What is a WOFF2 file?

What WOFF2 is

WOFF2 is a binary format, meaningful only to a program that knows it. It is used for the web.

The extension is .woff2, and the full name is Web Open Font Format 2. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.

Where WOFF2 came from

W3C published it in 2018. The specification is WOFF 2.0.

Age is worth knowing here for one practical reason: the older a format is, the more programs have had time to learn it.

The specification is public

Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.

Nothing is thrown away

WOFF2 stores its content exactly. Saving it again changes nothing, so it can be opened, edited and re-saved as often as you like without accumulating damage — which is what makes it a working format rather than a delivery one.

What opens WOFF2

fonttools and FontForge read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.

If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.

Opening it in a browser

Every current browser reads it.

That makes it a safe thing to put on a page or attach to a message without wondering what the other end has installed.

It is a delivery format

WOFF2 is meant to be handed over rather than worked in. Editing one is possible and rarely pleasant; the sane approach is to change the source and export again.

The facts, in one place

Converting WOFF2 to something else

• WOFF2 to TTF
• WOFF2 to OTF
• WOFF2 to WOFF

Converting something else to WOFF2

• TTF to WOFF2
• OTF to WOFF2
• WOFF to WOFF2

Formats worth considering instead of WOFF2

• Web Open Font Format
• TrueType Font