So at face value, this makes sense -- if IE disables "font download," it shouldn't download, fine, I accept that.
HOWEVER -- what about using base64 fonts? These are embedded directly in CSS / do not reference a physical file, therefore no font should need to be downloaded, right?
At first I thought that maybe IE11 didn't like/support base64, but I can verify that it does work there when I use only a base64 font option.
I wasn't able to find any specs on this, or much info on the breadth of what "font download: disable" really means. I did see some similar posts but with no answers, and not asking the same question.
Anyone have a better explanation for this?
Per a memo on the base64 spec:
Security
Interpretation of the data within a "data" URL has the same security considerations as any implementation of the given media type. An application should not interpret the contents of a data URL which is marked with a media type that has been disallowed for processing by the application's configuration.
Sources: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2397.txt http://sosweetcreative.com/2613/font-face-and-base64-data-uri