IE 11: error CSS3111 in my own code, and google.com/fonts doesn't render any fonts
css, fonts, internet-explorer
Solution
For me, this issue was caused by a Windows 10 feature called Untrusted Font Blocking. My office network had this turned on in our group policy settings.
Using this feature, you can turn on a global setting that stops users from loading untrusted fonts that are processed by the Graphics Device Interface (GDI). Untrusted fonts are any fonts that are installed outside the %windir%/Fonts directory. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3053676
To disable Untrusted Font Blocking using Group Policy:
- Open Group Policy Management Editor
- Under Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, and then click Mitigation Options.
- In the Untrusted Font Blocking setting select Do not block untrusted fonts
To disable Untrusted Font Blocking using Registry Editor:
- Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and go to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Kernel\
- If the MitigationOptions key is not there, right-click and add a new QWORD (64-bit) Value, naming it as MitigationOptions.
- To turn this feature off. Type 2000000000000.
IMPORTANT: A computer restart is required for the changes to take effect
Problem
I am developing a website that uses the Google font `Open Sans` like so: ``` <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,300,300italic,400italic,600,600italic,700italic,800italic,800,700' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> ``` Normally, I use Chrome when working with my website, but today I decided to see how it looks in IE 11 (11.0.10240.16431) on Windows 10. Unfortunately, `Open Sans` isn't being loaded and rendered properly. I see lots of these errors in the Developer Tools console: ``` CSS3111: @font-face encountered unknown error. PRmiXeptR36kaC0GEAetxjqR_3kx9_hJXbbyU8S6IN0.woff ``` Thinking that was strange--I had previously developed a site that loaded Google Fonts just fine in IE 10--I headed on over to https://www.google.com/fonts. More `CSS3111` errors, with every custom font being displayed in `serif` instead: Is Google Fonts simply broken for IE 11? The fonts do load correctly in Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc. I am at a loss for how to proceed to get these fonts to work in IE. UPDATE 1 Setting the emulated document mode to 8 in IE 11 causes the fonts to render correctly. IE 9+ still exhibited the same issues, however. Is this some kind of incorrect user agent string processing by Google, perhaps? UPDATE 2 I went to FontSquirrel and downloaded Open Sans in all its formats. I also imported the CSS provided in the ZIP. Unfortunately, IE and now Firefox continue to report that the font can't be used. Firefox says `downloadable font: not usable by platform`. UPDATE 3 I've confirmed that IE's Font download setting is set to Enabled for all security zones.