README

Automate your web typography workflow with this Composer dev-tool.

Converts TTF fonts to optimized WOFF2 subsets using Python FontTools. Works with Laravel, Symfony, and vanilla PHP projects.

Prerequisites

Requires Python 3 and FontTools with Brotli support on your system.

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3 python3-fonttools python3-brotli

# macOS
brew install python3 && pip3 install fonttools brotli

Installation

composer require --dev uxcode-fr/font-optimizer

After installation, Composer automatically checks that Python 3 and fontTools are available:

✓  font-optimizer: Python3 + fontTools detected.

If the check fails, you will see:

⚠  font-optimizer requires Python3 + fontTools to work.
   Run: sudo apt install -y python3 python3-fonttools python3-brotli

The binary is available at vendor/bin/font-optimizer.

Configuration

Configuration is loaded from config/font-optimizer.php if present, otherwise from the extra section of composer.json.

Option A — config/font-optimizer.php (Laravel, Symfony, vanilla PHP)

Laravel — publish the default config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=font-optimizer-config

Other projects — create the file manually at the root of your project:

<?php

return [
    'source'      => 'resources/fonts',              // directory containing .ttf source files
    'destination' => 'public/fonts',                 // directory where output files will be saved
    'unicodes'    => 'U+0020-007F,U+00A0-00FF,U+0152-0153,U+20AC,U+2019,U+201C,U+201D', // Unicode ranges to subset
    'features'    => 'kern,liga',                    // OpenType features to preserve
    'flavor'      => 'woff2',                        // output format: woff2 or woff
    'name_ids'    => '*',                            // name table IDs to keep (* = all)
    'hinting'     => true,                           // keep hinting instructions
];

Option B — composer.json extra section (all projects)

{
    "extra": {
        "font-optimizer": {
            "source":      "resources/fonts",
            "destination": "public/fonts",
            "unicodes":    "U+0020-007F,U+00A0-00FF,U+0152-0153,U+20AC,U+2019,U+201C,U+201D",
            "features":    "kern,liga",
            "flavor":      "woff2",
            "name_ids":    "*",
            "hinting":     true
        }
    }
}

Configuration options

OpenType feature tags

Unicode range examples

Usage

vendor/bin/font-optimizer

Output example:

🗜️ Optimizing Inter-Regular.ttf (312 KB)...
  ✓ inter-regular.woff2 (28 KB, -91%)
🗜️ Optimizing Inter-Bold.ttf (318 KB)...
  ✓ inter-bold.woff2 (30 KB, -91%)

Convert without subsetting

To convert TTF fonts to WOFF/WOFF2 without any subsetting (keep all glyphs), set unicodes to * and features to *:

return [
    'source'      => 'resources/fonts',
    'destination' => 'public/fonts',
    'unicodes'    => '*',   // keep all glyphs — no subsetting
    'features'    => '*',   // keep all OpenType features
    'flavor'      => 'woff2',
];

Composer shortcut (optional)

Add to your composer.json:

{
    "scripts": {
        "fonts": "vendor/bin/font-optimizer"
    }
}

Then run:

composer fonts

Why use this?

• Performance — reduces font file size by up to 70–90% via WOFF2 and Unicode subsetting.
• Automation — no more manual CLI commands or online converters.
• Consistency — every developer on your team uses the same optimization settings.

Articles

• PHP Composer Font Optimizer (EN)
• PHP Composer Font Optimizer (FR)

Authors

• uxcode
• wixiweb
• arnolem

Contributing

Feel free to fork this repo and submit pull requests. For major changes, please open an issue first.

License: MIT