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CSS

Posted by Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points

What is faster? import Google Fonts or have the fonts with @font-face in my site?.

Hello there, one quick question, what is faster? import Google Fonts or have the fonts with @font-face in my site?.

4 Answers

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

Hey Rai,

Using Google's Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve your font files will invariably be faster than serving each font file from your individual server. Using a CDN enables two main superpowers, in terms of speed:

  1. You'll have an additional domain at your service. Most browsers restrict the number of concurrent connections you can have from a single domain (the max is usually 4 connections, I think). Using a CDN will allow you to have another ≈4 connections that serve files (in this case font files) simultaneously.

  2. You'll be able to take advantage of the network part of Content Delivery Network. Odds are that whomever is accessing your website will be closer to one of the servers in Google's CDN than they will be to your individual server. As a result, reduced distances will equal greater performance, in terms of speed.

Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points

Thanks Mikis!, Precious information about the 4 connections. What about Typekit, they have a CDN or I need to download an refer to it with @font-face?.

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

No problem.

And Typekit does have their own CDN.

Oliver Sewell
Oliver Sewell
16,425 Points
Oliver Sewell
Oliver Sewell
16,425 Points

import google fonts i think -less effort - not sure though

Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points
Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points

You mean is less effort for us (which it is) or for the load of the webpage?.

Oliver Sewell
Oliver Sewell
16,425 Points
Oliver Sewell
Oliver Sewell
16,425 Points

less effort for us haha im not sure about the webpage i think it depends on the font you pick

Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points
Rai Uriarte
Rai Uriarte
5,050 Points

That is what I want to know, I don´t butter to make a special effort if I find a better font out of Google Fonts.

Thanks Oliver.