Choosing good fonts for websites can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be.
As shown in the image above, there be many different fonts and sizes and it can be difficult at times to pick out the right fonts for your site.
Which Fonts Do You Like
Start out by picking the fonts that you like. This is your website, this is your passion, picking the right font says something about you. This makes the site take on on your personality. Yeah, I could give you a lecture about how to pick fonts and how they impact how a visitor reacts to your site, but in the end, you want the reader to see you, and that is often the take away from your site, the readers gets his or her opinion of you based on how the site looks, and the fonts help to reflect that personality.
In print and online, typography (fonts) is expressive, just as much as (or sometimes more than!) imagery. The right choice of fonts for your website can reflect the voice and tone necessary to tell your story, while the wrong choice can garble your message. Your fonts can grab readers’ attention, or turn them away before they get through a complete sentence.
Well I have an easy solution for you.
How To Use Google Fonts In Websites
I recommend that you use Google Fonts. They are free, and they work on any browser across multiple platforms. I get all of my fonts from Google Fonts. They are so easy to download, totally free. You don’t need to go and spend a fortune of fonts, some sites try to sell them for so much money, but you can get just about any font you need on Google Fonts.
I will use up to 3 different fonts on my websites, and I will always pick fonts that go well together. I will use a funkier font for the main headline, then for the tagline, I will use more of a simple font. Then the content font is always something simple and easy to read.
If you’ve never heard of Google web fonts, then take a long look at the Google Fonts library to better understand what I am referring to. At the time of this writing there are 682 font families available on their website. You can filter by specific categories and font characteristics. You can go to their website by clicking here.
This is the dashboard for Google Fonts where you can pick fonts for your site. You can view them here and visualize how they would look on your site by looking at them in a word, sentence, paragraph, or poster. You can further view them by size or weight.
You can also search by categories such as:
- Serif
- Sans-Serif
- Display
- Handwriting
- Monospace
Using The Google Fonts Plugin For WordPress
Once I pick the fonts I want to use on my site, then I will install the WordPress plugin, WP Google Fonts. This makes them really easy to install on your site.
You could install the fonts on your site without the plugin, but you would have to go into the HTML code and add the link for the font set, and then you would have to set the font in the CSS code. The plugin does this for you without you ever having to touch any code.
Once installed, anyone who views your site will see those exact fonts. They will see them from any web browser, or any device, whether it be desktop, tablet, or smartphone. This plugin is really simple to use.
Once the plugin is installed, you basically just go into it, and pick the font name from the drop down menu, pick the style, and pick the element you want to assign the font to. See screenshot below.
This also makes it really easy to change your fonts, if you decide later to do so. Just go in and pick a different one from the drop down menu.
Wrapping Up Your Font Selections
Selecting fonts is a very important part of setting up your website. The typography (fonts) gives the site its personality. You want to pick the fonts that you like, but also the ones that go well with each other. This can be done by using the Google Fonts website to pick the fonts, and then using the Google Fonts Plugin to add them to your site.
I can’t wait to hear which fonts you picked for your site. I know they will be awesome just like you!
Robin McDonald
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Kore Duke says
September 13, 2015 at 3:11 pmHi Rob,
This was a nice post and I enjoyed reading it.
Yes I agree with you on a font reflects ones personality personality. I downloaded the Google font plugin and I must say its nice because I get lots of fonts to choose from and I like sans-serif.
Thanks for sharing.
Have a great day!
Rob says
September 15, 2015 at 3:35 pmHi Kore and thanks for commenting. Yes I think the Google Fonts plugin makes it really easy to install fonts on your site. It also gives you some good recommendations on which ones to use.
Glad you like the plugin and welcome back anytime!