With its Google Fonts, Google offers a variety of fonts that can be used freely and easily on websites and in applications. Integrating these Google Fonts into Odoo allows users to use fonts that can enhance the look and feel of their Odoo website and strengthen their brand presence.
Attractive offer with a downside
In the recent past, however, the use of this very font offer on freely accessible websites has also led to a wave of warnings in Austria and Germany, as the use can constitute a data protection violation (see more about this here). In certain cases, CMS systems - including Odoo - load fonts dynamically via Google Fonts, which could lead to a data exchange with Google.
In this blog article, we discuss the use of Google Fonts in Odoo and explain which changes can be made so that fonts are only loaded locally and are therefore DSGVO-compliant.
The local integration of Google Fonts is a legal necessity and - at least in Austria - definitely recommendable. Nevertheless, we would also like to point out the disadvantages that this change brings with it:
- Updates of the fonts used are no longer loaded automatically
- The most optimal file format for the respective client is no longer loaded (woff, woff2, eot, ttf, svg, ...)
- Lower performance, as the Google servers are designed for the provision of fonts and are optimised accordingly
- Higher workload on own server
Google Fonts x up to Odoo v15
Up to and including Odoo v15, a change in behaviour on the part of Odoo was only possible via changes in the code or via the installation of a third-party module. The use of the following third-party module has proven successful for us: to the third-party module
The module mentioned above loads the font onto the server before it is passed on to the client - this means that the end user's client never makes direct contact with the Google servers, which means that no data is passed on to third-party providers.
Google Fonts x from Odoo v16
The above module is now also available for Odoo v16, so this remains a solution. Alternatively, the use of Google fonts can also be configured via the Odoo standard. To do this, proceed as follows:
- Open the website editor of your Odoo website and click on the "Theme" tab in the right-hand area of the editor:
- Click on the drop-down menu item "Font" and select "Add a Google Font":
- Choose the desired font under fonts.google.com welche importiert werden soll, und fügen Sie diese mittels Link ein. Deaktivieren Sie die Auswahl "Schriftart von Google-Server verwenden":
- Odoo subsequently loads the Google Font onto the server and uses it locally from now on instead of loading the font via Google. To avoid caching problems, it is recommended to restart the Odoo server after this change.
Please bear in mind that installing a new theme can also reset the fonts. Furthermore, it can happen that themes have been developed in such a way that a user-defined selection of the font via the user interface is not possible at all and is always loaded by Google.
You can be on the safe side if you use a check tool (e.g. with this one here) to exclude that Google Fonts are loaded.
Conclusio
In conclusion, it can be said that a local integration of Google Fonts is legally recommended, especially in Austria. Despite the implementation of the points described above, however, it makes sense to check the website using a tool to ensure that no more Google Fonts are actually loaded and that data protection is respected.
This article is intended as a guide to implementation - in general, we recommend having all website configurations, including loaded cookies and fonts, checked by an expert to ensure that your website is data protection compliant.
Additional resources
- Link to WKO about the wave of warnings on Google Fonts
- Link to Github-Issue by Odoo regarding the topic
- Link to a Google font testing tool
