Remember when our go-to fonts were Times New Roman, Arial, and (if you were a cool 90’s kid) Comic Sans? Fonts have come a long, long way since then. I’m super impressed by the never-ending amount of font options we now have! While we might still be able to download fonts at the click of a button, not all desktop fonts can be used on the web. Web fonts give us the ability to use fonts that will appear on any website regardless of the viewer’s computer system.
What are Web Fonts and Why Should I Use Them?
Some fonts are built into your computer (desktop fonts). These are used for documents that will be printed or graphics that will be uploaded to the internet. If you download a fancy font and try to use it in your blog posts, chances are nobody will see it except for you.
That’s where web fonts come in handy! Web fonts are store remotely online, meaning that everyone should see them correctly on a website (even if these fonts aren’t supported by their personal computers). Installing web fonts requires some coding, but usually just a line or two.
Can I Still Use my Desktop Fonts on the Web?
Sometimes! Before using a specific font in your blog coding, it’s important to make that font is “web safe”. My favorite font ever is Futura. I use it here on The Blog Market and also on my personal blog, Earl Grey. Until a few months ago, I had only really viewed my blogs on Macs. One day I logged into my work computer (Windows) only to find Times New Roman in place of my beloved Futura. Not good! I ended up purchasing Adobe Typekit, which has allowed me to use a variation of Futura as a web font. Yay!
There are still some common fonts that most people will be able to see on both Microsoft and Mac systems. To see if your favorite desktop fonts are web safe, check out CSS Font Stack.
Where Can I Find Web Fonts?
There are quite a few places out there that offer web fonts. My favorites are Google Fonts, Typekit, MyFonts, Dafont, and Font Awesome.
How Do I Use Web Fonts on my Blog?
Here are some plugins and tutorials that I’ve found really helpful in installing web fonts:
Google Fonts for WordPress (plugin)
Using Typekit for a self-hosted WordPress Site
Using Google Fonts with Squarespace
Using Typekit with Squarespace
How to Add Google Fonts to Blogger
Learn Web Fonts by Zoe Rooney
For more font resources, check out our directory of resources! Do you have any go-to web (or desktop) fonts?
Alexandra says
A unique font is so fun! I definitely want to start exploring them for my blog. Just the other day I was commenting on a blog, and as I was typing I was appreciating their unique font.
Warm Regards,
Alexandra
http://www.littlewildheart.com
Jennifer says
Yes! I love finding favorite fonts via other blogs. There are way too many options out there.
Lisa says
This is the most informative post in my whole bloglovin feed today! Thanks a lot, those links do really help
Jennifer says
Oh awesome! Glad it was useful for you Lisa! :)
Douglas says
The “web fonts 101” image design for this article is very cool :)
Another useful resource is Fonts of the World which shows you the popularity of web fonts across the Alexa top 10k websites, so you can see what is popular and where it’s being used:
http://bonfx.com/fonts-of-the-world
Jennifer says
Wow that’s awesome! Checking it out right now. Thank you!
Paige @ Little Nostalgia says
OMG. It never occurred to me that my blog fonts might look different on a PC. Hopefully they’re the same and I won’t have to change anything!
Jennifer says
Right?! Haha people were probably seeing Times New Roman on my blog for years!
Monica says
I have such an issue with fonts. Because when I design something, it looks great with a certain font on Photoshop but then when I have to code it, I struggle for the longest time until I find a similar web font.
But thank you for all the links and resources. I’ll definitely check all of them. :)
Jennifer says
Ahhh, I always have the same dilemma. Wish we could just have the best of both worlds all the time. :)
Laura says
Ooh thank you for this – I had wondered about web fonts and why to use them – very good to know!
http://www.lovedbylaura.com
Jennifer says
No prob, glad you enjoyed it Laura!