Do you want to add custom fonts in WordPress? Custom fonts can help you freshen up your theme and stand out. In this article, we will show you how to add custom fonts in WordPress using Google Fonts, TypeKit, and CSS3 @Font-Face method.
Using custom fonts in WordPress themes has become a common trend. In fact, there are some themes that come fully loaded with hundreds of custom fonts. However loading too many fonts can slow down your website. That’s why we are going to show you how to properly load custom fonts, so it doesn’t slow down your site.
But before we look at how to add custom fonts in WordPress, let’s take a look at finding custom fonts.
How to Find Custom Fonts to Use in WordPress
Fonts used to be expensive, but not any more. There are many places to find great free web fonts such as Google Fonts, Typekit, FontSquirrel, and fonts.com.
If you don’t know how to mix and match fonts, then try Font Pair. It helps designers pair beautiful Google fonts together.
As you are picking your fonts, remember that using too many custom fonts will slow down your website. This is why you should select two fonts and use them throughout your design. This will also bring consistency to your design.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Adding Custom Fonts in WordPress from Google Fonts
Google Fonts is the largest, free, and most commonly used font library among website developers. There are multiple ways you can add and use Google Fonts in WordPress.
Method 1: Adding Custom Fonts Using Easy Google Fonts Plugin
If you want to add and use Google Fonts on your website, then this method is by far the easiest and recommended for beginners.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Easy Google Fonts plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can go to Appearance » Customizer page. This will open the live theme customizer interface where you’ll see new Typography section.
Clicking on Typography will you show different sections of your website where you can apply Google Fonts. Click on ‘Edit Font’ below the section you want to edit.
Under the font family section you can choose any Google Font you want to use on your website. You can also choose font style, font size, padding, margin, and more.
Depending on your theme, the number of sections here could be limited and you may not be able to directly change font selection for many different areas of your website.
To fix this, the plugin also allows you to create your own controls and use them to change fonts on your website.
First, you need to visit Settings » Google Fonts page and provide a name for your font control. Use something that helps you quickly understand where you will be using this font control.
Click on ‘Create font control’ button and then you will be asked to enter CSS selectors. You can add HTML elements you want to target (for example, h1, h2, p, blockquote) or use CSS classes. You can use Inspect tool to find out which CSS classes are used by the particular area you want to change.
Now click on the ‘Save font control’ button to store your settings. You can create as many font controllers as you need for different sections of your website.
To use these font controllers, you need to head over to Appearance » Customizer and click on the Typography tab.
Under Typography you will now see a ‘Theme Typography’ Option as well. Clicking on it will show your custom font controls you created earlier. You can now just click on the edit button to select the fonts and appearance for this control.
Don’t forget to click on the save or publish button to save your changes.
Method 2: Manually Add Google Fonts in WordPress
This method requires you to add code to your WordPress theme files. If you haven’t done this before, then see our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.
First, visit the Google fonts library and select a font that you want to use. Next, click on the quick use button below the font.
This will take you to another page where you will be asked to choose the styles you want to use. You should only select styles that you think you will actually use.
After that scroll down a little until you get to the embed code section. You need to copy the embed code under the standard tab and paste it in your theme or child theme’s header.php file right after <head> tag.
That’s all you have successfully added a custom Google font in your WordPress site.
You can use this font in your theme’s stylesheet like this:
.h1 site-title {
font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;
}
For more detailed instructions see our guide on how to add Google fonts in WordPress themes.
Adding Custom Fonts in WordPress Using Typekit
Typekit is another free and premium resource for awesome fonts that you can use in your design projects. They have a paid subscription as well as a limited free subscription plan that you can use.
Simply signup for a Typekit account and create a new kit.
Next, you need to select a font from Typekit library and add it to your kit. After that get the embed code for your kit and head over to your WordPress site’s admin area.
Now you need to install and activate the Typekit Fonts for WordPress plugin. Upon activation, simply visit Settings » Typekit Fonts and paste the embed code on plugin’s settings page.
That’s all, you can now use the Typekit font you selected in your WordPress theme’s stylesheet like this:
h1 .site-title {
font-family: 'modesto-condensed', Arial, sans-serif;
}
For more detailed instructions check out our tutorial how to add awesome typography in WordPress using Typekit.
