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0003 — Tauri 2 for the desktop shell

Status: accepted, 2026-09-03

Context

The app must preview fonts truthfully (shaping, variable axes, OpenType features, color fonts), be accessible, and stay small. Candidates: Tauri (system webview), egui, iced, Slint.

Decision

Tauri 2 with a Svelte 5 frontend. The system webview renders through the platform text stack (CoreText, DirectWrite, FreeType), so previews match what users see elsewhere and complex scripts, color fonts and font-variation-settings work without us writing a text engine. Uninstalled fonts load through @font-face over a custom protocol.

Consequences

Installer 5–12 MB, idle RAM 40–80 MB. WebKitGTK on Linux is the weakest webview and is pinned through Flatpak. A native-rendered fallback is not planned.