Empower Your Site With Google’s Fonts

by Shirley | Dec 16, 2015 | Anything Online

For some time I was searching for a way in which I could integrate a diversity of fonts to make this network of sites I have attractive enough to make Alice in Wonderland blush, and mostly I appealed to the notion of installing one particular theme catered to such. Of course I then attempted to search online for particular themes that provide that certain function; and while there are many out there that include specifications for Google fonts integrated into the CSS backend, none of such (in respect to their layouts or colour palettes) actually gained my interest. It is either they have stylesheet configurations guaranteeing font sizes large enough to simulate a preschooler’s activity book or layouts that seem to feature humongous boxes with equally weird colour combinations, not to mention gargantuan slideshow image headers. Additionally, despite that of a myriad of WP themes populating Themeforest, Mafiashare, or even that ever-dependable WordPress.org portal where free and premium themes meet, many of those in vogue feature parallax, business-inclined website prototypes that (I feel) are not suitable to what I have in mind for my site (except Spacious, courtesy of ThemeGrill; oh how I love that theme which, by the way, may be converted into a business layout if one wishes to). To make matters a bit more complicated, those I chance upon which eventually turn out to be exactly what I want—with Google fonts in particular—are mostly paid, and in US dollars to be precise. All these in the midst of a simple desire for Google fonts: that if I should I have any /remote/ chance of attaining the possibility for that ultimate typographical customisation, would appease my longing heart for web blogging artistry within the WordPress framework.

As luck would have it, I serendipitously read some writeups concerning how to add custom fonts to a WordPress blog without even having to bear the brunt of searching far and wide for templates that accommodate such a feature. The great news is it may be easily and seamlessly integrated as a plugin installation, well of course, in an attempt to make blogging life easier. The “eureka!” moment then came to me—an Archimedes-like realisation that a plugin should be the most reasonable and feasible workaround there is, when all hopes have gone to the dumps and where all else have failed. In this way did I deign search for myself some of those available and voila! A nifty little tool called “Easy Google Fonts” came my way, with its WordPress index page staring at me for a handful of minutes. The usual cautious me began waving a red flag as to whether it may be safe or not to install it since a little note indicated that it has been “untested with your version of WordPress” (I have just updated to the remarkable WP version 4.4 ‘Clifford’). So, the clock began ticking away as I tried to weigh options, outlining yet another pro and con list in my head. Ultimately, though, I had to give it a try with high hopes that it avoid breaking my Multisite installation in any way.

The WP webpage containing details about the plugin

I was surprised that installing it was a breeze and that my prayer for hassles non-existing should come to pass. Nevertheless I was baffled at first on how to tweak settings or apply changes to my default font style: I went back and forth to the “Settings” menu in the WP dashboard in order to set a default font. Instead I was met with a page telling me to indicate a “Font Control.” Naturally I was oblivious to that feature; but all I needed to do at that moment is change how my site’s text would look! Providentially, though, I was able to revert back to theme customisation and there it was:—the menu outlining a plethora of fonts for different areas in my website requiring text. As it could be expected of me, choosing which font proved difficult inasmuch as Google offers a bevy of handsome typography enticing enough to behold. Since I have a predilection towards serif fonts (for this site in particular) I eventually picked out “Andada” which I found more pleasing to my eyes. Sure enough I was all set; and when I previewed, I thought my webpage looked better than before.

Outstanding “Andana”. Lovable, indeed.

Got somewhat confused at this point: where do I set font specifics?

The menu at left is the crux of it all.

Now gone are the days of theme-hunting, all for the sake of dressing up my site with various lettering styles. Titanium Themes did a really good job at this one and for this I bestow upon them a crown of laurels.

(N.B.: For webmasters interested at making their paragraphs prettier than usual, Easy Google Fonts is the way to go. Any info about it may be viewed at its official WordPress plugin page where a download link is also available. Likewise, it may be installed through the WP dashboard.)