Zongren Blog Fonts is a GitLab Pages repository that stores and processes Chinese webfonts for a Hexo blog, using font-spider to generate subsetted font files.
What is Zongren Blog Fonts?
Zongren Blog Fonts is a public repository hosted at zongren.gitlab.io that serves Chinese fonts for a personal blog built with Hexo. The repository contains the font files themselves along with a .gitlab-ci.yml script that automates font subsetting through font-spider, a tool that scans HTML pages and keeps only the glyphs actually used. The set is designed for use with the hexo-theme-nojs theme, which avoids client-side JavaScript for rendering. With 140 stars on GitLab, the repository demonstrates a practical approach to self-hosting Chinese typefaces in a static site. Chinese font files are often several megabytes because of the large number of characters, so subsetting is essential for acceptable page load times. By keeping only the characters used in blog posts, the webfont size is drastically reduced.
Key Features
- Chinese font storage — hosts multiple Chinese fonts intended for blog typography.
- font-spider integration — relies on font-spider to analyze page content and produce subsetted fonts that contain only the characters in use.
- GitLab CI automation — includes a .gitlab-ci.yml script that triggers font building and deployment on every commit, so the hosted fonts stay in sync with blog posts.
- Hexo theme compatibility — tailored for the hexo-theme-nojs theme, which uses no JavaScript to render the site.
- GitLab Pages hosting — serves fonts from a public GitLab Pages URL (zongren.gitlab.io) with no separate CDN setup.
- Open-source reference — the repository is publicly available and has attracted 140 stars, making it a community reference for Chinese webfont subsetting.
Who is it for?
- Hexo bloggers — those who want to include Chinese fonts in their static blog without relying on external font CDNs.
- Developers using hexo-theme-nojs — since the theme has no JavaScript, self-hosted fonts are the primary way to control typography.
- Static site maintainers — anyone needing a working example of integrating font-spider into a GitLab CI pipeline.
What can you do with Zongren Blog Fonts?
- Self-host Chinese fonts: Use the repository as a source for font files and a CI configuration that regenerates subsetted fonts when your content changes.
- Replicate the font-spider workflow: Study the .gitlab-ci.yml script to learn how to run font-spider in a GitLab pipeline and apply the same approach to your own Hexo or static site.
- Customize the font set: Replace the fonts in the repository with your own Chinese typefaces and keep the same automated subsetting process.
How does it work?
The .gitlab-ci.yml script defines the build process. It presumably runs font-spider against the blog's HTML output, which scans for Chinese characters used in the pages and generates a smaller webfont. The resulting font is then served from GitLab Pages. The repository page instructs users to reference this script for usage details, so the CI configuration is the core deliverable. The process is likely triggered on each push to the repository, ensuring that as blog posts are written and new characters appear, the subsetted fonts are regenerated automatically.
FAQ
Is Zongren Blog Fonts free to use?
Yes, the repository is public on GitLab, so the fonts and scripts can be freely used and adapted for personal or commercial projects.
What tools are used?
The primary tool is font-spider (https://github.com/aui/font-spider), an open-source font subsetting utility. It is invoked in the GitLab CI script.
Does this work with static sites other than Hexo?
While font-spider is agnostic to the site generator, the repository's topics and the hexo-theme-nojs reference suggest it was built specifically for Hexo. You could adapt the approach to other static sites.
How can I use these fonts on my own blog?
Cloning the repository and referencing its CI script is the recommended way. The page states that usage details are in the .gitlab-ci.yml file.
