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Self-host your fonts for better performance

wicki.io

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Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#11

Post by dm319 »

test1235 wrote: post #5

I'm usually the first one to sneer in disbelief at super users who 'go nuclear' and disable the likes of javascript and images when browsing the web, but lately, I've been experimenting with having custom fonts disabled (that is, fonts I don't have locally), and it feels to me that page loads are much faster, and in some case more readable (pages feel 'cleaner'?). The only issues I've come across so far is when a sit…

Have you tried something like uMatrix? If you use it in the denylisting mode, it doesn't seem to impact much on my web browsing experience. By default it is in allowlist mode, which means it's speedy to open pages, but you run into trouble quite quickly. I really can't stand browsing the web without it.

Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#13

Post by mjevans »

GordonS wrote: post #6
gostsamo wrote: post #4

A question: instead of redownloading the same resources again and again, can we achieve privacy by adding delay between requesting a resource and providing it? It could be the same amount of time it took downloading it the first time or some randomized value. It won't speed up pages, but at least will save from bandwidth and data caps.

I've read your comment 3 times, and I'm still not exactly sure what you are suggesting, or what the purported benefit is? (it's probably my poor interpretation, but I'd appreciate if you wouldn't mind expanding :)

This is based on trying to prevent profiling based on which fonts or versions of things are precached by behaving as if they are not cached, when in reality serving a local file with a simulated delay.

Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#14

Post by Diti »

DavideNL wrote: post #2

LocalCDN (Firefox Extension) solves the performance issue on the client side, i assume: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/localcdn-fork... https://codeberg.org/nobody/LocalCDN/src/branch/main/resourc... (and adds extra privacy as a bonus.)

There is this tried-and-true extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/decentraleyes...

LocalCDN seems to be a fork of it, why should we be using it when it has so few users?

Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#17

Post by mjevans »

Diti wrote: post #14
DavideNL wrote: post #2

LocalCDN (Firefox Extension) solves the performance issue on the client side, i assume: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/localcdn-fork... https://codeberg.org/nobody/LocalCDN/src/branch/main/resourc... (and adds extra privacy as a bonus.)

There is this tried-and-true extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/decentraleyes... LocalCDN seems to be a fork of it, why should we be using it when it has so few users?

Decentraleyes is also Recommended by Mozilla, while the other is not.

Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#19

Post by gostsamo »

GordonS wrote: post #6
gostsamo wrote: post #4

A question: instead of redownloading the same resources again and again, can we achieve privacy by adding delay between requesting a resource and providing it? It could be the same amount of time it took downloading it the first time or some randomized value. It won't speed up pages, but at least will save from bandwidth and data caps.

I've read your comment 3 times, and I'm still not exactly sure what you are suggesting, or what the purported benefit is? (it's probably my poor interpretation, but I'd appreciate if you wouldn't mind expanding :)

Site A can't see the cached resources of site B, because it would show that the user has visited site B if the resource is provided too fast. However, if the resource is provided with some delay, then site A assumes that site B hasn't been visited.

The current solution is to download the same thing twice. It is wasteful and I offer downloading it only once, but if site A asks for a resource for site B, the resource should not be returned immediately, but after a few ms so that site A gets the wrong conclusion.

It should work if site A can observe only the result of the request but can't check if a request happened or not.

Re: Self-host your fonts for better performance

#20

Post by frereubu »

test1235 wrote: post #5

I'm usually the first one to sneer in disbelief at super users who 'go nuclear' and disable the likes of javascript and images when browsing the web, but lately, I've been experimenting with having custom fonts disabled (that is, fonts I don't have locally), and it feels to me that page loads are much faster, and in some case more readable (pages feel 'cleaner'?). The only issues I've come across so far is when a sit…

The "cleaner" feel may well be to do with better font rendering for desktop fonts, because you'll be using something like TTF rather than WOFF. Web font files have to trade off file size for quality, which desktop fonts don't have to do.
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