Solutions for WP blog slow due to Google Fonts issue

Weeks ago, I upgraded my blog to WordPress 3.8. After that, I found that if I dont use GoAgent to break the GFW, it took me about 1 minute to show the home page.

After did some more check, I confirmed that its all because WordPress 3.8, and its latest version v3.8.1 are using Google Fonts, and its host (http://fonts.googleapis.com) is blocked by GFW. People inside the GFW are sucked by it.

The fact that WP is using Google Fonts in its default themes bugs me and guys inside GFW a lot.

Here are my solutions for this issue.

1. Install WordPress plugin

Login to your WordPress dashboard, and try search a plugin with keywords: “Disable Google Fonts”.

This plugin will help you to disabled the Google Fonts. However this plugin does not work on my theme: Twenty fourteen.

2. Modify source code manually

Locate & open “Theme Functions” source file: (functions.php), and add codes listed below to it:

a. Remove Google Fonts – Open Sans from WordPress Twenty Twelve theme

Copy and paste this code below into your functions.php.

//dispable google fonts open sans
function mytheme_dequeue_fonts(){
wp_dequeue_style( 'twentytwelve-fonts' );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mytheme_dequeue_fonts', 11 );

b. Remove Google Fonts – Source Sans Pro from WordPress Twenty Thirteen theme

Copy and paste this code below into your functions.php.

 //dispable google fonts Source Sans Pro
function mytheme_dequeue_fonts(){
wp_dequeue_style( 'twentythirteen-fonts' );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mytheme_dequeue_fonts', 11 );

c. Remove Google Fonts – Source Sans Pro from WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme

Simply comment out or delete the code in function twentyfourteen_font_url like below.

 function twentyfourteen_font_url() {
$font_url = '';
/*
* marked by jacky to disable Google Fonts and speed up your blog
if ( 'off' !== _x( 'on', 'Lato font: on or off', 'twentyfourteen' ) ) {
$font_url = add_query_arg( 'family', urlencode( 'Lato:300,400,700,900,300italic,400italic,700italic' ), "//fonts.googleapis.com/css" );
}
*/

return $font_url;
}

This works for me. Hope it works for you too, if not, leave me a word.

July 20, 2014 update:

This code will work for most of the themes, and all you need to do is add the follow code to the bottom of functions.php for your theme.

add_filter( 'gettext_with_context', 'wpdx_disable_open_sans', 888, 4 );
function wpdx_disable_open_sans( $translations, $text, $context, $domain ) {
  if ( 'Open Sans font: on or off' == $context && 'on' == $text ) {
    $translations = 'off';
  }
  return $translations;
}