fontaware
Fontaware is a term used in typography and digital publishing to describe practices and architectures that make text rendering sensitive to the active font’s properties. A fontaware system queries font metrics, feature support, and glyph availability to guide layout, shaping, and fallback decisions in real time.
The concept arose as web and desktop typesetting evolved beyond static font choices. Advances in font loading,
Key techniques include reading font metrics such as ascent, descent, and advance width, detecting supported OpenType
Fontaware improves readability and accessibility by reducing layout shifts when fonts load, ensuring consistent glyph coverage
Challenges include performance overhead from font probing, complexity of cross-font metrics, and licensing constraints that limit