Why are there 6 files in the fonts folder?

Question

So the fonts folder of the FontAwesome distribution contains 6 different files.

fontawesome-webfont.eot
fontawesome-webfont.svg
fontawesome-webfont.ttf
fontawesome-webfont.woff
fontawesome-webfont.woff2
FontAwesome.otf

Why? Do I need all of them? I don't see anything obvious on the FontAwesome readme or website explaining why all these different formats exist.

I'd prefer to have only the ones I need checked into my project.

Fenton · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-22T19:25:40.617

1

Different browsers support different formats, there is a handy table on MDN for font formats.

You could use that table to select which fonts you want to include - you could just supply the WOFF, which has reasonably broad support. But by including more formats, more people will get the font rather than the fallback.

What does each font get you?

WOFF is pretty standard for "modern browsers", and WOFF2 is the next generation. These are the formats you really need.

You can extend the support by adding the following formats to gain some old versions of browsers:

TTF/OTF - Firefox < 3.6, Safari < 5.1, Opera < 11, Chome < 5.0

EOT - IE < 9

SVG - Chrome < 5.0

edited Mar 22 '16 at 19:25

answered Mar 22 '16 at 19:15

Fenton

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That table suggests I need only the `.woff` file, which doesn't explain why the 5 other files are there. – Mud Mar 22 '16 at 19:18
I have added that info for you. – Fenton Mar 22 '16 at 19:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

1

This answer might help:

Why should we include ttf, eot, woff, svg,... in a font-face

Basically certain older browsers (or specific newer browsers) need different formats. By including all the formats, a client's browser can switch to the one it supports.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:15

Community

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answered Mar 22 '16 at 19:16

abagshaw

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Why are there 6 files in the fonts folder?

2 Answers2