Optimising Web Fonts
Web fonts shape your brand's personality, but they can also add significant weight and delay if left unmanaged. A typical site loads several weights and styles, each one a separate file the browser must fetch.
Optimising fonts means keeping your brand look while removing the unnecessary download cost.
Keeping Your Brand
Optimising fonts is not about dropping the typefaces that define your brand. It is about loading them sensibly so visitors get readable text immediately and a smooth, almost unnoticed switch to your chosen font, with fewer and lighter files behind the scenes.
What You Gain
Optimising fonts keeps the brand typography you chose while removing the slowdown that careless loading causes. Visitors get readable text immediately and a smooth switch to your real font.
- Faster first paint of meaningful text.
- No jarring jump as the brand font loads.
- Lower total download from fewer font files.
- Your brand look is fully preserved.
A Sensible Font Strategy
Good typography rarely needs many fonts. A disciplined approach keeps your brand looking sharp while avoiding the slow, heavy loading that comes from collecting too many weights and styles.
- Settle on a small, deliberate set of weights and styles.
- Subset each font to the characters you actually use.
- Self-host so there is no extra external connection.
- Preload the one or two fonts the first screen needs.
Common Font Mistakes
- Loading many weights and styles that are never actually used.
- Including the full character set when only Latin letters are needed.
- Relying on a slow external font service.
How We Optimise
- Load only the weights and styles the design genuinely uses.
- Subset fonts to include just the characters you need.
- Self-host fonts to remove an extra external connection.
- Use a swap strategy so text shows immediately in a fallback.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we keep our brand font?
Almost always. Optimisation is about loading your chosen font efficiently, not replacing it.
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.