Re:Stack Overflow switches to system fonts on May 10, 2021
by city41 on Thursday May 06, 2021 @02:25PM
(#27067290)
I agree with you at least in theory. But the issue with web fonts is it's difficult to use them in a way that doesn't harm performance and also doesn't cause flashes of unstyled content. Every time I visit wired.com I find the font transition jarring and unsatisfying, honestly I think they'd be better off with system fonts.
Print media just doesn't have any downsides to custom fonts so there's no reason to not use them.
I also believe performance should trump other design aspects of a website. This means including using the default Operating System (OS) font stack over a custom font if it means faster page loads.
However, I also recognise that a carefully chosen custom font plays a big part in the aesthetics of a website. It can set the tone of the website as well as giving it a distinctive look that sets it apart from other websites. Can you imagine books, posters, magazines, films etc all set in a limited palette of available fonts? The variety of typefaces available is infinite and the printed word is immeasurably richer for it.
There are ways of limiting the download size of fonts. For example, limiting typeface weights (e.g. 3 weights only: regular, bold, italic) can amount to approx 60kb of downloads in total (20kb per font x 3 using the WOFF2 font format). That might still be too much for many developers, but I suspect that images will be larger (and possibly JavaScript too).