Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs
brianmoore.com128 points by lanewinfield 4 days ago
128 points by lanewinfield 4 days ago
Whoa. How does this work?
One of the major issues we had at my previous company weaning people off of powerpoint (to google docs) was brand fonts. Ours, of course.
A lot of what is considered brand identity in presentations comes from fonts, which makes Google Docs Slides a non-starter for many unfortunately.
(we ended up making them in powerpoint and using the Google Docs compatibility mode with pptx).
From the small info icon that opens up a section.
> Google Workspace lets brands who pay enough embed custom corporate fonts into their docs and slides. Normally, these are locked to just those brands shelling out for custom typefaces, but there's one loophole: the ol' copy/paste. Below are a selection of brand fonts with which you can do exactly that. Enjoy.Oh thanks! I looked but I missed that.
So, I need to be super rich? Thats sad.
No, you need to be at least a medium-sized corporation basically.
Then because your contract with Google is large enough to matter, they'll add your custom corporate branded fonts to your font dropdowns.
Why did we go from owning the software we run and being able to just modify things as we see fit to "You have to give Google a lot of money so you can have your own font in your own presentation"?
Where did things go this wrong?
I'm going to go the unpopular route and ask, how mission-critical are fonts, really? Protected fonts such as these can't be mission-critical, legally, right?
Never felt myself lacking for fonts in Docs, myself. Quite the opposite, Google Fonts has way more than I'd ever have preinstalled and is now my primary avenue for typeface discovery.
Depends on what you do.
Are you building a slide deck on your systems architecture? Probably doesn't matter.
Are you building a marketing deck on your new corporate identity? Probably matters a lot.
Either way, the tool I'm using shouldn't be the one deciding what matters and what doesn't. Just let me use my font as I please!
I could see some kafkaesque organization writing-up or firing someone for using the wrong font on a PowerPoint presentation.
Such companies should be mocked and shamed, not held up as examples to follow.
It doesn't matter on the corporate identity either.
It may not matter to you, but in this circumstance, your opinion doesn’t matter.
It only matters to the designers. The users don't care which sans-serif font the designers picked, they all look the same.