You can also point to font files with @font-face. I use a small custom font that's only 16 KB. Although, when opening the file locally, you have to first disable local file restrictions in safari's settings before it works...
<defs>
<style type="text/css">
@font-face {
font-family: 'A-font';
src: url('A-font.woff') format('woff');
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal; }
</style>
</defs>I don't think that helps with embedding fonts.
So if you save the SVG image, it won't display without Internet connection. Not great.