WordPress gives you strong control over your website’s design, but the default font options are limited. Adding custom fonts lets you match your brand typography exactly across all pages and blocks.
Custom fonts can set your site apart from others using the same theme defaults and give your content a more distinctive and consistent appearance.
The process of adding custom fonts in WordPress is not always straightforward. You typically need to upload fonts to your server and reference them with CSS, or use a third-party plugin.
The Nexter Extension (free) plugin makes this process direct. You upload the font files through the WordPress dashboard and the fonts become available across the block editor, Elementor widgets, and the Nexter customizer.
Best Used For:
- Businesses that need specific brand fonts not available in Google Fonts
- Sites with multilingual content that require specialized character sets
- Designers delivering client sites with licensed custom typefaces
Learn via Video Tutorial
Where to find Free Custom Fonts for WordPress?
If you are looking for free custom fonts, you can find hundreds of options on these sites:
Check the font license before using any font on a commercial website.
How to Upload Custom Fonts with the Nexter Extension?
From the WordPress Dashboard, go to Nexter > Extensions > Utilities.
Then go to the Custom Fonts Upload section, enable the toggle, and click the gear icon (âš™).
It will open the Custom Upload Fonts popup; here, you’ll find options to upload two types of fonts.
Simple Font Upload – Upload individual font files for each style. For example, Open Sans has separate files for Bold, Italic, Light, and Regular. Upload only the specific styles you need for your site. Individual font files (static fonts) are smaller than variable font files.
Variable Font Upload – Upload a single font file that contains multiple styles. If you need all styles of a font like Open Sans, upload the variable font version rather than each style separately.
Now, let’s understand both processes.
Simple Font Upload
Let’s say we have downloaded a font called Purple Smile from dafonts.com and want to use it on our WordPress website.
From the Custom Upload Fonts popup, click the Simple Font Upload button.
From the Choose File option, select the font file from the media library. You can also upload the file directly from the popup if it has not been uploaded yet.
Note: You can only upload in WOFF2 and TTF file formats.
Once you’ve selected the file, add a name for your font in the Font Name field.
From the variation dropdown, select the variation that matches your font style. To add more variations, click the Add Variant button and repeat the process.
Click the Save button. Your uploaded font will appear in the list.
Your font is now available from the Nexter customizer, WordPress block settings, and Elementor widgets.
Variable Font Upload
For this example, use the OpenSans variable font, which contains all styles in a single file.
From the Custom Upload Fonts popup, click the Variable Font Upload button.
From the Choose File option under Regular, select the font file from the media library. You can also upload the file directly if needed.
To add an italic version, use the Italic field.
Note: You can only upload in WOFF2 and TTF file formats.
Once you’ve selected the file, add a name for your font in the Font Name field.
Click the Save button. Your uploaded font will appear in the list.
The variable font is now available from the Nexter customizer, WordPress block settings, and Elementor widgets. Unlike a simple font upload, a variable font lets you select from different weight and style options.
To add Adobe Fonts to your WordPress website instead, see How to Add Adobe Fonts in WordPress.
