Monitoring

    Font Loading Analysis

    Analyse how fonts are loaded on your site and identify performance issues.

    Updated 2026-03-17
    2 min read
    fonts
    font-display
    preload

    Font Loading Analysis#

    Custom fonts can significantly impact page load performance. LemWatch analyses your font loading strategy and flags issues.

    What Gets Checked#

  1. Total fonts loaded — Count of custom font files
  2. Font sources — Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, or self-hosted
  3. font-display usage — Whether fonts use font-display: swap to prevent invisible text
  4. Preloaded fonts — Whether critical fonts use <link rel="preload">
  5. Estimated weight — Total download size of all font files in KB
  6. Common Issues#

    IssueImpactFix
    Missing font-display: swapInvisible text during load (FOIT)Add swap to @font-face
    Too many font filesSlow page loadReduce to 2–3 font files
    No preloadingFonts load late, causing layout shiftPreload critical fonts
    Large font filesIncreased page weightUse WOFF2 format, subset fonts

    Performance Score#

    Each font check gets a performance score (0–100):

  7. 90–100 — Excellent font loading strategy
  8. 70–89 — Minor improvements possible
  9. Below 70 — Font loading is hurting performance
  10. Best Practices#

  11. Use WOFF2 — Smallest format, supported by all modern browsers
  12. Limit font families — 2 families maximum (heading + body)
  13. Subset fonts — Only include characters you actually use
  14. Preload critical fonts — Add <link rel="preload" as="font">
  15. Always use font-display: swap — Show fallback text immediately
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