Change font sizes in WordPress

  • fonts
  • typography
  • font-size
  • headings
  • site-editing

Updated

There are three ways to change font size in WordPress. To make one paragraph bigger or smaller, pick a size in the block's Typography settings. To make a line of text a heading, change the block to a Heading and choose its level. To change the size of all headings or all body text across the site, use your theme's style settings. Sitewide settings keep the site consistent, so start there when every page looks off.

Change the size of one block

  1. Edit the page and click the paragraph (or other text block) you want to change.
  2. In the block sidebar, open Typography. On newer versions of WordPress it's under the Styles tab at the top of the sidebar.
  3. Pick a size. To type an exact size instead, click the Set custom size icon beside the sizes.
  4. Click Update.

To undo it, open the ⋮ menu beside Typography and choose Reset all.

Use this sparingly. A page where every paragraph has its own size is hard to read and hard to keep consistent.

Make text a heading instead

If the text is a title for the section below it, make it a heading rather than a large paragraph. Headings give the page an outline that readers can skim and search engines understand.

  1. Click the text, then click the block icon at the left end of the toolbar.
  2. Choose Heading.
  3. Pick a level from H1 to H6 in the toolbar. H2 is the usual choice for a section title.

Choose the level for the outline, not the size. See Structure a page with headings (H1, H2, H3) for how to keep the outline right while changing how a heading looks.

Change font sizes across the whole site

Most themes set heading and paragraph sizes in one place, usually under Appearance → Customize or, in block themes, Appearance → Editor → Styles → Typography. A change there reaches every page at once.

If your site runs on Dirigible

Dirigible sets every text size in the Customizer, with a separate size for phones:

  1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Styles.
  2. Open Header 1 through Header 6 to change each heading level, or Paragraphs for body text.
  3. Change Size for desktop and Mobile Size for phones. Paragraphs also have Small Size, which sets the Small size in the block editor.
  4. Watch the preview, then click Publish.

In the block editor, the Typography sizes run from Small to 3XL. Apart from Small, they scale from the paragraph size you set in the Customizer, so they grow and shrink with it.

To make a heading look bigger or smaller without changing its level, select it and choose one of the Mimic <h1> to Mimic <h6> styles in the block sidebar. Many Dirigible blocks have a Headline Style setting that does the same for their headlines.

For fonts and colors, see Choosing site colors and fonts and Palette and Typography.