Custom Fonts

Intermediate · 7 min read · By Chitmunk Team · Updated Oct 18, 2026

A fantasy card set in a spreadsheet font is a spreadsheet. Typography makes or breaks a card design, so Chitmunk gives you 100+ Google Fonts out of the box, plus your own font files when none of them is quite right.

Using Google Fonts

Google Fonts are built into Chitmunk: no setup required. To choose a Google Font:

1. Select a text box on the card.
2. In the inspector's text settings, click the font name to open the font picker.
3. Browse the tabs (Mine, Fancy, Classic, Clean, Handwritten, Typewriter) or type in the search field, which filters fonts in real time.
4. Fonts are displayed with a live preview of how they look, so you can scan visually.
5. Click a font to apply it to the selected text box.

Google Fonts are loaded on demand: only the fonts you actually use are downloaded. This keeps the editor fast even though 100+ Google Fonts are available.

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.

Check your font’s license allows embedding in PDFs and printed products you sell. Google Fonts allow it; many commercial fonts don’t.

Supported Formats

How to Upload

1. Open the font picker by clicking the font name in the text settings of any selected text box.
2. Click the + Upload Font button at the top of the picker. The file must be 2 MB or smaller.
3. Select a font file from your computer.
4. The font is loaded immediately and becomes available for use.

After uploading, your font appears under My fonts (the Mine tab) in 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 live in your browser. If you switch to a different browser or computer, you will need to upload them again, unless you save the game to Chitmunk Cloud or move it with a project export, both of which carry your fonts.
• 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 (the Mine tab). 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:

1. Open the font picker.
2. Find the font under My fonts.
3. Click the red × (Remove font) at the end of the font's row.
4. The font is deleted from your browser's storage right away, with no confirmation.

Fonts and Project Export/Import

When you export a project (as a JSON+ZIP file), Chitmunk bundles your uploaded custom font files directly into the ZIP (in a "fonts" folder), along with references to the font families used by your text elements.

This means:

• Google Fonts will work automatically when someone else imports your project; they are fetched from Google's servers.
• Custom fonts are bundled in the export ZIP and automatically re-registered when someone imports your project, no separate upload needed.

Because your custom fonts travel with the project file, sharing a ZIP export is enough for a collaborator to see your card's typography exactly as you designed it.

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 in the text settings. A small amount of positive tracking (0.5-1px) can improve readability for uppercase text and titles.