What are the font rpms doing?

Just installed i386 10.1 on a machine not as speedy as my main box, and as I was observing the rpm's go past I noticed that every single rpm that said it contained a font of some kind would take forever to install. The CD drive would spin down, I'd start to wonder if the installation was hung, then finally it would go on to the next rpm. What in the blue blazes takes so long to install a font? Couldn't it wait till they are all installed and take a nap then instead of taking a nap for every font?