The Digital Press

Web font loading can delay text rendering and cause layout shifts, impacting user experience metrics like LCP and CLS. Using font-display: optional improves performance by quickly showing fallback fonts and only swapping in custom fonts if cached.

Why it matters: font-display: optional optimizes text render speed and prevents layout shifts, improving Core Web Vitals metrics.

The big picture: Browsers no longer cache fonts across sites, making CDN-hosted fonts slower, so self-hosting or inlining CSS is recommended.

Quick takeaway: A new tool automates matching fallback fonts to custom fonts using size-adjust, reducing layout shifts when fonts swap.

Commenters say: Readers appreciate the practical advice and tools, noting improved performance and deeper understanding of font loading challenges.