Paid? free? What is Web font? Font basics related to website creation

When creating a website, you need to pay attention not only to the quality of the content but also to the selection of fonts which greatly influence the impression of the site. Although there are various kinds of font designation methods, the font newly introduced in the latest rule "CSS3" for deciding the design of the Website is "Web font". By using Web fonts, the range of fonts that can be used in texts is expanded, and the degree of freedom in designing the site can be increased. So, this time we will introduce the font basics and Web fonts related to website creation.

The IT Industry Guide is a collection of articles and resources by Internet Academy, Japan's first learning institute specialising in the Web. Here, we introduce you to industry insights in an easy-to-understand manner.

Table of contents

Font basics related to website creation

Fonts have free fonts and paid fonts. Although the free font is called "free font", it is not free font usage fee, but the font usage fee is free.

For example, it is free when used for creating personal websites such as blogs of hobbies, but for commercial use, it is free of charge for fonts and logo marks and free prints that are clearly stipulated in the contract that you can not use it for printing There are fonts and so on.

When using fonts, be sure to check the license and follow the terms of use and use it. In the Terms of Use, there are cases described as "Please contact the author after use" "Credit notation required", so confirmation before use is essential.

What is Web font?

Web font is a mechanism to display by referring to font data on the Web server. When a user accesses a Web page that uses Web fonts, the Web font is downloaded and displayed in the browser. There are also two types of Web fonts, a free font and a charged font.

Western fonts are rich in types of fonts for both free and charged fees. Please look for a free font that fits the image before searching for a free font.

Benefits of using web fonts

The font installed as a standard by the OS used by the user differs. Since the font of local data (user's environment) was specified in the "font-family" property of CSS2, if the specified font was not installed on the user's PC, the specified font could not be displayed.

However, since the Web font introduced from CSS3 is a mechanism to download font data from the specified URL, font designation can be done freely regardless of user's environment.

Also, Web fonts are one of the merits of not breaking the shape of letters even when enlarging/reducing the display of Web pages.

In conclusion

It is no exaggeration to say that the font determines the impression of the website. Using Web fonts is effective when you want to have variations in the fonts used on the website.

However, when using Web fonts, you should not only look through the font terms and conditions but also fully understand copyright. First of all, we encourage you to learn how to use website creation copyrights and on-site fonts at web specialized schools.