Besley
Type with Purpose
Good typography guides attention, improves understanding, and makes communication effortless.
The Anatomy of a Typeface
By FontSide · June 2026
Every typeface is a system of decisions — about stroke contrast, x-height, spacing, and rhythm. The best ones feel invisible: you stop seeing the letters and start hearing the voice behind them. That transparency is the hardest thing to design.
A high x-height opens up the counters and makes small text breathe. Tight tracking pulls a headline together; loose tracking gives a caption room to exhale. None of these choices are accidents — they are arguments about how reading should feel.
Uppercase
Lowercase
Numerals
Symbols
Package Manager
The recommended way to use fonts in modern web projects.
1. Install Package
pnpm add @fontsource-variable/besley 2. Import in App
import '@fontsource-variable/besley/wght.css'; 3. CSS Usage
body {
font-family: "Besley Variable", serif;
} Google Fonts CDN
Use Google's CDN to embed the fonts directly via HTML.
HTML <head>
<!-- Please select at least one weight and style --> Fontsource CDN
Skip the build step by adding this directly to your global CSS file.
Global CSS
/* besley-latin-wght-normal */
@font-face {
font-family: "Besley Variable";
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
font-weight: 100 900;
src: url(https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/fontsource/fonts/besley:vf@latest/latin-wght-normal.woff2)
format("woff2-variations");
} Background & Story
Besley is a antique slab serif inspired by Robert Besley's Clarendon. It features a full range of weights and matching italics, making it subtle for a variety of uses. A slight rounding of the corners gives a subtle warmth, and OpenType features such as ligatures and contextual substitutions perfect the finer details. It was made with love and will continue to improve with your support.
The Besley project is designed by Owen Earl (indestructible type*). To contribute, see https://github.com/indestructible-type/Besley
Tags & Moods
Subsets
Install
pnpm add @fontsource-variable/besley Designed by
Owen Earl
Links
License
OFL-1.1