Adding Custom Fonts in WordPress Using CSS3 @font-face
The most direct way of adding custom fonts in WordPress is by adding the fonts using CSS3 @font-face method. This method allows you to use any font that you like on your website.
First thing you need to do is download the font that you like in a web format. If you do not have the web format for your font, then you can convert it using the FontSquirrel Webfont generator.
Once you have the webfont files, you would need to upload it on your web hosting server.
The best place to upload the fonts is inside a new “fonts” folder in your theme or child theme‘s directory.
You can use FTP or File Manager of your cPanel to upload the font.
Once you have uploaded the font, you need to load the font in your theme’s stylesheet using CSS3 @font-face rule like this:
@font-face {
font-family: Arvo;
src: url(http://www.example.com/wp-content/themes/your-theme/fonts/Arvo-Regular.ttf);
font-weight: normal;
}
Don’t forget to replace the font-family and URL with your own.
After that you can use that font anywhere in your theme’s stylesheet like this:
.h1 site-title {
font-family: "Arvo", Arial, sans-serif;
}
Loading fonts directly using CSS3 @font-face is not always the best solution. If you are using a font from Google Fonts or Typekit, then it is best to serve the font directly from their server for optimal performance.
That’s all, we hope this article helped you add custom fonts in WordPress. You may also want to checkout our guide on how to use icon fonts in WordPress and how to change the font size in WordPress.
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I’m having issue with for Khmer font while using Google Font. The problem is that some of the texts are showing symbol.
thanks for your tutorials , really it helps , and thanks for your kind effort
Okay, never mind… I could figure it out by removing the @font-face code from the custom css field
This is truly the best guide to adding fonts that I’ve found. All methods are in one place and each method is easy to follow. I’ve spent the past couple of days searching the internet trying to figure out how to add a custom font that was not from Google or Typekit, and finally I found a guide that was easy to follow. Thank you!
Okay, so I used Font Squirrel and got the @font-face kits. I uploaded to my theme in Siteground. Then I made sure to change the URL in WP Editor -> Fonts. Here’s an example of what I did:
@font-face {
font-family: ‘walpurgis_nightregular’;
src: url(‘www.example.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/pique/fonts/walpurgisnight-regular-webfont.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),
url(‘www.wanderlustconqueror.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/pique/fonts/walpurgisnight-regular-webfont.woff’) format(‘woff’);
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
}
Despite doing this, the font will not come up in the “Typography” section of the customization options. I thought perhaps I was also supposed to add it to the “Additional CSS Editor” so I put it there too. That didn’t seem to work either.
I just want to be able to use my font for my Headers. What am I doing wrong here? For this tutorial to be for beginners, it’s making me feel really stupid. Am I missing a step? Is there a better, more in-depth tutorial on just using the Font Face option? Help!
Hi Amber,
We are not sure. Please try following the steps mentioned above once again.
I am having a similar problem as Amber. Despite following the step by step instructions, my fonts still are not loading.
I am using a custom theme based off of the twenty seventeen theme. My css file is located at wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen-child. This is also where I have placed my fonts. In the css file I have the following:
However, my site is still not showing this font! What am I doing wrong?
I have a question too. I have uploaded the .ttf files in my
publichtml/folder-name-of-web/wp-content/theme/font
and I have added the name of the font in stylesheet css of theme in wordpress editor. But it is not picking the font.
Kindly give me the solution
Thanks for the valuable information. I tried and it’s working good. I used two fonts from google, when using google fonts website performance is bit slow.
if you can post in detailed how to upload fonts directly into the word press it would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Raghava
If I am viewing a “glyph” through Photoshop that is a special character in a font I had purchased – how can I transfer this glyph into Photoshop?
Thank you!
silly questions im sure! But, in the url- where it reads ‘your theme’ this is to be replaced with the title of our theme, correct? Or do we leave that part as is?
Also, for fonts that have long names, do you just need to leave spaces in between or add + signs or anything?
for example:
@font-face { font-family: Arvo example one; src: url(http://www.example.com/wp-content/themes/your-theme/fonts/Arvo example one-Regular.ttf); font-weight: normal; }Thank you so much
Hi dsb,
Yes you will need to replace your-theme with the actual name of your theme folder. If you uploaded your font to your current theme’s fonts directory, then you can see what the font file is called. or Copy the file name and just paste it in CSS.
