w3c
Webfonts are too large
This issue is applicable to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Most simple alphabetic languages are currently well served by existing Web font delivery methods. However, the Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) group of languages is currently unable to use Webfonts due to the very large file sizes. A substantial reduction in file size is needed, without a significant increase in page load times caused by multiple network requests.
Specs:
IFT: this specification defines methods to incrementally transfer fonts from server to client.
Preinstalled Fonts and User-Installed Fonts in css-fonts: issue 5421 Open.
Priority:
Because most operating systems have preinstalled CJK fonts, CJK text can be rendered properly, it's just the fonts cannot be freely selected, so this is prioritised as an advanced issue.
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Evaluation of "how large" and "how much smaller can we make them" here:
Made a simple test here: https://github.com/w3c/glyph_character_tests/issues/41