The WebFont Loader is a JavaScript library that gives you extra control over font loading. It was co-developed by Google and Typekit and released as open source. This tutorial will get you started using the WebFont Loader with Fontdeck. We’ll try to keep it simple, but you will need a bit of JavaScript and CSS knowledge to keep up. The WebFont Loader tells you when the following events happen as a webpage downloads fonts from Fontdeck: When fonts start to download (‘loading’) When fonts finish loading (‘active’) If fonts fail to load (‘inactive’) The WebFont Loader notifies you in two ways: by applying special CSS classes when each event happens; and by firing JavaScript events. We’ll be covering some of the CSS classes in this tutorial. JavaScript events are detailed in Google’s documentation. Why Use the WebFont Loader? Browsers handle the loading of fonts in different ways. For example Safari and Chrome leave a blank space in place of the styled text until the font has loaded