I know this is perhaps an open-ended question, but I'm hoping some @font-face expert could give me some insight into a best-practice.
At this point in time, is it acceptable to use an @font-face embedded font for body text? I'm arguing with a designer and thinking no, because a FOUT could result in a big change in the layout of the content if a font takes a moment or two to download.
The question is - should I be concerned about the possibility of fonts taking a few moments to download and potentially causing a big shift in the rendering of the body?
Quite late, but here's my opinion: Your main concern with using font-face for body is not the loading time, but the rendering. There are only a (very) limited number of fonts that render well in all browsers and ios. Now, as long as the text is readable (small sans serif with good space between lines) and renders well, there is no real difference from a performance point of view (the font will only be downloaded once, and you can load it before you load your content to avoid any shifting).