downloading
the font (this should be solved by caching, isn't).

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