Updated September 2026: the child themes in the list at the end now live on GitHub. The guide itself works as before.

Many of you no longer want to load Google fonts from Google’s servers. The reasons differ: privacy, caching, or simply fewer requests to servers you don’t control. You don’t have to give up the fonts in your layout, though. You can serve them from your own web space just as well.

Here is how to do that with an Elmastudio theme in two steps. First we switch off the request to Google, then we embed the font files locally through a child theme.

Switch off the request to Google’s servers

The Elmastudio themes have a small trick for this that was originally meant for translators. Every Google font in a theme has a translatable string. Translate it as “off” and the font is no longer loaded from Google. That is exactly what we use.

The easiest way to create translations is the Loco Translate plugin, right in your dashboard. After installing it you will find a Loco Translate menu there. Important: don’t edit the language files that ship with the theme, the next theme update overwrites them. Create a new file instead, even if one for your language already exists, and let Loco save it in the suggested “languages/loco/themes/…” folder.

With the Uku theme, for example, you click along:
Loco Translate → Themes → Uku → New Language

Pick your language there and click “Start Translating”.

Now search for “off” or for the name of the font. For every match, enter just “off” in the translation field and save. From then on the theme no longer requests that font from Google. If you use a multilingual plugin, repeat this for every language.

Embed the font files through a child theme

For the second step you need a child theme. If you don’t have one yet, this post helps: How To Create A WordPress Child Theme – The Right Way.

There is a ready-made child theme starter on GitHub for every theme. You will find the links in the theme list at the end of this post, along with the fonts each theme needs.

The font files themselves and the matching CSS come from the Google Webfonts Helper.

Unzip the downloaded archive and put the files in a “fonts” folder inside your child theme. In the Webfonts Helper, change the “folder prefix” to “fonts/” so the paths match. Then copy the CSS it shows into your child theme’s style.css.

That’s it. The fonts now come from your own server, and no request goes to Google anymore. If something doesn’t work or is unclear, tell me in the comments.

Theme list

Theme	Fonts
Baylys (child theme download)	Open Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 300, 400, 700, 800 and italic 300, 400, 700.
Black Walnut (child theme download)	Source Code Pro, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 300, 400, 600. Playfair Display, latin and ext-latin with a font weight of italic 400.
Bugis (child theme download)	Anton in all available variations.
Cocoa (child theme download)	Libre Baskerville, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400.
Dorayaki (child theme download)	Domine, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700. Lato, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 900.
Hawea (child theme download)	Amiri, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400.
Kerikeri (child theme download)	Helvetica Neue, no Google font.
Kiore Moana (child theme download)	PT Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700. Raleway, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 800, 900.
Meola (child theme download)	Open Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 300, 400, 700, 800 and italic 300, 400, 700.
Moka (child theme download)	Lato, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700, 900 and italic 400, 700.
Namba (child theme download)	Cabin, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700. Satisfy in all available variations.
Neubau (child theme download)	Work Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 300, 400, 600, 800. Amiri, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700.
Nilmini (child theme download)	Helvetica Neue und Georgia, no Google fonts.
Nori (child theme download)	Helvetica Neue, no Google font.
Oita (child theme download)	Crimson Text, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700. Raleway, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700.
Onigiri (child theme download)	Merriweather, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700, 900 and italic 400.
Piha (child theme download)	Lucida Grande, no Google font.
Pohutukawa (child theme download)	PT Sans, latin and ext-latin with a font weight of normal 700.
Ponsonby (child theme download)	Open Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700. PT Serif, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700.
Pukeko (child theme download)	Cardo, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400. Roboto, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 300, 400, 500, 700 and italic 300, 400, 500, 700.
Renkon (child theme download)	Lato, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700. Playfair Display, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700.
Suidobashi (child theme download)	Source Sans Pro, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400.
Tatami (child theme download)	Open Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 600, 700 and italic 400, 600, 700.
Ubud (child theme download)	Helvetica Neue, no Google font.
Uku (child theme download)	Standard design style Noticia Text, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700. Kanit, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 500, 600, 700. Neo design style Source Serif Pro, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 600, 700. Poppins, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 500, 600, 700. Serif design style Poppins, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 500, 600, 700. Cormorant Garamond, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 500, 700 and italic 400, 700.
Waipoua (child theme download)	PT Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400. Oswald in all available variations.
Werkstatt (child theme download)	Rubik, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700.
Weta (child theme download)	Source Sans Pro, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 600 and italic 400, 600.
Zeitreise (child theme download)	Martel Sans, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700, 800, 900.
Zuki (child theme download)	Karla, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400, 700. Libre Baskerville, latin and ext-latin with font weights of normal 400, 700 and italic 400.