Implementing Google Fonts in WordPress Themes
Posted on 16th June 2023
One of the great features of WordPress is the ability to easily change the look and feel of your site by installing a new theme. There are literally thousands of themes available, both free and premium. While many of these themes come with a variety of customization options, one area that is often lacking is the ability to change the font.
The default WordPress theme, Twenty Seventeen, uses the system default fonts which are fine but may not be the perfect fit for your site. Google Fonts is a free, open-source library of fonts that offers a wide variety of fonts to choose from. In this article, we will show you how to easily add Google Fonts to your WordPress theme.
Why Use Google Fonts in WordPress?
Google Fonts is an excellent resource for finding high-quality, licensed fonts to use on your website. All of the fonts in the library are open-source, meaning you are free to use them for personal or commercial projects.
In addition to a large selection of fonts, Google Fonts also offers a variety of font weights and styles. This allows you to find the perfect font for your site, without having to worry about licensing issues.
Adding Google Fonts to WordPress
There are two ways to add Google Fonts to your WordPress site. The first method is to use the Google Fonts API, and the second method is to download the font files and host them on your own server.
Method 1: Using the Google Fonts API
The first method is the easiest way to add Google Fonts to your WordPress site. All you need to do is add a single line of code to your theme’s stylesheet.
First, you need to visit the Google Fonts website and select the fonts you want to use. Once you have selected the fonts, click on the “Add to Collection” button in the top right corner.
In the next screen, you will see a box with the code needed to implement the fonts on your website. Copy this code and add it to your theme’s stylesheet (style.css).
Now, all you need to do is add the font-family property to the elements that you want to use the Google Fonts. For example, if you want to use the “Roboto” font for all paragraph elements, you would add the following code to your stylesheet:
p {
font-family: ‘Roboto’, sans-serif;
}
You can also use the Google Fonts API to implement the fonts in your WordPress theme. To do this, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘my_theme_enqueue_fonts’ );
function my_theme_enqueue_fonts() {
wp_enqueue_style( ‘my-theme-fonts’, ‘//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,700’, array(), null );
}
In the code above, we are using the wp_enqueue_style() function to load the Google Fonts stylesheet. We are also using the wp_enqueue_scripts action hook to make sure the fonts are loaded after the theme’s stylesheet.
Method 2: Hosting Google Fonts Locally
The second method for adding Google Fonts to your WordPress site is to download the font files and host them on your own server. This method is a bit more complicated than the first method, but it has some benefits.
The main benefit of hosting Google Fonts locally is that you are not dependent on the Google Fonts API. This means that if the Google Fonts API goes down, your site will still be able to load the fonts.
Another benefit of this method is that you can optimize the font files for better performance. For example, you can use a tool like Font Squirrel to generate a custom font file that only includes the characters you need.
To get started with this method, you need to visit the Google Fonts website and select the fonts you want to use. Once you have selected the fonts, click on the “Download” button in the top right corner.
In the next screen, you will see a box with the code needed to implement the fonts on your website. Copy this code and add it to your theme’s stylesheet (style.css).
Now, all you need to do is add the font-family property to the elements that you want to use the Google Fonts. For example, if you want to use the “Roboto” font for all paragraph elements, you would add the following code to your stylesheet:
p {
font-family: ‘Roboto’, sans-serif;
}
You can also use the Google Fonts API to implement the fonts in your WordPress theme. To do this, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘my_theme_enqueue_fonts’ );
function my_theme_enqueue_fonts() {
wp_enqueue_style( ‘my-theme-fonts’, ‘//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,700’, array(), null );
}
In the code above, we are using the wp_enqueue_style() function to load the Google Fonts stylesheet. We are also using the wp_enqueue_scripts action hook to make sure the fonts are loaded after the theme’s stylesheet.
Method 3: Using a WordPress Plugin
If you don’t want to mess with code, then you can use a WordPress plugin to add Google Fonts to your site. There are a few different plugins you can use, but we recommend using the Easy Google Fonts plugin.
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you need to visit the Settings » General page. On this page, you will see the “Font Settings” section where you can select the default font for your site.
After that, you can visit the Appearance » Widgets page and click on any widget to expand it. In the widget settings, you will see the “Font” option. You can use this option to change the font for that particular widget.
You can also change the font for specific elements on your website by going to the Appearance » Customize page. On this page, you will see the “Typography” option in the left sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the typography settings page.
From this page, you can change the font for different elements on your site. For example, you can change the body font, headings font, and even the font for specific menus.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add Google Fonts to your WordPress site.
Adding Google Fonts to your WordPress site is a great way to change the look and feel of your site. If you’re not a developer, then we recommend using a WordPress plugin like Easy Google Fonts.
Do you have any questions about how to add Google Fonts to WordPress? Let us know in the comments below.
