Alternative Custom Fonts: Light Your Web Design Way

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was a limited number of fonts which made web design life on the planets unbearable. There were uprisings, oppression and even World Wars.

But the true Jedi, the Prometheus, the true son of Google has helped a lot providing them with fire of Google fonts, custom font faces and Typekit.

Everyone knows what are these Google fonts, but what are custom fonts?

Let’s get to the bottom of this.

Custom fonts are the fonts which are not included into the list of safe fonts. But Yoda, a CSS Jedi, resolves all the problems adding them to a page layout with his laser sword he sentimentally calls Divine Elemente.

By the way, this laser sword was the tool which helped him to become a Jedi Master (but shhhhh! No one ever has to know this top secret, especially George Lucas!).

Nowadays, almost all modern browsers (Firefox 3.5+, Chrome 3.0+, Safari 3.1+, Opera 10+, IE 5+) work with custom fonts embedded in a website by CSS.

Custom fonts usage is a step towards becoming a Jedi Master of web development like mysterious Yoda. With optional fonts, you’ll be able to improve your website’s design and help the Light Side of the Force.

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The examples of how true web design Jedis use them on the web

Thanks to Wen Zheng for this example.

Thanks to Alex Varanese for this example.

Thanks to Josh Korwin for this example.

Thanks to Melany Lane for this example.

Thanks to Fontfabric for this example.

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Make Your Decision: The Light or Dark Side of the Force?

The Dark sides:

• alternative custom fonts need the additional 30-75 kb;
• so website’s loading speed is slowing down;
• Every font has its own creator so think twice before using one or another font. Because the interplanetary agreement is not a joke.

The Light sides:

• Usage of CSS only. No need to use Java script, images or flash;
• Text is text. You can highlight it, underline or whatever you want to do with it;
• And all this makes custom fonts an ideal for SEO.

That’s why it’s very important to learn how to use custom fonts and other text effects when you get yourself the Divine sword which Yoda uses for his design, and you will never know that Darth Vader is your father… khm… I mean the biggest part of the web design / web developer way is left behind.

So, become a web design Jedi Master!

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Are you still here???

Learn and share the facts.

Did you know? Custom fonts can drive you more traffic.
Did you know? Custom fonts slow down the website’s loading speed.
Did you know? Custom fonts can let you forget about Flash, images or JavaScript.