• Author: Molli
• Wednesday 26th March 2008 at 8:42 am
• Category: Web Design


• Tags: coding, fonts, plugins, TTF Titles, wordpress

Having just discovered John Leavitt’s wonderful TTF Titles Plugin, I wanted to share my discovery with those of you who might like to make use of it. It’s used to render text (particularly titles) into the font of your choice, rather than being constrained by the rather blah offerings of Micro$oft and Mac and what may or many not be stored on your readers’ computers. Between all of the helpful advice John provides on the plugin’s homepage, and a timely, kind word of advice from RT Richardson at ‘GothchiC-omic.com’ who I noticed had got the plugin working very well, I’ve finally managed to get it working for myself also. This is NOT to suggest there is anything wrong with the plugin, I simply know diddly squat about php and couldn’t figure out what went where.

With that in mind, here’s a quick and dirty guide for those using WordPress 2.3.3 and above who find themselves as php-challenged as I am!
(n.b Update 1st August 2009: I’ve since upgraded to WP 2.8.2 – no glitches whatsoever. Works exactly as it did with the previous version of WordPress.)

Changing the font of your blog’s title. Look in your header for:

            <?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>/"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?>

and replace with:

            <?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>/"><?php the_ttftext(get_bloginfo('name'),true,your style name); ?>

Changing your post’s title. Look in your index, single post and page for:

           <?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?>

and replace with:

           <?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_ttftext(get_the_title(), $echo = true, $style="your style name", $overrides=""); ?>

Changing text within the body of the post:

           <?php the_ttftext(text*,true,your style name); ?>

Alternatively, if you simply want to use the font you’ve set as the default font, you merely pop in the following:

          <?php the_ttftext(text*); ?>

With regard to the text you wish to change, if you are using more than one word (in other words, you have spaces e.g. Your Text, wrap the words in quotes like so:

          <?php the_ttftext("Your Text"); ?>

As far as styling default widgets and their titles like Pages, Archives, Recent Posts and Categories, apparently John is working on a solution for that one. I managed it with a number of items in my sidebar simply because I was using Text Widgets. Rather than using the space provided for their headings, I left that space blank and popped the widget’s title in body. I’m using WordPress 2.8.2 and an older template so I had to install the EXEC.php plugin to allow php to be written to posts, pages and widgets.

John’s TTT Titles plugin can be found here John Leavitt’s Wordpress Plugin
and help can be found here Templature – The TTFTitles WordPress Plugin

Having read through the comments, John has been extremely helpful and quick to respond with support for his plugin. Any errors in the code snippets above are most definitely my own and I’m more than happy to accept corrections.

August 2009 Additions:

I thought I’d add a visual check list for those of you still having problems using this plugin.

1. Do you have a cache folder? When I installed this plugin one had to create this folder manually. Whether it comes as part and parcel of the updated version, I don’t know.
   
   

   TTF Cache Folder Location

2. Have you uploaded the font you wish to use?
   
   

   TTF Installed Fonts

3. Have you chosen the style in which you wish your fonts to appear? (Click for a larger image. Opens in new tab.)
   
   

   TTF Font Styles

n.b. I have set the style I’ve called “h3″ as my default text. This means I only have to use

          <?php the_ttftext(text); ?>

to make it work within the body of a post or, if I so choose, within a text widget.

4. Have you changed your header file within your theme editor to show your blog’s title in your chosen font? (Click for a larger image. Opens in new tab.)
   
   

   TTF Header - Blog Info

5. Have you changed your index (or home) file within your theme editor to show your posts’ titles in your chosen font? Don’t forget to also make these changes to both your single post and page php files! (Click for a larger image. Opens in new tab.)
   
   

   TTF Titles - Post Titles

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