[CMSP-695] WordPress 6.5 font library documentation and behavior

[jazzsequence]

Summary

Release Notes - Release notes for WordPress 6.5 including documentation about the Font Library
WordPress Configuration Guide - Adds a new guide for using the WP Font Library, how our filter works and how to override it, and considerations about either approach.

Effect

The WordPress Font Library introduces a new type of asset to WordPress sites, fonts. This opens up fundamental questions about how best to make use of these assets. As an opinionated platform, our belief is that, on day one, the font library should just work. As such, we have introduced code in our pantheon-mu-plugin to change the default behavior of the WP Font Library such that the default location for fonts to be stored is a (writeable on Pantheon) wp-content/uploads/fonts/ directory. This diverges from the WP core functionality of storing them in wp-content/fonts.

In a version controlled platform, the underlying question to consider here is: Are fonts more like media files (e.g. "I don't care where they are written and I should be able to add them to my live site directly.") or are they more like plugins and themes (e.g. "I want to manage the fonts in use on my site and commit them to version control.")?

We have opted for the former (fonts are like media files) whilst allowing teams to restore the default functionality by overriding our choice.

This PR documents the change in WordPress core and our approach.

Remaining Work and Prerequisites

• Update docs with functional links to release notes.
• Update docs with functional links to Font Library docs.

Dependencies and Timing

• Request for comments

Release:

• When ready
• After date: March 26, 2024 (WordPress 6.5 anticipated release date)

---

Post Launch

Do not remove - To be completed by the docs team upon merge:

• Redirect /old-path/ => /new-path/ (if applicable)
• Include/exclude pages ^ respectively within docs search service provider (if applicable)
• For Heroes - add a props post to the discussion board.
• Remove from the project board

[stevector]

Thanks @jazzsequence for thinking through these changes. I'll need to set aside some thinking time too!

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[pwtyler]

Using the default Pantheon filter, do fonts move between environments with a "clone files" workflow as expected?

[jazzsequence]

There are a few things I need to test. That's one. I also have a couple open questions that I posted in #core-editor Slack: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7/p1707937998405009

[pwtyler]

I smashed that subscribe button for more jazzsequence gutenberg goodness.

[jazzsequence]

Here's what I'm seeing:

1. Install font on live site
2. Pull Live db down to Dev and sync files
3. The font appears in the font manager but is not active
4. Clicking into the font, selecting it and clicking update activates it

So, to answer your question, it does appear that they are pulled down when you clone the DB and files (I suspect you would need to clone the DB and files in order to get them), but there is an additional step to actually use them on the lower environment you pulled down to. I will update the doc.

[jazzsequence]

And, to be clear, I think the "active" value is similar to Plugin/Theme "activation", meaning it's there it's just not "available". It's similar, I believe, to the fact that when I cloned down my DB and files from Live to Dev, my FSE theme was active, but the specific theme style that I was using on Live was not selected on Dev.

[pwtyler]

it's curious that activation status doesn't carry through db clone the way plugin activation status would.

[jazzsequence]

Yeah, I'm not sure what this tells me exactly, because surely these settings are stored in the database somewhere, but whatever the full site editor is doing with styles, it's doing the same thing with fonts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[jkudish]

Giving this a +1 - I think the approach makes sense. Treat it like WP does (generic upload) by default but with the option to switch to version controlled approach if desired.

[bensheldon]

Are fonts more like media files ... or are they more like plugins and themes...

I'll offer that I think of a font as the latter, because I'm not sure how one would make use of an uploaded font without also modifying the theme file (other than making the change with inline styles but in that case one could also reference a font asset inline as a generic upload as well).

[jazzsequence]

@bensheldon

I'm not sure how one would make use of an uploaded font without also modifying the theme file (other than making the change with inline styles but in that case one could also reference a font asset inline as a generic upload as well).

If it helps to contextualize the feature, the Font Library is built into the Full Site Editor -- meaning that fonts and styles, while informed by the theme, are independent of the theme. The idea is that you could download (or build) a theme that's compatible with FSE and that theme might give you 4 fonts to work with. But you don't like those fonts for whatever reason, and you want to use one that you've either previously uploaded or are uploading (or installing from Google) new. That font could then be activated next year when you switch to the Twenty Twenty Five theme (or whatever).

Themes can use the Font Library to install/download their own fonts via the API it adds as well, but the Font Library/management aspect of it is kind of independent of the theme.

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[jazzsequence]

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[jazzsequence]

Last update before I think we're good to go with this:

I've updated the PR to remove the release note. I'll be writing up a release note separately for WordPress 6.5 so I will include the Font Library stuff in that.

Some of the logic has changed (again) since this was first drafted: now default WordPress core behavior is if the wp-content directory is writeable, fonts are installed in wp-content/fonts otherwise, fonts are installed in wp-content/uploads/fonts. This means it always works, but it creates a discrepancy between local development environments and Pantheon environments if left to the default behavior. I've updated the docs to reflect this, explain the problem, and reshaped some of the language about overriding.

Finally, the infinite loop bug when using wp_get_upload_dir inside the font_dir filter was resolved, so I removed the note. This should be g2g once I get a ✅.

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[pwtyler]

LGTM, prefer to move the unrelated release note out though.

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