Web Fonts

Fonts on the web behave differently than fonts in print files. While a printed document may use a proprietary font, there's no threat of distributing the licensed font files with a publication--no one can download a font file from say, a physical poster or book, and the font files used in a layout remain on the designer's computer.

With the web, websites rely upon references to actual font files to render fonts properly, and if the font files aren't present, a website will defer to what is installed on the user's computer. There are also different font formats used with the web (see this article on font file formats on W3Schools).

There are a number of system fonts that can be relied upon, however, adding custom fonts makes your design more memorable and unique. There are several font foundries and services like Adobe's TypeKit, Fonts.com, and Typography.com that permit you to license fonts for web use. These typically charge a subscription fee per font variant and/or based on your website traffic (as they incur traffic for the font files hosted on their site but used in yours).

To use:

A few tips:

Don't use too many fonts and variants in one design. Each font variant or family, even if unused, will increase the size of your site.
For a display font (headlines, etc.) one font variant may suffice, but for a body font, make sure that the font you choose has adequate variants and characters. For instance, your body copy should likely contain:
- Regular
- Italic
- Bold
- Bold Italic
While Google Fonts will remind you that you can use the font(s) without downloading them, you'll likely want to use them in your design software.
I recommend organizing your web fonts using font software. Create a new group or collection of Google Fonts you have downloaded, as this will remind you which can be used freely in your web designs.
While Google Fonts has a great collection, it doesn't have everything. You may find the font you want on another site, such as dafont.com. If the author hasn't prepared fonts for web (but the font license gives you rights to use it) you can use conversion tools like Font Squirrel.