Custom Fonts
Note: Custom font upload and Google Fonts are available to all signed-in users.
Typography makes or breaks a card design. Chitmunk gives you access to over 1,000 Google Fonts out of the box and lets you upload your own font files for complete creative control.
Using Google Fonts
Google Fonts are built into Chitmunk: no setup required. To choose a Google Font:
- Select a text element on the canvas.
- In the properties panel, click the font family dropdown to open the font picker.
- Browse or search the library. The search field filters fonts in real time as you type.
- Fonts are displayed with a live preview of how they look, so you can scan visually.
- Click a font to apply it to the selected text element.
Google Fonts are loaded on demand: only the fonts you actually use are downloaded. This keeps the editor fast even though over 1,000 fonts are available.
Tip: For card games, look for fonts that are readable at small sizes. Decorative fonts work great for titles but body text benefits from clean, simple typefaces. Search for "display" to find bold title fonts, or "sans-serif" for clean body text.
Uploading Custom Fonts
If you have a specific font file: purchased, licensed, or downloaded from a type foundry, you can upload it directly into Chitmunk.
Supported Formats
| Format | Extension | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| TrueType | .ttf |
Most common format. Works everywhere. |
| OpenType | .otf |
Supports advanced typographic features. |
| Web Open Font Format | .woff |
Compressed format, fast to load. |
| Web Open Font Format 2 | .woff2 |
Smallest file size, best performance. |
How to Upload
- Open the font picker by clicking the font family dropdown on any selected text element.
- Click the Upload Font button at the top of the picker.
- Select a font file from your computer.
- The font is loaded immediately and becomes available for use.
After uploading, your font appears in the "My Fonts" category at the top of the font picker, making it easy to find and reuse.
Font Licensing
Make sure you have the appropriate license for any fonts you upload. Many fonts require a commercial license if your game will be sold or distributed. Free font resources like Google Fonts (all open-source) and Font Squirrel (free for commercial use) are good places to find fonts that are safe to use in published games. Always check the license terms before including a font in a project you plan to sell.
How Fonts Are Stored
Custom fonts are stored in your browser's IndexedDB: the same secure, persistent storage that Chitmunk uses for images. This means:
- Fonts persist across sessions. Close the tab, restart your browser, even reboot your computer. Your uploaded fonts will still be there when you come back.
- Fonts are local to your browser. They are not uploaded to any server. If you switch to a different browser or computer, you will need to upload them again.
- Fonts are registered via the FontFace API. This is the same mechanism browsers use to load web fonts, so rendering is fast and reliable.
Managing Your Fonts
Viewing Uploaded Fonts
Open the font picker and look at the "My Fonts" category at the top. All your uploaded fonts are listed here with preview text showing how each font looks.
Deleting a Custom Font
To remove a font you no longer need:
- Open the font picker.
- Find the font in the "My Fonts" category.
- Hover over the font name: an X button appears.
- Click the X to delete the font from your browser's storage.
Tip: Deleting a font does not remove it from existing text elements. Those elements will keep their font family setting, but the text will fall back to a system font if the custom font is no longer available. Re-upload the font to restore the correct rendering.
Fonts and Project Export/Import
When you export a project (as a JSON+ZIP file), Chitmunk saves references to the font families used by your text elements. However, the font files themselves are not included in the export.
This means:
- Google Fonts will work automatically when someone else imports your project; they are fetched from Google's servers.
- Custom fonts need to be uploaded separately by anyone who imports your project. If they do not have the font, text elements will fall back to a system font.
If you are sharing a project with someone, include the font files alongside the exported project ZIP so they can upload them into their own Chitmunk instance.
Performance Considerations
Most font files are small (50-200 KB), but some fonts: especially those with many weights, extended character sets, or CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) support, can be several megabytes.
- Large font files may cause a brief delay when the editor first loads, as each custom font needs to be registered with the browser before it can be used for rendering.
- Many uploaded fonts (dozens) can increase storage usage. If you are running low on browser storage, delete fonts you are no longer using.
- WOFF2 files are the smallest and fastest to load. If your font is available in WOFF2 format, prefer that over TTF or OTF.
Typography Tips for Card Design
- Limit yourself to 2-3 fonts per card. One for titles, one for body text, and optionally one for accent elements like stat labels. More than that creates visual clutter.
- Test at print size. What looks great on screen may be too small or too thin to read on a printed card. The safe zone guides help you verify that text is not too close to the edges.
- Use bold weights for small text. Thin or light font weights can disappear at small sizes, especially on textured backgrounds.
- Check special characters. If your game uses symbols, fractions, or non-Latin characters, make sure your chosen font supports them. Missing characters render as boxes or question marks.
- Letter spacing matters. Chitmunk lets you adjust letter spacing on text elements. A small amount of positive tracking (0.5-1px) can improve readability for uppercase text and titles.