How to Add Custom Fonts to Your Squarespace Website

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Have you ever stumbled across a website with gorgeous typography and thought, "I need THAT for my site"? 👀

Custom fonts are one of those design elements that can instantly elevate your website from looking template-basic to professionally designed. But adding them to your Squarespace site involves a few technical steps that aren't immediately obvious.

In this post, I'll show you exactly how to add custom fonts using Squarespace. And don't worry - even if words like "CSS" make you want to close your laptop and slowly back away, I promise this is totally doable.

Step 01: Choose a Font

When it comes to a business website, you have to use commercial fonts, and one of the best places to find commercial use web fonts is Creative Market.

Here's something most people miss: custom fonts are better used as headings and accents, NOT as your primary text font. Why? If every piece of text on your page is a custom font, your page speed can suffer. And if your page takes awhile to load… people will just leave. 🏃‍♀️💨

Other great spots to grab custom header or accent fonts are:

• Adobe Fonts

• Jen Wagner Fonts* (where I purchased my fonts for this site!)

For your paragraph text font, you'll want to stick to a traditional font or a Google font, like Arial or Helvetica.

Considerations for Font Readability and Accessibility

When choosing a font, it's important to consider both its readability and accessibility.

A font that's hard to read can detract from your user's experience and make your website less accessible. Think about how it will look when someone's scrolling on their phone at midnight with the brightness turned down. Make sure the font you choose is legible, with clear distinctions between characters, and consider how it will look in various sizes. Also, think about color contrast between the font and its background to ensure it's easily readable by all users, including those with visual impairments.

Font Licensing

Before you download and use a font, check its licensing terms. Not all fonts are free for commercial use, and some require purchasing a specific license.

I know, I know. License agreements are about as exciting as watching paint dry. But using a font without the proper license is basically asking for trouble down the road. It's like "borrowing" someone's car without asking - it might seem fine until it's suddenly not.

Always check the license of any font you plan to use. It's a small investment to protect your business and save yourself from awkward emails from lawyers later.

Step 02: Download the Font

A web font needs to be saved in WOFF or WOFF2 format to be embedded into your website. Make sure you save all of the font formats available to you via your font purchase, and we'll upload them all according to your website platform.

WHAT IS WOFF AND WOFF2?

WOFF (Web Open Font Format) and WOFF2 are specifically designed for use on the web, providing both efficiency and performance improvements over traditional font formats.

Think of WOFF as the font equivalent of compression software - it makes the files smaller without losing quality. WOFF2 takes this even further with better compression. Better compression = faster loading = happier visitors = more sales. It's a beautiful chain reaction. ✨

By saving fonts in these formats, you ensure they're optimized for web use. This matters more than ever as Google gets increasingly picky about site speed in their ranking algorithms.

Step 03: Add the Font to Your Website

The next step is to actually get these fonts onto your site. I'm focusing on Squarespace below since that's my jam, but the principles are similar across platforms.

How to Add a Custom Font in Squarespace

01. Upload Your Font

First, you need to upload your custom font file to Squarespace. Click the backlash key and type CSS like this: /CSS.

Here, you'll find the option to "Manage Custom Files." Click on this and then select "Add Images or Fonts." You can then upload your font file. Make sure your font file is in a web-friendly format like WOFF or WOFF2. (You can also use OTF.)

02. Using CSS to Implement the Font

After uploading, you'll need to write some CSS code to use your font on the website. You'll use the `@font-face` rule in the Custom CSS section. This rule should define the font's name and specify the URL of the uploaded font file. After defining the font with `@font-face`, you can apply it to different elements of your website, such as headers or paragraphs, by specifying the font-family in your CSS rules:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'California Coast';
    src: url('your-font-url.woff2') format('woff2'),
         url('your-font-url.woff') format('woff');
}

Apply it to elements like headers or paragraphs:

h1 {
    font-family: 'California Coast', sans-serif;
}

Just swap 'California Coast' with whatever you want to name your font, and replace 'your-font-url' with the actual URL of your uploaded font file. (You'll find this by clicking on your uploaded font in the Squarespace file manager.)

03. Testing and Adjustments

Once you've added your custom font, test your website on different browsers and devices. This step is important, but often overlooked.

I've learned this lesson the hard way - a site that looks perfect on your laptop might look completely different on someone else's phone. Check it on your computer, your phone, maybe even your mom's ancient iPad. Better to find issues now than have a potential client tell you your site looks wonky later!

Note: The exact steps and code may vary depending on the specific version of Squarespace you are using and the font file format. Always check Squarespace's guidelines and the font's licensing agreement.

Responsive Design Considerations

When adding custom fonts, it's important to make sure they look good across all devices and screen sizes.

Your site needs to look good everywhere - not just on the giant monitor where you designed it. Test how your font looks on different devices, and adjust the font size or style if necessary. Sometimes a font that looks amazing at 48px on your desktop header might be completely illegible at 24px on mobile.

Adding custom fonts to your website is a fantastic way to add personality and branding to your site. Just be sure to:

• Use them sparingly (headers and accents, not everywhere)

• Check licensing (avoid legal headaches)

• Test across devices (phones, tablets, desktops)

• Consider both aesthetics and loading speed

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