Proper Use of Fonts on Your Website

When it comes to website design, fonts are often overlooked — but a well-chosen and properly implemented font has a big impact on visual identity, readability, and overall user experience. Proper font integration on a website starts with choosing the right format.

Which Font Formats Do You Need?

Web fonts come in several different file formats, and not all browsers support the same ones. That’s why it’s important to use a combination that ensures maximum compatibility across browsers.

Here are the main formats you should know:

• WOFF (Web Open Font Format) – The standard format for all modern browsers. Reliable, compressed, and efficient.
• WOFF2 – A newer version of WOFF with better compression. Supported by all recent browser versions.
• EOT (Embedded OpenType) – Required for older versions of Internet Explorer (IE8 and below). Less relevant for modern web development.
• TTF / OTF – Sometimes used as a fallback, though not ideal for the web. Works well on iOS/Safari browsers.

How to Add Fonts to Your Website

Fonts are typically added using the @font-face rule in CSS. Below is a basic example of how to include a custom font and ensure it works across multiple browsers:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'MyFont';
    src: url('fonts/myfont.eot');
    src: url('fonts/myfont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
         url('fonts/myfont.woff2') format('woff2'),
         url('fonts/myfont.woff') format('woff'),
         url('fonts/myfont.ttf') format('truetype');
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: normal;
}

Best Practices

✔ Use only the formats you actually need — WOFF and WOFF2 are enough for modern browsers.
✔ Always provide a fallback option for your fonts so that the browser can choose an alternative if needed.
✔ Always check the license — not all fonts are free or intended for web use.

Conclusion

Choosing and using fonts properly on your website affects more than just aesthetics — it also impacts performance and accessibility. WOFF and WOFF2 are typically sufficient, but for full compatibility, additional formats may be necessary. Always keep your users in mind — fonts should be clear, readable, and quick to load.