WOFF2 File

Files with the .WOFF2 extension are used for storing embedded fonts on websites. The 2.0 version of the format developed by Google in 2014 has been recommended by the W3C since 2018. The fonts contained in the file are based on SFNT and are well compressed. Support for .WOFF2 is provided by popular browsers.

What exactly does a .WOFF2 file contain?

Files with the .WOFF2 extension serve as a wrapper, an appropriate “packaging” for fonts based on SFNT. These are most often the TrueType font (TTF) or OpenType (OTF). The files may also contain metadata of licensed fonts. The font is duly compressed in a manner allowing embedding on a website. In the case of the second version of the standard, the Brotli algorithms at the byte level are used for compression. This results in an average of 30% better file compression effects and speeds up the support for loading the font in comparison with the previous version of the .WOFF format.

Support for websites with .WOFF2 fonts

Thanks to the use of .WOFF files, there is an opportunity to use non-standard fonts on WWW pages without worrying about their readability. In CSS style sheets for websites, reference to .WOFF2 files is made using the font-face command. Given the W3C's recommendation for the .WOFF2 font packaging standard, it is supported in the most popular browsers:

• Chrome,
• Edge,
• Firefox,
• Opera,
• Safari.

For .WOFF2 files, the correct, current MIME-type is font/woff2. It may be required by some servers to allow the files to be displayed correctly.