How to using woff for legacy browser and enterprise compatibility
- Step 1Identify the audience — Banking, healthcare, government, and B2B SaaS targeting Fortune 500 procurement often see 5–15% IE11 traffic. If your analytics show this profile, ship a multi-format @font-face src list.
- Step 2Build the multi-format src list — Use the JAD @font-face Generator with WOFF2, WOFF, and TTF checkboxes enabled. The output orders formats correctly: WOFF2 first (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, modern Edge), WOFF second (IE11), TTF last (very old).
- Step 3Test in real IE11 — BrowserStack or a Windows VM with IE11 is the only reliable way to confirm. Common gotchas: IE11 needs the format() hint to skip WOFF2 cleanly, and font-display has no effect (pre-block behaviour applies).
Frequently asked questions
Is IE11 still relevant?+
Globally about 0.1%, but heavily concentrated in specific verticals: financial services (3–5%), healthcare (2–4%), government portals (5–10%). If your audience is corporate procurement, IE11 support is still a real concern.
Does font-display work in IE11?+
No. IE11 ignores font-display entirely — it always uses block behaviour (invisible text until the font loads, with a 3-second timeout). Set font-display: swap anyway; IE11 ignores it but every modern browser uses it.
What about SVG fonts for old WebKit?+
SVG Fonts were dropped from every modern browser by 2018. The only remaining use case is some PDF generators. For browser delivery, WOFF is the legacy floor — older than WOFF and you're talking about deprecated SVG Fonts or EOT (IE6–8).
Should I ship EOT for IE6–8?+
No. Those browsers are below 0.01% globally and have no security updates since 2014. Don't waste payload bytes on EOT — the system font fallback is fine for that vanishing audience.
Privacy first
Every JAD Font tool runs entirely in your browser using opentype.js and the wawoff2 WASM Brotli encoder. Your fonts never leave your device — verified by zero outbound network requests during processing.