Why Should Web Developers Focus on WOFF2 and WOFF for Font Delivery?

Understanding Font Files for Modern Browsers and Mobile Devices

In the realm of web development, it's crucial to optimize font delivery for various browsers and platforms. To support modern browsers and devices effectively, it's essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the necessary font file formats.

Addressing Font File Needs

For most situations, the preferred font files are WOFF2 and WOFF. WOFF2 is the preferred choice due to its compact size, ensuring faster loading times. It offers backward compatibility with WOFF for browsers that don't support WOFF2.

Eliminating Unnecessary File Formats

• EOT (Embedded OpenType): Deprecated and no longer supported by Microsoft's browsers.
• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics): Abandoned format due to excessive size and lack of essential typography features.
• TTF and OTF (TrueType Font and OpenType Font): Designed for universal system use, not optimized for web applications.

Understanding WOFF's Advantages

WOFF (Web Open Font Format) is a byte-for-byte wrapper around OpenType fonts, utilizing optional lossless compression to reduce file size. It indicates that fonts are solely intended for web use, enabling data optimizations.

WOFF2: The Future-Proof Format

While WOFF2 offers improved compression algorithms, check its browser support using CanIUse before integrating it into your projects. Browsers like IE and Safari currently lack WOFF2 support.

Subsetting in WOFF2

Google Fonts provides subsetting in WOFF2, allowing for targeted loading of specific character sets based on locale. However, unless your website caters to highly localized audiences or supports multiple languages, this feature is generally less relevant.

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