How to Add Custom Fonts in WordPress
April 6. 2020
One of the best things about WordPress is that you can create just about any kind of website you want. There are so many different things you can do in WordPress, so many different types of websites to run, so many different designs to create. And in the competitive online world today, this is very important. You want, after all, for people from all over the world to find your website interesting and attractive enough to visit it. A big part of that, of course, is your content. But since humans are visual creatures, a big part of it also how your website looks. As experts on WordPress, we know all about the different ways to make your website look better and more unique. And one of the easiest yet most effective methods is to add custom fonts in WordPress. How? We’re so glad you asked!
Custom fonts – yay or nay?
Deciding what your website is going to look like is a crucial part of the website design process. You’ll need to choose a theme, to begin with, configure it to suit your desires and set up some nice images on your pages. But that’s not all. Think about something that shows up on every page of every website – text. No matter what type of website you’re running, there will certainly be text everywhere for your users to see. You want something so prevalent and so important to also be eye-catching. It is for that reason that you must carefully consider the font you choose.
Don’t think that fonts have much of an impact? Just imagine a website entirely written in Comic Sans. You probably wouldn’t be very likely to take that seriously. So you see, fonts are important. But you only have a limited choice of them when relying on the standard pack. And this is where custom fonts come in. They can add great variety and flair to your website, make it more unique and interesting, and tie perfectly into your ideal vision. The only downside is that they will take a little bit of time and effort to install.
Where can you find new fonts?
When adding custom fonts to your WP website, you can either create a font of your own or use one that someone else created. If you want to take a look at what’s out there, DaFont and 1001FreeFonts are great places to start. You can find hundreds of beautiful custom fonts of all kinds there. Some are entirely free, some you can get a sample of for free and others are premium. But all are beautiful and could be just what you’re looking for!
Adding custom fonts to WP
Finding the right font is only the first step. You still need to add it to WordPress once you’ve got it. If you’re relying on professional website maintenance, then you’ve got nothing to worry about: simply let your team know which font you like and they’ll know what to do. But if you want to take care of this part yourself, then you have another choice to make. Will you add your new custom font using a plugin or will you do it manually?
Add custom fonts in WordPress with a plugin
The easiest way to do just about anything in WordPress is usually through a plugin. Plugins allow you endless options to customize your WP website even if you are a total beginner. So if that’s the case, then we’d definitely recommend adding custom fonts with a plugin too! There are a number of them on the market, both free and premium. For this guide, we will be using Easy Google Fonts as an example. It’s one of the most popular ones for good reason: easy to use and effective, it is a great choice for any website.
The first thing you need to do, of course, is to install and activate the plugin. Then navigate to Appearance > Customizer from your WP admin dashboard. Here, you can edit your entire theme. To edit fonts specifically, go to the new “Typography” section on the left-hand side. Select the section for which you want to change the font (headings or paragraphs, for example) and click “Edit font”. There, you will be able to choose among dozens of different fonts offered by the plugin and configure their style, positioning and more. If you don’t see the particular type of text you want to change the font for, you can also create your own controls under Settings > Google Fonts. Don’t forget to save your changes before exiting!
Add custom fonts in WordPress manually
If you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you can also add custom fonts in WordPress without a plugin. This will, however, require that you fiddle with the code of your WordPress theme files. If you haven’t done this before or are just unsure about how it might turn out, remember to backup your website before you start just to avoid any problems down the line.
The first thing you’ll want to do is visit the Google fonts library and select the font you like. Then select the “Embed” tab on the right-hand side. You will see an embed code there which you will need to copy. Finally, open your WP theme’s header.php file and paste the embed code into it right before the <body> tag.
Some important tips
Typography is a surprisingly important part of your website. Because of the sheer amount of text you’ll have, what it looks like has to matter. And of course, you want it to look interesting. So it can be very tempting to add custom fonts in WordPress pretty indiscriminately. As much as everyone loves variety, you have to remember that this is a terrible idea! Too many different fonts will only create confusion and make your website chaotic. Not only that, but this can affect the speed at which your website loads which will not make your users happy. So when you’re contemplating fonts, remember to limit yourself to no more than two or three per website. Use fonts from the same family to create cohesion without sacrificing variety. Finally, customize your fonts by changing the style, size, and positioning – these can be effective tools for uniqueness as well!