Web Fonts Section

Overview

The Web Fonts Section controls the use of Web Fonts in Second Site. Web fonts can be downloaded to the user's browser on demand. This expands the set of fonts you can use on your site. Without using Web Fonts, publishers are limited to a small set of common fonts that are likely to reside on the device used to browse the site. You can see an example of Web Fonts in use on the Second Site demonstration site. The Site Title is rendered in a cursive font named "Lobster".

Second Site supports fonts that are published via the Google Font Directory. Each font in the directory is available under an open source license and is served by Google servers.

While Web Fonts expand the set of fonts you can use on your site, they should be used with restraint. Each Web Font increases the content that must be downloaded when viewing a page, so your pages may load slowly when using multiple fonts. In addition, typography designers recommend using a minimum of fonts on a page, primarily because it takes considerable design skill to mix fonts and produce a page with a nice appearance that is easy to read.

Web fonts will not work if the user does not have an active Internet connection when browsing a site that is distributed via removable media. The browser will not be able to load the Web Font, and it will use the alternate font in its place.

Adding Web Fonts

You add a Web Font to your site using the [Add...] button under the Web Fonts list in the Web Fonts Section. Click the button to open the Edit Web Font Window. Chose a font and set the other properties as desired, then click OK to add the font. When the window closes, the new font will be visible in the Web Fonts list.

All enabled Web Fonts will be included in the font-family pull-down menus in the Stylesheets sub-sections.

Editing a Web Font

Use the [Edit...] button to edit a Web Font entry. The [Edit...] button opens the Edit Web Font Window.

Editing the Web Fonts List

Use the [Delete...] button to delete the selected Web Font.

Use the [Duplicate] button to duplicate the selected Web Font.

Use the [Up] and [Down] buttons beneath the Web Fonts list to move the highlighted entry. The sequence does not affect the look or operation of your web pages, but you may prefer a specific sequence.

The [Left] and [Right] buttons do not apply to the Web Fonts list and are disabled.

You can also use drag-and-drop to resequence Web Fonts.

Edit Web Font Window

The Edit Web Font window controls the properties associated with a Web Font.

Enabled

The Enabled property controls whether or not Second Site will include the Web Font in the site.

Font

The Font pull-down menu lists all the available fonts. Choose a font from the list. When you choose a font, Second Site will update the Preview panel to display some text in the selected font.

Alternate

Select an alternate font from the Alternate pull-down menu or key the name of one or more alternate fonts. The first available alternate font will be used if the selected font is not available. A Web Font will not be available if the browser software does not support downloaded fonts or if the download fails due to a network error.

When you choose a font family from the Font pull-down menu, Second Site sets the Alternate value to a generic font family. You may choose a different generic font, or key the name of another font. If you key the name of a non-generic font, you should include a generic font as the last alternative. Separate font names with commas.

The Alternate value will be appended to the entry for the current Web Font when it appears in the a font-family pull-down menu.

Page Set

By default, Web Fonts are available on all pages included in the site, but you can use the Page Set pull-down menu to restrict the Web Font to a specific Page Set. Web Fonts that are not available for a particular Page Set are not referenced by pages in the set and thus they do not add to the download time for those pages.

To use a Web Font on multiple Page Sets, but not all, you must add multiple entries in the Web Fonts list.

Variations

Font definitions vary according to the weight of the font (light, normal, bold) and the style (normal, italic). Each variation that is available for a given font has a checkbox in the Variations panel. Tick the checkboxes for the variations you want to use. Note, however, that the more variations you use, the more font files will be downloaded, and the load time of the page will increase.

Preview

Second Site shows some text in the current font in the Preview panel. The Preview panel is limited to showing a single variation, and so Second Site uses the first checked variation if multiple variations are checked. (The sequence of variations starts in the upper left and proceeds left-to-right and then top-to-bottom.)

The Preview panel is an embedded Internet Explorer browser window. Other browsers may render the font slightly differently.