Insider Tips for Working with Fonts in Storyline 360

Text is the digital representation of letters—so it’s a big part of most e-learning courses. And where there’s text, there are fonts! Fonts are the styling or design of your text and deciding which fonts to use for your Storyline 360 course is a critical early step. Once that’s done, it might be tempting to get straight to work. But before you get started, let’s walk through some things you should know about installing and working with fonts in Storyline 360.

Installing Custom Fonts

First things first: when you install Storyline 360, you get an assortment of popular open-source web fonts—Lato, Open Sans, and Montserrat, to name a few. Here’s a full list of the installed fonts in case you’re curious.

If you’re already running Storyline 360, when you open an existing project, Storyline 360 will scan your project and let you know if any of the fonts you’ve used are missing from your computer so you can install or replace them.

Once you’ve installed any custom fonts you’ve downloaded to your system (check out installation instructions here), they’ll automatically appear in the fonts drop-down list in Storyline 360 the next time you open up the application.

Pro tip: If you install fonts while Storyline 360 is open, you’ll need to close Storyline 360 and then reopen it to see your newly installed fonts.

It’s also worth noting that Storyline 360 does not support Adobe Type 1 PostScript fonts. However, it does support Adobe TrueType and OpenType fonts. Not sure if you have PostScript fonts in your project? Find out by following the instructions in this support article: Storyline 360: Adobe Type 1 PostScript Fonts Aren’t Supported.

Testing Custom Fonts

We use web fonts (WOFF files) in published Storyline 360 courses to ensure text looks exactly the way you designed it and remains sharp when it’s scaled up or down. However, sometimes browsers are unable to download the custom font files. This is often due to a server configuration or browser settings issue, but it can also be because the browser believes the file is corrupt. If the browser can’t download the custom font file, then it will substitute that font with a standard system font, so your course won’t look exactly the way you designed it.

Though there are ways to overcome this issue (see this article), it’s still a good idea to test the custom fonts you plan to use before you apply them to your entire course.

To test your custom font, create a slide or two using your font in Storyline 360 and then publish it. Upload the published output to the environment your learners will view it on—including desktops, smartphones, and/or tablets. Make sure the font you chose renders correctly across these devices and their web browsers. 

If the font doesn’t render correctly or scale well, swap it out for another custom font. Trust me—if you run into any issues, you’ll be glad you found them sooner rather than later. 

Choosing a Default Font

By default, when you insert a textbox into a new Storyline 360 project, the font is Open Sans. You can manually change that font every time you insert a textbox, or you can set up a theme font. If you set up a theme font, your preferred font will appear automatically whenever you insert a new textbox. Creating a theme font saves time and ensures a more consistent visual design. 

The process is pretty straightforward. You can learn how to do it in this article: Storyline 360 Working with Theme Fonts.

Swapping Out Fonts Quickly and Easily

What if you need to update a font throughout an existing Storyline 360 project? If you created a theme font, simply update it and it’ll automatically swap out the font everywhere in your project. 

If you didn’t use theme fonts in your project, use the Find and Replace feature. Simply choose the font you want to replace and the font you want to use instead and Storyline 360 will do the rest! Here’s how it works:

1. Go to the home tab on the Storyline 360 ribbon, click the drop-down arrow next to Find/Replace. Choose Replace Fonts.
2. Use the “Replace” dropdown to select the font you want to replace.
3. Use the “With” dropdown to choose the new replacement font and then click Replace.
4. That’s all there is to it!

And here’s a .GIF to show you the above steps in action.

Wrap-Up

Thanks to these pro tips, working with fonts in Storyline 360 is a breeze. But if you’re still struggling to decide which fonts to use, check out these helpful articles:

• Finding Fonts That Fit Your E-Learning
• 5 Formatting Tips for Creating Dyslexia-Friendly E-Learning
• 8 Questions to Ask When Choosing Fonts & Formatting Text for E-Learning

Have any tips you want to share? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you! And if you want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360, be sure to start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.