Back in 2018, when Google AMP was THE thing, we became interested in a series of performance optimization subjects. Some were very specific to dealing with the numerous AMP limitations, but some others had a projection outside that bubble. Font optimization was one of those, and after a bit, we streamlined that internally through some cute pipelines.
Now after that hype has died-down (it has, hasn’t it?), and with some spare time to play around, we dusted those simple techniques and made an online tool out of them to give some devs a leg-up by making their day a little easier.
Who is Fontzoo for?
We don’t really follow the state of web typography that closely; and since the array of font-hosting options offers nice alternatives, this may be a very niche solution. But if you’re in need to self-host your fonts, and you have a concern for the network performance of your site, then Fontzoo may be able to help you trim up to 90% of your load-time on the microcosm of your fonts.
What does Fontzoo actually do?
Fontzoo...
- Removes all non-rendering-related parameters (Metadata, etc).
- Optimizes glyphs by removing nodes closer to each other than 0.001 points on each unique curve.
- Remaps duplicate glyphs.
- Creates a basic subset, and gives you the option to further customize it.
How much does it cost?
Z E R O .
Now, we’d love to improve on this tool, so what we would really appreciate is for those of you that are actual experts on this subject to be so kind as to drop us a line if you ever have an idea for a useful feature or optimization.
And that’s it, Fontzoo is out there, go check it out, drag-n-drop some fonts and enjoy; we sure had a blast making it.
take me to Fontzoo!
