Basics of Google Font API (Application Program Interface)
Link to CSS files
You essentially hotlink directly to CSS files on Google.com. Through URL parameters, you specificity which fonts you want, and what variations of those fonts.
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine:bold,bolditalic|Inconsolata:italic|Droid+Sans">
</head>Hot tip: Just open that CSS file in your browser, copy and paste the contents, and put in your own CSS file. That way it’s not an extra HTTP request.
CSS
In your CSS you can then specify these new fonts by name on any element you wish to use them.
body { font-family: 'Tangerine', 'Inconsolata', 'Droid Sans', serif; font-size: 48px; }FontLoader
You can use the FontLoader JavaScript instead of linking to the CSS. It has advantages, like controlling the Flash of Unstyled Text (FOUT), and also disadvantages, like the fact that the fonts won’t load for users with JavaScript off.
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
WebFont.load({
google: {
families: ['Cantarell']
}
});
</script>
<style type="text/css">
.wf-loading h1 { visibility: hidden; }
.wf-active h1, .wf-inactive h1 {
visibility: visible; font-family: 'Cantarell';
}
</style>Those class names, e.g .wf-loading get applied to the <html> element. So notice when the fonts are “loading”, you can use that class name to hide the text. Then when they are shown, make them visible again. That is how FOUT is controlled.
