In general, fonts are a separate resource that need to be downloaded by the browser before any text is rendered, which impacts a store's overall performance. To make the theme more performant, system fonts that are already installed on the customers computer can be used by merchants that choose fonts from the
System fonts
category of the Shopify font library.
Shopify's font library is a
collection of fonts
that includes system fonts, a selection of Google fonts, and licensed fonts from
Monotype
. These fonts are free to use on all Shopify online stores, and are provided in both
WOFF
and
WOFF2
formats.
The files for each font include the following Unicode ranges, if the ranges are available for the font:
Basic Latin
Latin-1 Supplement
Latin Extended-A
Currency Symbols
This selection of fonts covers a broad range of use cases. However, due to licensing restrictions, there are some fonts that Shopify can't include. If you need to use a broader range of characters, then you can use system fonts,
Typekit
, and other solutions.
To learn more about using Shopify’s font library, refer to
Add Shopify fonts to your theme
.
Personal access to the font files isn't currently available.
System fonts are fonts that are already installed on a user’s computer. This removes the need for browsers to download the font before rendering text and makes the theme more performant. System fonts are listed with the
available fonts
, noted with a
system
badge, and will show under the
System fonts
category in the theme editor font picker.
If you choose to use system fonts, then the font that’s used to render text will depend on the user’s operating system. There are three generic system font types. The following are examples of fonts within those types:
mono
- Menlo, Consolas, Monaco, Liberation Mono, and Lucida Console
sans-serif
- BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, and Helvetica Neue
serif
- Iowan Old Style, Apple Garamond, Baskerville, Times New Roman, Droid Serif, Times, and Source Serif Pro
If you want to use a font that's not included in Shopify's font library, then you can use fonts from third party solutions like
Typekit
.
With most third party font solutions, you have the following options for including the font in your theme:
Reference the font through the third party's hosting
Upload the font files to your theme
If you include custom fonts in your theme and want to provide merchants with the ability to choose the font, then you need to create a setting for the selection, such as a
select setting
. You can then reference the setting value in your CSS when defining which font to use for the associated elements.
If a font is hosted with the third party, then they'll usually provide a
<link>
tag to include the font in your theme:
The
<link>
tag is often included in
theme.liquid
, or your chosen
layout
file.
If you have your own font files, then follow these steps to include the font in your theme:
If you're planning on pushing your theme to a store using Shopify CLI, uploading a theme ZIP file, using the Shopify GitHub integration, or distributing the font with a theme through the Shopify Theme Store, then you should store the font in the
assets
folder of the theme. These steps should be performed in a local code editor, not the admin code editor.
Add the font files to the
assets directory
.
Create a
@font-face
CSS rule so that you can reference the font. Use the
asset_url
filter
to output the URL for the font file:
If you want to add a font to an existing theme through the Shopify admin, then you should store your font in the
Files
section of the Shopify admin. This is because uploading some types of fonts to the
assets
directory through the admin code editor might lead to file corruption.
Upload the font files to the
Content
>
Files
section of the Shopify admin.
Create a
@font-face
CSS rule so that you can reference the font. Use the
file_url
filter
to output the URL for the font file:
The following outlines how to use fonts from the Shopify font library in your theme:
Add a
font_picker
type setting to allow merchants to choose their font in the theme editor. The value of this setting is returned as a
font
object
.
Use one of the following
font filters
to load the chosen font, or any of its variants:
Use the
font_face
filter to insert the default
@font-face
declaration.
Use the
font_url
filter to access a CDN URL, so that you can create a custom
@font-face
declaration.
Use the
font_modify
filter to access font variants of the same family. Examples are bold and italic stylings.
Reference the chosen font to set any specific CSS stylings, such as
font-family
,
font-weight
, and
font-style
.
The following fonts are free to use on all Shopify online stores:
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