Is there a way to add some custom font on a website without using images, Flash or some other graphics?
For example, I was working on a wedding website, and I found a lot of nice fonts for that subject. But I can't find the right way to add that font on the server. And how do I include that font with CSS into the HTML? Is this possible to do without graphics?
The answer is
The technique that the W3C has recommended for do this is called "embedding" and is well described by the three articles here: Embedding Fonts. In my limited experiments, I have found this process error-prone and have had limited success in making it function in a multi-browser environment.
Or you could try sIFR. I know it uses Flash, but only if available. If Flash isn't available, it displays the original text in its original (CSS) font.
I did a bit of research and dug up Dynamic Text Replacement (published 2004-06-15).
This technique uses images, but it appears to be "hands free". You write your text, and you let a few automated scripts do automated find-and-replace on the page for you on the fly.
It has some limitations, but it is probably one of the easier choices (and more browser compatible) than all the rest I've seen.
The article Font-face in IE: Making Web Fonts Work says it works with all three major browsers.
Here is a sample I got working: http://brendanjerwin.com/test_font.html
More discussion is in Embedding Fonts.
The way to go is using the @font-face CSS declaration which allows authors to specify online fonts to display text on their web pages. By allowing authors to provide their own fonts, @font-face eliminates the need to depend on the limited number of fonts users have installed on their computers.
Take a look at the following table:
As you can see, there are several formats that you need to know about mainly due to cross-browser compatibility. The scenario in mobile devices isn't much different.
Solutions:
1 - Full browser compatibility
This is the method with the deepest support possible right now:
@font-face {
font-family: 'MyWebFont';
src: url('webfont.eot'); /* IE9 Compat Modes */
src: url('webfont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'), /* IE6-IE8 */
url('webfont.woff') format('woff'), /* Modern Browsers */
url('webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), /* Safari, Android, iOS */
url('webfont.svg#svgFontName') format('svg'); /* Legacy iOS */
}
2 - Most of the browser
Things are shifting heavily toward WOFF though, so you can probably get away with:
@font-face {
font-family: 'MyWebFont';
src: url('myfont.woff') format('woff'), /* Chrome 6+, Firefox 3.6+, IE 9+, Safari 5.1+ */
url('myfont.ttf') format('truetype'); /* Chrome 4+, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10+, Safari 3—5 */
}
3 - Only the latest browsers
Or even just WOFF.
You then use it like this:
body {
font-family: 'MyWebFont', Fallback, sans-serif;
}
References and Further reading:
That's mainly what you need to know about implementing this feature. If you want to research more on the subject I'll encourage to take a look at the following resources. Most of what I put here is extracted from the following
It is also possible to use WOFF fonts - example here
@font-face {
font-family: 'Plakat Fraktur';
src: url('/resources/fonts/plakat-fraktur-black-modified.woff') format('woff');
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
}
Safari and Internet Explorer both support the CSS @font-face rule, however they support two different embedded font types. Firefox is planning to support the same type as Apple some time soon. SVG can embed fonts but isn't that widely supported yet (without a plugin).
I think the most portable solution I've seen is to use a JavaScript function to replace headings etc. with an image generated and cached on the server with your font of choice -- that way you simply update the text and don't have to stuff around in Photoshop.
@font-face {
font-family: "CustomFont";
src: url("CustomFont.eot");
src: url("CustomFont.woff") format("woff"),
url("CustomFont.otf") format("opentype"),
url("CustomFont.svg#filename") format("svg");
}
Typeface.js and Cufon are two other interesting options. They are JavaScript components that render special font data in JSON format (which you can convert from TrueType or OpenType formats on their web sites) via the new <canvas> element in all newer browsers except Internet Explorer and via VML in Internet Explorer.
The main problem with both (as of now) is that selecting text does not work or at least works only quite awkwardly.
Still, it is very nice for headlines. Body text... I don't know.
And it's surprisingly fast.
I've found that the easiest way to have non-standard fonts on a website is to use sIFR
It does involve the use of a Flash object that contains the font, but it degrades nicely to standard text / font if Flash is not installed.
The style is set in your CSS, and JavaScript sets up the Flash replacement for your text.
Edit: (I still recommend using images for non-standard fonts as sIFR adds time to a project and can require maintenance).
You can add some fonts via Google Web Fonts.
Technically, the fonts are hosted at Google and you link them in the HTML header. Then, you can use them freely in CSS with @font-face (read about it).
For example:
In the <head> section:
<link href=' http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Sans' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
Then in CSS:
h1 { font-family: 'Droid Sans', arial, serif; }
The solution seems quite reliable (even Smashing Magazine uses it for an article title.). There are, however, not so many fonts available so far in Google Font Directory.
Typeface.js JavaScript Way:
With typeface.js you can embed custom fonts in your web pages so you don't have to render text to images
Instead of creating images or using flash just to show your site's graphic text in the font you want, you can use typeface.js and write in plain HTML and CSS, just as if your visitors had the font installed locally.
See the article 50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography for alternative methods.
I have only used Cufon. I have found it reliable and very easy to use, so I've stuck with it.
It looks like it only works in Internet Explorer, but a quick Google search for "html embed fonts" yields http://www.spoono.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=19
If you want to stay platform-agnostic (and you should!) you'll have to use images, or else just use a standard font.
Just simply provide the link to actual font like this and you will be good to go
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat' rel='stylesheet'>
<style>
body {
font-family: 'Montserrat';font-size: 22px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Montserrat</h1>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p>
</body>
</html>
If you have a file of your font, then you will need to add more formats of that font for other browsers.
For this purpose I use font generator like Fontsquirrel it provides all the font formats & its @font-face CSS, you will only need to just drag & drop it into your CSS file.
If by non standard font, you mean custom font of a standard format, here's how I do it, and it works for all browsers I've checked so far:
@font-face {
font-family: TempestaSevenCondensed;
src: url("../fonts/pf_tempesta_seven_condensed.eot") /* EOT file for IE */
}
@font-face {
font-family: TempestaSevenCondensed;
src: url("../fonts/pf_tempesta_seven_condensed.ttf") /* TTF file for CSS3 browsers */
}
so you'll just need both the ttf and eot fonts. Some tools available online can make the conversion.
But if you want to attach font in a non standard format (bitmaps etc), I can't help you.
If you use ASP.NET, it's really easy to generate image based fonts without actually having to install (as in adding to the installed font base) fonts on the server by using:
PrivateFontCollection pfont = new PrivateFontCollection();
pfont.AddFontFile(filename);
FontFamily ff = pfont.Families[0];
and then drawing with that font onto a Graphics.
Source: Stackoverflow.com