How To Use Custom Fonts

Customizing your Avalonia application with unique fonts can add a distinctive look and feel. This guide will walk you through the process of integrating custom fonts into your Avalonia application.

Google Fonts - Sample on GitHub

Add Your Custom Font to the Project

Before you can use a custom font, you need to include it in your project.

In this guide, we will be using a font called Nunito which is already stored in our application resources under avares://GoogleFonts/Assets/Fonts.

Ensure that the fonts have the build property set to AvaloniaResource.

Declare Your Font in Application Resources

In your Avalonia application, open your App.xaml file and include your custom font inside <Application.Resources>. Assign it a key, which you will use to reference it in your application. In this case, we have assigned the key NunitoFont.

App.axaml

<Application xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             x:Class="GoogleFonts.App"
             RequestedThemeVariant="Default">
    <Application.Styles>
        <FluentTheme />
    </Application.Styles>
    <Application.Resources>
        <FontFamily x:Key="NunitoFont">avares://GoogleFonts/Assets/Fonts#Nunito</FontFamily>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Use Your Custom Font

Once your font is declared in your application resources, you can use it in your application.

To reference your custom font, use the FontFamily attribute with the StaticResource markup extension. You need to pass the key of the declared font as the parameter. In this case, NunitoFont is the key for our custom font.

Here's an example of how to apply our custom Nunito font to a TextBlock:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding Greeting}" 
           FontSize="70" 
           FontFamily="{StaticResource NunitoFont}" 
           HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>

In the above example, the TextBlock control will use the Nunito font that we declared in our application resources. The text bound to the TextBlock will now appear in the Nunito font at the specified font size of 70.

Remember that the FontFamily attribute can be applied to any control that has the FontFamily property, meaning you can use your custom font throughout your application.

And that's it! You've successfully integrated a custom font into your Avalonia application. Now you can add a unique touch to your application's UI with the fonts of your choice.