Font download has been a security option in IE since verison 4...

Fonts are implemented in web design, generally, if not always with CSS. Because CSS is client-side, all modern browsers are equipped to display the font you prefer (to an extent).

To automate the process you could use greasemonkey or chickenfoot, but you may have to write your own script. If you don't want to bother... You could do it manually with some sort of dev tool like firebug etc...

If you use chrome you could install this extension... https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aabledekpjmoghdjnpnhfkfpmjif...

I'm sure there is something similar for firefox.

Yeah, I'm using chrome and just installed Stylebot, hopefully I can get it to work on the pages I'd like to read :^D

Yeah, you should be able to. I'm not sure whether you can specify just any old font you want and ignore the generic font families though.

In Firefox: Preferences > Content > Fonts & Colors — Advanced . . .

Disable the “Allow pages to choose their own fonts” option.

 
Note: “Other Languages” controls Typophile, for some bizarre reason (as discussed on another thread a while back); but for most pages, one would probably just need to set Western.

Paul>I'm using chrome and just installed Stylebot,

Good luck. Chrome has no user prefs for fonts without monkeying around. Safari requires a style sheet. IE and FF are simple and straight forward in the prefs, and what Kent said.

Once you've made your own choices, it's hard to go back to other people's. ;)

I expect browsers will start adding a preference toggle specifically for downloadable fonts (as distinct from the toggles for remote CSS spec'd local fonts), in the same way as they have a toggle for e.g. Java. This will likely show up in the security options panel.

For Chrome, Stylebot does exactly what I would like it to in terms of fonts. Now if only I could use it to make the Typophile forum divs a bit wider to give for a bit longer measure (or a shorter one on Wikipedia).

Use greasemonkey

will check it out.

What really annoys me is how so many web pages specify fonts unnecessarily. Lots of simple web-creation apps just automatically insert generic font stacks (usually beginning with Arial). CSS offers nice options for people to style their content, but I sure wish there were more authors and authoring tools that would just leave the choice to the user. I really like the primitive notion of the web providing pure information and leaving it to the user to select the environment that works best for them.

>I really like the primitive notion of the web providing pure information and leaving it to the user to select the environment that works best for them.

And maybe if the environment were a tad more adjustable maybe this would not be such an issue. But if a lot of people turn off custom fonts, like they do pop-ups, then a lot of publishers are compelled towards graphics, or go-ikea, where their type id is important. It's a viscous circle without the right stuff to go with @ff.

Well ideally the designers of a site choose the font for a reason...right? Things like a typeface are integral to overall theme, feel, message, and layout of a website. Fonts are supposed to be specified for a reason, and any other font shouldn't be able to do the job quite as well, or the same. Companies are interested in a cohesive image... Further more, I would imagine always specifying fonts cold lead to various, unexpected problems with formatting, etc...

>Well ideally the designers of a site choose the font for a reason...right?

Designers vs readers! The age old battle.

Further more, I would imagine always specifying fonts cold lead to various, unexpected problems with formatting, etc...

A web design that can't handle falling back to basic fonts is incompetently coded to begin with!

ideally the designers of a site choose the font for a reason

unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world. and although i do believe in the power of fonts, i'm not sure i agree with: 'any other font shouldn't be able to do the job quite as well, or the same'.

Things like a typeface are integral to overall theme, feel, message, and layout of a website.

Sometimes. Maybe a lot less often than you're implying. Think of all the web pages out there... honestly, a small percentage of them (I think) need that level of design -- and that's assuming there's a typographically sensitive designer making it better, not worse.

Here is the next mental obstacle:

ETF>A web design that can't handle falling back to basic fonts is incompetently coded to begin with!

So, competent web site design should not use custom web fonts narrower than times, or wider than verdana. Should competent print design follow suite to remain compatible with web sites?

Sii>Designers vs readers! The age old battle.

A myth is born with an "age old" pedigree to fit the real occasion of incompetence everywhere but amongst readers and designers. Well done mr referee.

>>i'm not sure i agree with: 'any other font shouldn't be able to do the job quite as well, or the same'.<<

Yup, I don't agree either.

Chris