How to Find the Font Name Inside a WOFF2 File

Web font files often have names that tell you nothing. You might find a file called a7f3c9.woff2 or font-1.woff2 and have no idea which font it is. The good news is that the real name is stored inside the file. This guide shows you how to read it in a few seconds.

Why WOFF2 file names are often useless

When a website is built, tools often rename font files. Some add a random code so browsers load the newest version. Some split one font into several small files by language. Some sites just use short names to save space. The result is a folder full of files like these:

• 4iCs6KVjbNBYlgoKfw72.woff2
• font-latin-700.woff2
• main.a91b2.woff2

None of those tell you the font family or the style. To learn that, you need to look inside the file.

Where the font name lives

Every font has a small section called the name table. The designer fills it in when they make the font. It holds several kinds of names and notes. The most useful ones are:

Name field	What it tells you	Example
Font family	The main name of the font	Poppins
Style (subfamily)	The weight and slant	Bold Italic
Full name	Family and style together	Poppins Bold Italic
PostScript name	A short name with no spaces	Poppins-BoldItalic
Version	Which release of the font	Version 4.004
Designer and foundry	Who made it	Indian Type Foundry

A WOFF2 file keeps this name table, just packed tightly. So once the file is unpacked, the names are there to read.

How to read the font name, step by step

The quickest way is our free font name viewer. It unpacks the WOFF2 file in your browser and shows the name table in plain words.

1. Go to openwofffile.com.
2. Drop the WOFF2 file on the pink box, or click “Choose font file”.
3. Wait a second. The first WOFF2 file takes a moment longer because the page loads its WOFF2 reader.
4. Scroll to “Font information”.
5. Read the Font family, Style and Full name boxes.

That is it. You now know the real name of the font. Your file is not uploaded. The whole process happens inside your browser.

What to do with the name

Once you know the name, you can do a lot with it.

Find the full font family

Most web pages only load the weights they need. You might have the Bold file but not the Regular one. Search for the family name to find the complete set. Many fonts, such as those on Google Fonts, are free to download.

Check the license

The info panel also shows the copyright and license fields if the font has them. Read them before you use the font in your own work. Some fonts are free for any use. Others need a paid license.

Tell files apart

If a website loads five files from one family, open each one. The Style field tells you which is Regular, which is Bold and which is Italic. Our guide on checking the font weight of a WOFF file goes deeper into this.

When the name looks wrong or is missing

Sometimes the name fields are empty or strange. Here is why.

The font was cut down

Some tools shrink web fonts by removing parts that browsers do not need. The name table can get trimmed, too. You might see only a short name or none at all.

The site renamed the font on purpose

A few websites rename fonts inside the file. They may do this to follow a license rule or to hide what they use. In that case, the name you see is not the public name of the font.

It is a custom font

Big brands often have their own fonts made. These have names you will not find in public font libraries.

How to identify a font when the name does not help

If the name is missing or made up, you can still find the font. Try these steps.

1. Open the file in the viewer and type a sample with clear letters, like “Rag Quest 1234”.
2. Take a screenshot of the preview.
3. Upload the screenshot to a font matching service, such as WhatTheFont from MyFonts or Font Squirrel’s Matcherator.
4. Compare the suggestions with the glyphs in the viewer.

This works well for common fonts. It is harder for custom brand fonts.

Other ways to find the name

There are more technical ways to read the name table. You do not need them for a quick look, but they are good to know.

fontTools

fontTools is a free Python library. With it installed, you can turn a font into readable XML with the ttx command. The name table appears near the top.

pip install fonttools brotli
ttx -t name font.woff2

This creates a file called font.ttx that you can open in any text editor.

FontForge

FontForge is a free font editor. Open the WOFF2 file, then go to Element and Font Info. The names appear under PS Names and TTF Names. See how to edit a WOFF file for more on FontForge.

Browser developer tools

In Chrome or Firefox, you can see which font a page uses without downloading anything. Right-click some text, choose Inspect, and look at the Computed tab. Near the bottom it shows the font family the browser used. This tells you the name the website gave the font, which may not match the name inside the file.

Why not just look at the CSS?

A website’s CSS has a line like font-family: "Brand Sans". That is the name the developer chose. It can be anything. The name inside the font file is set by the font maker. When the two differ, trust the one inside the file.

The name fields in more detail

The name table can hold more than a dozen entries. Each one has a number, called a name ID. You do not need to remember them, but a few help explain what you see.

• Name ID 1 is the family name. Older apps use it to group fonts.
• Name ID 2 is the style, like Regular or Bold.
• Name ID 4 is the full name that most apps show in font menus.
• Name ID 6 is the PostScript name. Printers and design apps use it behind the scenes.
• Name IDs 16 and 17 are the “typographic” family and style. Big families with many weights use them.

That last pair explains a common puzzle. A font like “Roboto Light” may show “Roboto Light” as the family in one app and “Roboto” with a Light style in another. Both are correct. The app just reads a different name field.

The name table can also store names in several languages. A Japanese font, for example, may have its name in both English and Japanese. The viewer shows the English name when there is one.

Font name vs file name: a quick example

Say you downloaded a file named f8.woff2. You open it in the viewer and see this:

• Font family: Inter
• Style: SemiBold
• Full name: Inter SemiBold
• Version: 4.0
• License: SIL Open Font License

Now you know it is Inter SemiBold. Inter is free under the SIL Open Font License, so you can download the full family and use it.

Common questions

Can I rename the font inside a WOFF2 file?

Yes, with a font editor like FontForge or with fontTools. Be careful, though. Some licenses forbid changing the font, including its name.

Does converting to TTF change the name?

No. When you convert a WOFF2 file to TTF, the name table stays the same. Our WOFF2 to TTF guide explains how it works.

Why does the viewer show two different names?

The family name and the full name are different fields. The family is the group, like Poppins. The full name adds the style, like Poppins Bold.

Can I find the name on my phone?

Yes. Open the viewer in Chrome on Android or Safari on iPhone. Tap the pink box and pick the file from your Files app. The Font information panel works the same way on a small screen. This is handy when someone sends you a font in a chat app and asks what it is.

What if it is a WOFF file, not WOFF2?

The steps are exactly the same. The viewer reads WOFF, WOFF2, TTF and OTF files. If you are not sure which you have, read what is a WOFF file.

Summary

The name on a WOFF2 file is often meaningless, but the real name is stored inside. Open the file in a WOFF2 viewer, scroll to Font information, and read the family, style and full name. Check the license while you are there. If the name is missing, use a screenshot and a font matching service to find it.

For more ways to work with WOFF2 files, see how to open a WOFF2 file on any device.