“The best place to upload the fonts is inside a new “fonts” folder in your theme or child theme‘s directory.”
Why is this the best place, exactly? Creating a child theme for a single font is a little annoying, but uploading it inside the theme itself means it could disappear when the theme has an update, right? Or will it still be safe from that as it’s technically an unrelated file?
I would probably say it’s silly to not have a child theme in general, regardless of what you’re using it for.
And no, it wouldn’t be safe if your theme gets an update. It would be overwritten by the update.
> I would probably say it’s silly to not have a child theme in general, regardless of what you’re using it for.
Why do you think so? Consider the case where someone is not changing the theme in any way, shape or form whatsoever. It would be entirely pointless to run a child theme, and adds just another layer of code on top of everything in this case.
> And no, it wouldn’t be safe if your theme gets an update. It would be overwritten by the update.
I kinda figured. I feel like this should be highlighted in the article or it’s going to make some people unhappy.
Hi,
I don’t have any problem with adding custom fonts anywhere in m theme, just when I was going to change the font in wp-embed-template.php my custom fonts don’t work. I mean it’s like they are not @font-faced at all.
Would you please help me to change the fonts in the wordpress embed part? Should I add @font-face again in the php? It is already added though!
Many thanks in advance,
Thank you for your help!
Once I’ve upload the font to my fonts folder, do I add this to my CSS? Do I leave the font family that is there? Because I’m using that mostly. This is a specialized font only used for specific occasions.
I’m so confused.
Really great! Been struggling a while (I’m quite new to all this) but now it works
Thanks a lot!
Hi. Thanks for this. How do I find the licensing information for a font? Some fonts are all over the web, and I want to use one but it’s hard to find the EULA info
It’s usually included in the font’s own metadata. In Windows, you can right-click and view the properties of a font. If that’s not enough, you might want to download a full-featured font viewer that supports showing font metadata.
Hello, which extension should has the font to be installed on wordpress?
Cause i am having issue to install mine
Hi guys I used the last technique (@fontface), it has added the font to wordpress but it has made it the default font. I only wanted it to be an option on my fonts list. Can you help?
Used CSS @font-face method. Works like a charm. Thanks.
Assalam o Alaikum!
I am a beginner in wordpress. I want to add Noori Nastaleeq font to my website. How could i done so. I need your help.
Can you provide performance comparison between these methods?
Hi,
I’m completely new to wordpress so I hope you can help me. I have just literally bought a custom domain from bluehost, then installed wordpress and lastly installed and activated the so simple theme. So what I want to know is will my font changes be lost if I update my theme in the future, if so how do I prevent that?
It’s just I’ve noticed a lot of other sites advise adding a custom css plugin first and I have no idea how to do that.
Kind regards
Please take a look at our guide on how to easily add custom CSS to your WordPress site.
Thanks a lot.It helped
This was truly helpful! Thank you very much!!!
Just a quick question…
How would I adjust the code if I have a font with different weights?
I’ve got a regular and bold version of the font I’d like to use installed on my laptop. I used FontSquirrel to convert those in webfonts. And I uploaded those webfonts to a folder in my child theme like you explained. I just don’t know how to use @font-face to use both weights.
I’m really looking forward to your reply. The way you explained this is great!
Thank you in advance!
Sincerely,
Hashim
You will use font-weight in CSS. Like this:
h1 { font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, serif; font-weight: 400; }I don’t see the “editor” button in my wordpress under appearance. I used font squirrel to upload my font but when I went to add it in the theme editor that wasn’t an option. Maybe I have a different version of wordpress. Please help. Thank you.
Can you give a sample of the URL source for the @fontface example? I’m doing g something wrong and feel like pulling all my hair out :/
Isn’t the correct way of adding custom google fonts is by using enqueue_script function?
It is ideal but not necessary. This method is correct too, and easier for beginners.
Hi guys
I always read your posts and love the site, great work you always help me out. I’ve been stuck on moving a site for a customer and needed to change the font. I thought I had done everything , copies the css files etc, but it was reading this that made me realise I hadn’t changed the code in the header.
Been stuck on this for a week!
Anyway just wanted to say thanks