# Introduction [#introduction]

Fontsource is a collection of open-source fonts that are packaged into individual NPM packages for self-hosting in your web applications. This documentation outlines the benefits of using Fontsource and how to get started.

## Advantages [#advantages]

### 1. Performance [#1-performance]

* Self-hosting fonts can **significantly improve website performance** by eliminating the extra latency caused by additional DNS resolution and TCP connection establishment that is required when using a CDN like Google Fonts. This can help to prevent doubled visual load times for simple websites, as benchmarked [here](https://github.com/HTTPArchive/almanac.httparchive.org/pull/607) and [here](https://github.com/reactiflux/reactiflux.com/pull/21).

### 2. Version Locking [#2-version-locking]

* Fonts remain **version locked**. Google often pushes updates to their fonts [without notice](https://github.com/google/fonts/issues/1307), which may interfere with your live production projects. Manage your fonts like any other NPM dependency.

### 3. Privacy [#3-privacy]

* Commit to **privacy**. Google does track the usage of their fonts and for those who are extremely privacy concerned, self-hosting is an alternative.

### 4. Offline [#4-offline]

* Your **fonts load offline**. This feature is beneficial for Progressive Web Apps and situations where you have limited or no access to the internet.

### 5. Additional Fonts [#5-additional-fonts]

* **Support for fonts outside the Google Font ecosystem**. This repository is constantly evolving with [other Open Source fonts](https://github.com/fontsource/font-files). Feel free to contribute!