5 ms·

If you have a worldwide CDN yourself, or you only care about local users, or your fonts are small (Latin subset), yes. If you're using CJK fonts and you don't

If you have a worldwide CDN yourself, or you only care about local users, or your fonts are small (Latin subset), yes. If you're using CJK fonts and you don't already have a CDN for your stuff, no. Google Fonts' CDN is going to beat your own server from any other continent.

nsomaru 7y ago
But if you’re already loading your entire site from your server, what difference does it make if the fonts come from there too?
- maple3142 7y ago
  Maybe the site owner has a CDN(CloudFront, CloudFlare, ...) in front of their whole website.
  - gen3 7y ago
    Wouldn't that cache font files along with the rest of the website?
- robjan 7y ago
  [deleted]
  - jeff18 7y ago
    Shared cache is going away: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21429621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21429621
- marcan_42 7y ago
  CJK fonts can be megabytes. The rest of an otherwise lean site can be a few hundred kilobytes or less. E.g. my site's About page is tiny, but pulls in a CJK font (with delayed load) for one line of text. It would make no sense to self-host that: https://marcan.st/about/ https://marcan.st/about/
  - detaro 7y ago
    A self-hosted font containing just those few characters would be tiny, and nicer to your visitors than forcing a mostly useless megabyte download on them. Makes a lot of sense.
  - dylan604 7y ago
    does it really make sense to load a large font for a single line of text on the page regardless if it is self-hosted or not? that must be one important line of text.
    - e12e 7y ago
      If you use a custom/download able font at all, it would make sense to use one copy (URL) - so every visitor only has to download it once - then use it from cache. This probably also the best reason to use a central CDN over your own - likely some other site already warmed up the client cache for you, with popular fonts (the ultimate in pre-warmed font cache, is of course the fonts the browser/os already have installed - unfortunately the lowest common denominator is a problem here, between Android, ios, os x, windows, Linux). I'm not sure if Google font service actually does facilitate cross-site caching though - there might be tailored URLs or account?
      - XelNika 7y ago
        The article already addresses that. Cross-site caching is blocked in Safari and will be blocked in Chrome in the future.
  - tjoff 7y ago
    Jesus, why bother we a lean site with that mindset. If it truly is a must make it a small (self-hosted) png.
    - e12e 7y ago
      Eh, then it's no longer text? Fwiw I don't really think a one-time large font download is much of a problem - considering that improved typography is a very good way to improve how a site looks. And unlike your png - the text will display without the custom font. Fall-back fonts are only really a problem with icon font sets.
alwillis 7y ago
An alternative is jsdelivr, a CDN for hosting open source libraries and fonts: https://www.jsdelivr.com https://www.jsdelivr.com For example, here’s Lato: https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/lato-font https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/lato-font
fiblye 7y ago
If you're using the C in CJK, then there's a good chance absolutely anything will beat Google Fonts since approximately 99% of your users have Google permanently blocked.

nsomaru 7y ago

But if you’re already loading your entire site from your server, what difference does it make if the fonts come from there too?

maple3142 7y ago
Maybe the site owner has a CDN(CloudFront, CloudFlare, ...) in front of their whole website.
- gen3 7y ago
  Wouldn't that cache font files along with the rest of the website?
robjan 7y ago
[deleted]
- jeff18 7y ago
  Shared cache is going away: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21429621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21429621
marcan_42 7y ago
CJK fonts can be megabytes. The rest of an otherwise lean site can be a few hundred kilobytes or less. E.g. my site's About page is tiny, but pulls in a CJK font (with delayed load) for one line of text. It would make no sense to self-host that: https://marcan.st/about/ https://marcan.st/about/
- detaro 7y ago
  A self-hosted font containing just those few characters would be tiny, and nicer to your visitors than forcing a mostly useless megabyte download on them. Makes a lot of sense.
- dylan604 7y ago
  does it really make sense to load a large font for a single line of text on the page regardless if it is self-hosted or not? that must be one important line of text.
  - e12e 7y ago
    If you use a custom/download able font at all, it would make sense to use one copy (URL) - so every visitor only has to download it once - then use it from cache. This probably also the best reason to use a central CDN over your own - likely some other site already warmed up the client cache for you, with popular fonts (the ultimate in pre-warmed font cache, is of course the fonts the browser/os already have installed - unfortunately the lowest common denominator is a problem here, between Android, ios, os x, windows, Linux). I'm not sure if Google font service actually does facilitate cross-site caching though - there might be tailored URLs or account?
    - XelNika 7y ago
      The article already addresses that. Cross-site caching is blocked in Safari and will be blocked in Chrome in the future.
- tjoff 7y ago
  Jesus, why bother we a lean site with that mindset. If it truly is a must make it a small (self-hosted) png.
  - e12e 7y ago
    Eh, then it's no longer text? Fwiw I don't really think a one-time large font download is much of a problem - considering that improved typography is a very good way to improve how a site looks. And unlike your png - the text will display without the custom font. Fall-back fonts are only really a problem with icon font sets.

alwillis 7y ago

An alternative is jsdelivr, a CDN for hosting open source libraries and fonts: https://www.jsdelivr.com https://www.jsdelivr.com For example, here’s Lato: https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/lato-font https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/lato-font

fiblye 7y ago

If you're using the C in CJK, then there's a good chance absolutely anything will beat Google Fonts since approximately 99% of your users have Google permanently blocked.