Introducing CSS’ new font-display property

Default avatar.
August 23, 2016
Introducing CSS’ new font-display property.

We take web fonts for granted these days. We didn’t always have the option of setting our text in almost any typeface. I mean, we could, but then we’d have to sigh and say, “Well, that’ll look good on about five people’s computers. Hope everyone else likes Verdana!”

Web fonts brought some much needed variety to the seen, a few abuses of typography, some extra page weight as the fonts themselves were loaded, and flashes of unstyled or invisible text. Well… omelette, eggs, breaking, you get the idea. It was bound to happen. [pullquote]If users are stuck looking at a blank page for too long they might just decide to leave[/pullquote] It’s a bit of a usability problem, though, when text is invisible until the custom font gets loaded. If users are stuck looking at a blank page for too long (and too long might be milliseconds) they might just decide to leave. And that’s fair enough. It’s not user-friendly. Fast forward a few years, and we’re making progress on controlling the way fonts load. Until now, we’ve done it with third-party libraries and APIs. But now, at last, this functionality is coming to CSS. Enter the font-display property. It’s currently only in Opera, Opera for Android, and Chrome. (It was first introduced in Chrome 49 as an experimental feature.) It comes with four options: auto, swap, fallback, and optional. Basically, choosing font-display: auto will leave the browser to act as it does now. Text will be invisible until the custom font loads. swap is probably what most people will use. If the font isn’t loaded, the next available font defined in the font-family property will be used. When the web font loads, it will be replaced. This is basically a flash of unstyled content, but that’s more user-friendly than invisible content, I think. fallback splits the difference between those first two options. For a delay of 100 milliseconds, the text will be invisible. If the custom font is loaded by then, it will be used. If not, the next font in the line of succession will rule until the custom font is loaded. [pullquote]optional works like fallback, except the browser may decide not to load the custom font at all, if the user’s connection is too slow[/pullquote] optional works like fallback, except the browser may decide not to load the custom font at all, if the user’s connection is too slow. And there we have it. Mind you, the display-font is meant to be used in a @font-face declaration. That means it won’t work with third-party font providers like Typekit or Google Fonts for now. Once font-display becomes more widespread, however, it’s likely that they’ll implement some sort of option for this feature.

Ezequiel Bruni

Ezequiel Bruni is a web/UX designer, blogger, and aspiring photographer living in Mexico. When he’s not up to his finely-chiselled ears in wire-frames and front-end code, or ranting about the same, he indulges in beer, pizza, fantasy novels, and stand-up comedy.

Read Next

30 Most Exciting New Tools for Designers, 2023

As we near the end of 2023, we wanted to take a look back over all the tools we collected over the past year, to pick…

3 Essential Design Trends, December 2023

While we love the holidays, too much of a seasonal theme can get overwhelming. Thankfully, these design trends strike a…

10 Easy Ways to Make Money as a Web Designer

When you’re a web designer, the logical way to make money is designing websites; you can apply for a job at an agency,…

The 10 Most Hated Fonts of All Time

Remember when Comic Sans wasn’t the butt of the jokes? Long for the days when we actually enjoyed using the Impact…

15 Best New Fonts, November 2023

2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable…

Old School Web Techniques Best Forgotten

When the web first entered the public consciousness back in the 90s, it was primarily text-based with minimal design…

20 Best New Websites, November 2023

As the nights draw in for the Northern hemisphere, what better way to brighten your day than by soaking up some design…

30 Amazing Chrome Extensions for Designers and Developers

Searching for a tool to make cross-platform design a breeze? Desperate for an extension that helps you figure out the…

Exciting New Tools for Designers, November 2023

We’ve got a mix of handy image helpers, useful design assets, and clever productivity tools, amongst other treats. Some…

The Dangers of Doomscrolling for Designers and How to Break Free

As a creative professional, navigating the digital realm is second nature to you. It’s normal to follow an endless…

From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years

Remember when Merriam-Webster added Photoshop to the dictionary back in 2008? Want to learn how AI is changing design…

3 Essential Design Trends, November 2023

In the season of giving thanks, we often think of comfort and tradition. These are common themes with each of our three…