diff --git a/lib/build-esbuild/index.js b/lib/build-esbuild/index.js
index e46f868..636726a 100644
--- a/lib/build-esbuild/index.js
+++ b/lib/build-esbuild/index.js
@@ -204,7 +204,22 @@ async function assembleBuildOpts (src, dest, siteData, opts, modeOpts = {}) {
     entryNames: watch ? '[dir]/[name]' : '[dir]/[name]-[hash]',
     chunkNames: 'chunks/[ext]/[name]-[hash]',
     jsx: 'automatic',
-    jsxImportSource: 'preact'
+    jsxImportSource: 'preact',
+    loader: {
+      '.png': 'dataurl',
+      '.jpg': 'dataurl',
+      '.jpeg': 'dataurl',
+      '.gif': 'dataurl',
+      '.svg': 'dataurl',
+      '.webp': 'dataurl',
+      '.avif': 'dataurl',
+      '.ico': 'file',
+      '.woff': 'file',
+      '.woff2': 'file',
+      '.ttf': 'file',
+      '.eot': 'file',
+      '.otf': 'file',
+    }
   }
 
   const esbuildSettingsExtends = siteData.esbuildSettings
diff --git a/test-cases/general-features/index.test.js b/test-cases/general-features/index.test.js
index f876b3d..931b89b 100644
--- a/test-cases/general-features/index.test.js
+++ b/test-cases/general-features/index.test.js
@@ -103,6 +103,21 @@ test.describe('general-features', () => {
     const jsChunkFiles = files.filter(f => f.relname.match(/chunks\/js\/chunk-.+\.js$/))
     assert.ok(jsChunkFiles.length > 0, 'at least one shared JS chunk was produced with a hashed name')
 
+    // Verify that CSS asset loaders work: images inline as data URLs, fonts are emitted as files
+    const globalCssFile = files.find(f => f.relname.match(/global-([A-Z0-9])\w+\.css$/))
+    if (globalCssFile) {
+      const cssContent = await readFile(path.join(dest, globalCssFile.relname), 'utf8')
+      assert.ok(
+        cssContent.includes('data:image/gif;base64,'),
+        'global CSS inlines GIF image as a base64 data URL'
+      )
+    } else {
+      assert.fail('Could not find global CSS output file to verify asset loaders')
+    }
+
+    const woff2Files = files.filter(f => f.relname.endsWith('.woff2'))
+    assert.ok(woff2Files.length > 0, 'woff2 font file was emitted to the output directory')
+
     // Special test for global.data.js blogPostsHtml
     const indexPath = path.join(dest, 'index.html')
     try {
diff --git a/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/global.css b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/global.css
index ccb97b2..45e5274 100644
--- a/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/global.css
+++ b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/global.css
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 @import 'mine.css/dist/mine.css';
 @import 'mine.css/dist/layout.css';
+
+.test-asset-icon { background-image: url('./test-icon.gif'); }
+@font-face { font-family: 'TestFont'; src: url('./test-font.woff2'); }
diff --git a/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-font.woff2 b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-font.woff2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db76e17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-font.woff2
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+wOF2placeholder
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-icon.gif b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-icon.gif
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09e3508
Binary files /dev/null and b/test-cases/general-features/src/globals/test-icon.gif differ