[ward]

Ok, allow me to rephrase. Fonts shouldn't be used as icons in such a way that the same point gives me a wholly different icon in a different font. A 'y' will look like a 'y' in any reasonable font. Github's settings icon just looks like a broken box in most other fonts () and if it doesn't, then you're still not sure it resembles something that would, in some way, remind you of "settings".

I'm not a fan.

[pestaa]

Actually icon fonts use the extended Unicode points to address icons and leave the usual characters like 'y' empty.

[ward]

I know and because of this something nice looking in one font becomes something completely useless when not using that font. (like the Github character in my previous post) It's exactly what I dislike about the entire practice. I don't want to have to use a certain font to make sure your site doesn't break.

I like the consistency of having the same fonts that I like and find readable in my browser as I have in every other window on my computer. Browsers give me the chance to aim for that consistency by picking one font for all sites, but then some sites look terrible because they rely on some particular font to show non standardized icons.

[coldtea]

>I know and because of this something nice looking in one font becomes something completely useless when not using that font.

You mean in the same way that something that looks nice in one SVG icon becomes something completely useless when using another SVG icon in its place?

You are not meant to switch font-icon fonts arbitrarily, they are part of your page design, as much as a SVG icon is.