Version 5.5.6: Performance Boost, Font Overhaul & More! (PR # 89)

We’re excited to announce a fresh update to the Astro Portfolio Blog, bringing meaningful performance improvements, cleaner code, and visual enhancements that make your browsing experience smoother and faster than ever. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new in v5.5.6:

✨ What’s New

🔍 Prefetching for Performance

To improve page load speeds and overall user experience, we’ve enabled prefetching for all site assets. This ensures that critical content is loaded in advance, resulting in snappier navigation between pages.

🔤 Local Fonts for Privacy & Speed

We’re now using locally hosted Poppins fonts instead of pulling them from Google Fonts. This change:

• Enhances user privacy by removing third-party font requests.
• Improves load times by serving fonts directly from our domain.
• Adds full support for the entire Poppins family, including multiple weights and styles—making the typography feel more complete and consistent.

🎨 Styling Enhancements

• Captcha alignment in the contact section has been fine-tuned for a more polished and responsive look.
• Google Maps iframe now uses lazy loading, reducing initial page weight and speeding up the load of non-critical assets.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Corrected image file extensions in both the main site configuration and blog metadata. This small but crucial change ensures image assets display correctly across all pages.

🧹 Maintenance & Chores

• Version bump: Project version updated to v5.5.6.
• Cleaned up configuration: Reformatted JSON files for better readability and maintainability.
• Removed legacy pages: The Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy pages related to Simple Thread have been removed for a cleaner, more focused experience.

🛠️ Behind the Scenes

All of these changes were contributed via Pull Request #89, helping to refine both the backend performance and frontend aesthetics of the site.

📌 Final Thoughts

This update might seem small on the surface, but under the hood, it brings meaningful optimizations that improve user experience, accessibility, and overall site hygiene. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue evolving the blog with a focus on performance, clarity, and developer best practices.

Have feedback or ideas? Feel free to open an issue or contribute directly via GitHub!