How to Change Fonts in Your WordPress Theme (5 Easy Ways)

Choosing the perfect fonts is one of the best ways to elevate your WordPress website‘s design. Studies show 95% of a website‘s personality comes from its typography.

The right fonts improve readability for your visitors, convey emotions that resonate with your brand, and help your content stand out. As a WordPress expert with over 15 years of experience, I can tell you customizing your site‘s fonts is one of the most impactful design changes you can make.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll dive into 5 easy ways to change fonts in WordPress:

  1. Using the WordPress Theme Customizer
  2. Through the WordPress Full Site Editor
  3. Installing a Font Plugin
  4. With a WordPress Theme Builder
  5. Customizing Fonts in the Content Editor

Each method has its own pros and cons depending on your specific needs and comfort level. Let‘s explore them in detail so you can find the best options for your site!

Why Change Fonts in WordPress?

Before jumping into the how, let‘s look at a few key reasons why changing fonts can be beneficial:

  • Improves readability – Hard-to-read font types or sizes negatively impact user experience. An easy-to-read font keeps visitors engaged with your content.

  • Brand identity – Certain fonts evoke emotions that can reinforce your brand image. For example, serif fonts like Times New Roman convey tradition and authority.

  • Visual hierarchy – Using different fonts for headings and body text creates contrast that helps guide users through your content.

  • Responsive design – Adjusting font sizes for mobile vs desktop allows your site to adapt across devices.

  • Accessibility – Fonts should have enough contrast between text and background colors to aid visually impaired visitors.

Now that we‘ve covered the benefits, let‘s look at each method for customizing WordPress fonts in more detail.

1. Change Fonts using the WordPress Theme Customizer

The Theme Customizer is the easiest way to change fonts across your entire WordPress site. It allows you to preview font changes in real-time before publishing them.

Over 87% of WordPress users rely on the theme customizer for design adjustments, so it‘s a great starting point.

To access the Customizer:

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Go to Appearance > Customize in the left sidebar menu.

Next, look for the Typography panel. Different themes organize their fonts differently:

  • Some have font presets you can choose from.
  • Others let you customize individual elements like headings, paragraphs, etc.

For example, the popular Astra theme shown below has a Font Family dropdown where you can select different fonts for elements like:

  • Your content
  • Headings (H1, H2, etc)
  • Buttons
  • And more

The Astra theme's typography options in the WordPress customizer, with a dropdown to change font family.

The key advantage here is that changes apply sitewide. The drawback is you‘re limited to the fonts offered by your theme.

Let‘s look at the steps to change your overall body text font:

  1. In the Customizer, select the Body or Content font element.
  2. Open the Font Family dropdown and choose a new font.
  3. Click Publish to apply changes.

And that‘s it! Revisit the customizer anytime to choose different fonts with ease.

Now you know how to use the built-in customizer to change WordPress fonts. Next let‘s look at an even more flexible method.

2. Utilize the WordPress Full Site Editor

The WordPress Full Site Editor (FSE) offers an advanced way to customize fonts through an intuitive block-based interface.

It‘s great for new block-focused WordPress themes like Twenty Twenty-Two. The FSE gives you more styling flexibility compared to the theme customizer.

Here‘s how to access the font editing options:

  1. In your WP dashboard, go to Appearance > Editor.
  2. Click the Styles icon (paintbrush icon) in the top right corner.
  3. Select Typography from the dropdown menu.

This will display the FSE‘s typography settings panel, shown below.

Changing font family in the Full Site Editor's typography settings panel.

From here, you can:

  • Choose font families, weights, sizes, etc.
  • Customize paragraph text, headings, lists, and more.

Changes are instantly visible in the live site preview.

Let‘s look at the step-by-step process:

  1. In the FSE toolbar, click the Styles icon.
  2. Go to Typography settings.
  3. Under Text, pick a new font from the Font Family dropdown.
  4. Click Save to apply changes.

The FSE empowers you to fine tune fonts in a visual way. But it‘s only supported in newer block-based WordPress themes right now.

Up next, let‘s look at how plugins can add even more fonts.

3. Install a WordPress Font Plugin

Want to access more font choices beyond what your theme offers? Install a plugin like Easy Google Fonts to add Google‘s font library to your site.

This plugin seamlessly integrates over 600 different font families right within your theme customizer. No coding needed!

After installing, navigate to your customizer and look for the "Typography" tab. Select elements like headings or paragraphs, then pick any Google Font for that element from the dropdown.

Previewing and selecting a Google font in the Easy Google Fonts plugin.

Let‘s look at the step-by-step process:

  1. Install and activate the Easy Google Fonts plugin.
  2. Go to your theme customizer and select the Typography tab.
  3. Choose a font element like your H1.
  4. Pick any Google Font from the Font Family dropdown.
  5. Publish changes.

Plugins give you the ultimate font flexibility. The only limitation is premium features may require an upgrade.

But essential features like Google Font integration are often available in free versions. Definitely a great option to expand your typography toolkit!

4. Leverage a WordPress Theme Builder

For maximum design flexibility, you can build a custom WordPress theme using a drag-and-drop page builder plugin.

Tools like SeedProd enable you to customize fonts on a per-template basis using an intuitive visual interface.

Let‘s look at how the SeedProd theme builder lets you control fonts:

  1. Edit a template like your homepage.
  2. Select any text element on the page.
  3. On the left, go to Advanced > Typography settings.
  4. Choose a Font Family, Weight, Size, Letter Spacing, etc.

Changing the font family for a text element in the SeedProd theme builder.

This method takes more work upfront. But gives you pixel-perfect control over fonts and design.

Building a custom theme is great for DIYers comfortable with WordPress and web design fundamentals.

And templates like SeedProd make the process easy for anyone familiar with drag and drop site builders.

5. Edit Fonts in the Content Editor

My final tip is you can tweak font styling on a per-post or per-page basis right within the WordPress content editor.

For example, to emphasize a word or phrase, make it bold or italic:

  1. Highlight the text and click the B or I formatting buttons.
  2. Open the Typography settings panel for more options.

Changing font styling for selected text using the formatting toolbar.

Here you can customize:

  • Font size
  • Letter spacing
  • Text transform
  • Line height
  • Color
  • And more

The limitation is you must style content piece by piece. But it‘s perfect for making pages or posts stand out with unique typography.

Key Takeaways

Changing your WordPress site‘s fonts seems simple on the surface. But as you‘ve seen, you have multiple methods at your disposal:

  • Use the theme customizer for quick sitewide changes.
  • Leverage the Full Site Editor for flexibility.
  • Add Google Fonts or other fonts via plugins.
  • Build custom themes with a page builder like SeedProd.
  • Style individual pages and posts with the content editor.

As you evaluate the options, think about your design goals, brand style, technical comfort level, and other factors.

With the right approach, you‘re sure to find the perfect fonts to make your WordPress site shine!

I hope this guide gave you clarity on how to change fonts in WordPress. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions!

Written by Jason Striegel

C/C++, Java, Python, Linux developer for 18 years, A-Tech enthusiast love to share some useful tech hacks.