diff --git a/src/App.zig b/src/App.zig
index cf7316e8c..8f749890f 100644
--- a/src/App.zig
+++ b/src/App.zig
@@ -78,9 +78,36 @@ pub fn create(alloc: Allocator) CreateError!*App {
     var app = try alloc.create(App);
     errdefer alloc.destroy(app);
     try app.init(alloc);
+
+    // Warm up system services on background threads. These are
+    // multi-millisecond one-time costs that would otherwise be paid
+    // during the first surface's initialization. Doing it here overlaps
+    // them with the rest of app startup (config, app runtime, window
+    // creation).
+    threadedWarmup();
+
     return app;
 }
 
+/// Warm up system services whose first use in a process is slow. Each
+/// subsystem gets its own background thread so that one slow subsystem
+/// doesn't delay the others. Only operations that are safe to run on
+/// any thread belong here.
+fn threadedWarmup() void {
+    // If font discovery supports warmup, then we call it. Some font
+    // mechanisms (e.g. CoreText) have a multi-millisecond one-time cost
+    // on startup.
+    if (comptime @hasDecl(font.Discover, "warmup")) {
+        if (std.Thread.spawn(
+            .{},
+            font.Discover.warmup,
+            .{},
+        )) |thr| thr.detach() else |err| {
+            log.warn("font warmup thread spawn failed err={}", .{err});
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// Initialize the main app instance. This creates the main window, sets
 /// up the renderer state, compiles the shaders, etc. This is the primary
 /// "startup" logic.
diff --git a/src/font/discovery.zig b/src/font/discovery.zig
index 1e44026ce..1847693a6 100644
--- a/src/font/discovery.zig
+++ b/src/font/discovery.zig
@@ -350,6 +350,22 @@ pub const CoreText = struct {
         _ = self;
     }
 
+    /// Warm up the system font registry.
+    ///
+    /// The first CoreText query in a process initializes the system font
+    /// database, which takes multiple milliseconds, while subsequent
+    /// queries are microseconds.
+    pub fn warmup() void {
+        const name = macos.foundation.String.createWithBytes(
+            "AppleColorEmoji",
+            .utf8,
+            false,
+        ) catch return;
+        defer name.release();
+        const ct_font = macos.text.Font.createWithName(name, 12) catch return;
+        ct_font.release();
+    }
+
     /// Discover fonts from a descriptor. This returns an iterator that can
     /// be used to build up the deferred fonts.
     pub fn discover(self: *const CoreText, alloc: Allocator, desc: Descriptor) !DiscoverIterator {