Speed counts, and nobody knows that better than Google. The latest tweak to provide better performance comes in the form of adopting a new compression type that promises to yield files about 15% smaller than using Gzip to compress fonts. If you’re already using Google’s Web Fonts, what do you need to do to get the improvements? Nothing!
According to Raph Levien, an engineer on the Google Web Fonts team, the new implementation uses Monotype Imaging’s MicroType Express compression format. Levien says that Google will automatically update the CSS used so that visitors get the fonts with the new compression scheme automatically.
It’s also worth noting that Monotype Imaging has provided a patent grant for MicroType Express, so that it could be used in open source or proprietary software. Google’s also putting MicroType Express compression into sfntly project as well. This way, anybody using sfntly can make use of the new compression scheme, not just folks using Google’s Web Fonts.
If you haven’t checked out Google Web Fonts yet, now might be a good time to do so. I’d start with News Cycle, a really nice, clean font designed by my friend Nathan Willis.
