Web Development

Fontist helps you download and manage fonts for self-hosted web applications.

Self-Hosting Web Fonts

Download Fonts

# Install fonts for web use
fontist install "roboto"

Convert to Web Formats

Most fonts can be converted to WOFF/WOFF2:

# Using fonttools
pip install fonttools brotli
pyftsubset Roboto-Regular.ttf \
  --output-file=Roboto-Regular.woff2 \
  --flavor=woff2

CSS @font-face

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Roboto';
  src: url('/fonts/Roboto-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
}

License Considerations

Use Case	Permission to Check
Self-hosting	"Web (Hosting)"
WOFF/WOFF2 conversion	"Format Conversion"
Subsetting	"Web (Subsetting)"
CDN delivery	Check redistribution terms

Best Licenses for Web

• OFL 1.1 - Allows all web uses
• Apache 2.0 - Fully permissive
• CC0 - Public domain, no restrictions

Restricted Licenses

• Platform Restricted (Apple-only) - Cannot use on web servers
• Bundled Software - Cannot extract for web use

Subsetting for Performance

# Create Latin-only subset
pyftsubset Roboto-Regular.ttf \
  --output-file=Roboto-Regular-latin.woff2 \
  --flavor=woff2 \
  --subset-latin \
  --layout-features='*'

Google Fonts Alternative

For web use, you can also use Google Fonts CDN:

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

Use Fontist when you need to:

• Self-host for privacy/performance
• Use fonts not on Google Fonts
• Ensure reproducible builds

See Also

• Choosing a Formula
• OFL License