Why do my custom fonts sometimes not load on my SilkStart site?

SilkStart allows you to select from a list of pre-loaded fonts to help make your site look clean and professional. However, it's possible that your account manager helped you set up a custom font (via Google Fonts) on your site that is not available on the standard menu. This article may apply in that scenario. 

What happens when I use Google Fonts?

When you add a Google Font to your site using SilkStart's Look and Feel settings, you're adding some CSS code behind the scenes. CSS is the programming language that tells your browser how to display a website - what colours, sizes, fonts, alignment, etc. to use for every part of your website.

CSS code handles fonts in a special way, because it recognizes that not every computer has every font. In order to make sure that everyone can read your website - even if they don't have the right font, CSS creates a list of fonts that it can use instead. If the person's computer doesn't have access to a font, it can fall back to a different font that your browser set instead.

Why do my Google Fonts sometimes not load?

Just like every web service, sometimes Google Fonts fails to provide your font. If that happens, SilkStart falls back to a default font instead.

Usually when your Google Fonts don't load, it's a brief issue - either the connection failed, or their service is experiencing a high volume of traffic and this is slowing downloading time. Generally, if you refresh your page or wait a few minutes, the fonts will show correctly again.