Here’s a question I often get asked – How are webfonts different from regular (desktop) fonts?
In previous years, all websites had simple typefaces – arial, georgia, times new roman, verdana, helvetica, zzzzzzzzzzzz….. BORING!!! But that was because, before the advent of webfonts, we were all restricted to using web-safe fonts. These were fonts that were more likely to be found in all computer systems. (You could set your post titles to Curlz MT, but if the viewer doesn’t have that font on his/her computer, he/she can’t see it. So you could be staring at your beautiful header title but nobody else can see it or share in your joy.)
The advent of webfonts totally changed the web design world. For the first time, they allowed websites to show beautiful typography! The typefaces are either hosted on your own server, or on a font-hosting one, and are linked to your style sheet (that’s your css) by a reference code. This connects the webfonts from the source to your website.
Where do you get webfonts? For premium fonts, these sites are a treasure-trove: MyFonts.com and Fonts.com. (But because they don’t pay me for this blog post, I’m not going to link to them. lol.) My personal favorite is MyFonts.com for great service, ease of navigation, and the most comprehensive listing on the web.
Thanks to the brilliant people at Google, you don’t have to shell out your Starbucks allowance for the whole entire year just to use pretty fonts. Google WebFonts has a surprisingly wide selection (200+) of gorgeous fonts for FREE!!!!!! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus of fonts! Installation is pretty idiot-proof too!
Here are my top picks:
Aren’t they all pretty? They’d make lovely post titles! Just set your font size at 36px and try not to make really long titles. lol.
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