Custom fonts – WordPress.com or self-hosting required?

  • Unknown's avatar
    mikelongcomedy · Member ·

    I started this page (Mike Long Comedy BLOG
    mikelongcomedy.wordpress.com) a couple years ago as a school project, forgot about it and now want to use it to practice WordPress. This simple one-post blog page is linked to a main site that lives in a directory (w-mikelongcomedy) on one of my hosted domains. It will never need to be more than a one page blog for experimenting and showing potential employers some WP experience. That is, I’m not trying to promote it with its own domain.

    The first thing I wanted to do was use some custom Google fonts on the WP page, so it would match the main site. As I started reading how to use custom fonts on a WP page, it became apparent that I would have to upload the font to a folder, and that this would only be possible if I had a hosted domain with WP installed on it, which I don’t at the moment. I asked tech support at my webhost who said the font would get uploaded to wp-content/themes/your-theme/fonts directory.

    I read the WP explanation page about .com v. .org, but because I just want to experiment and practice using WP (starting w custom fonts) I’m not sure if I need to install WP on a hosted domain to do that, because the main site is already in a sub-directory on a hosted domain, and the WP page is just a blog linked to it.

    I could make a subdomain from my hosted domain if required, and install WP there. For the experimenting I want to try – including but not limited to custom fonts – what’s the best thing to do in my case?

    Site: https://mikelongcomedy.wordpress.com.
    WP.com: Yes
    Correct account: Yes

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    Hi @mikelongcomedy, I can think of a few options. First, note this, since some older .com vs .org info is out of date:
    https://get.wp.com

    We do support uploads now of fonts, themes, and plugins on the Business Plan. It costs more, but you also get high touch support, security, maintenance, backups, etc. So that’s one option.

    You can also set up your own installation with another host. If you’re just trying to learn WordPress, that would be a fine choice. You can really get technical with that and even break and un-break the site as you’d like, as long as you can handle it on your own or with help from your host and the .org forums.

    Or, if you’re looking to learn about customizing the blog, you could tinker with the free site here, add content to that, build your following — and if you wanted to roll with it, you could upgrade to add the font and all of those other features.

    Also, I didn’t get to see the main site’s font, but, is this mainly for the logo?
    You could use an image for that, then just let the rest be one of the font options we include (and there are several).

    You’d even be welcome to keep the free site here AND tinker with the installation, and redirect the less successful site to the one that works out better. Lots of options.

    I’d imagine you have some questions, and we’re happy to answer what we can or point you to the right resources on WordPress.org. Let us know :)

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