# Get Started with Font Awesome
Font Awesome, the iconic font and CSS framework
Author: Dave Gandy

Font Awesome 5 released! New icons, SVG, ligatures, & tons more.
Font Awesome 5

# Get Started

Easy ways to get Font Awesome 4.7.0 onto your website

## Font Awesome CDN Easiest

Font Awesome CDN is the easiest way to get Font Awesome on your website or app, all with just a single line of code. No downloading or installing!

Email address

Why do we need your email address?

We create new embed codes for each website so you can quickly upgrade and change your preferences all without ever pushing code. To do this, we need an email address so we know which embed codes are yours and so you can come back and manage them.

#### Icons on your site. Fast.

Don't mess with files locally or in production. You'll get all of Font Awesome's 675 icons plus CSS toolkit - all optimized for speed and no hassle.

#### Super-simple upgrades

Since each site gets a unique embed code, you can easily upgrade to the latest version of Font Awesome, all without pushing any code. Easy peasy.

#### Auto accessibility support

Font Awesome CDN helps you automate accessibility support more easily so your icons work for the most people possible. Read up on our accessibility best practices.

#### Async your icons

Want to speed up your page loads? So do we. Have your icons load in the background so your site loads faster.

or

## Download & Customize Easy

Want to manage and host Font Awesome assets yourself? You can download, customize, and use the icons and default styling manually. Both CSS and CSS Preprocessor (Sass and Less) formats are included.

Download

### Using CSS

1. Copy the entire `font-awesome` directory into your project.
2. In the `<head>` of your html, reference the location to your font-awesome.min.css.

       <link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/font-awesome/css/font-awesome.min.css">

3. Check out the examples to start using Font Awesome!

### Using Sass or Less

Use this method to customize Font Awesome 4.7.0 using Less or Sass.

1. Copy the `font-awesome/` directory into your project.
2. Open your project's `font-awesome/less/variables.less` or `font-awesome/scss/_variables.scss` and edit the `@fa-font-path` or `$fa-font-path` variable to point to your font directory.

       @fa-font-path:   "../font";

   The font path is relative from your compiled CSS directory.

3. Re-compile your Less or Sass if using a static compiler. Otherwise, you should be good to go.
4. Check out the examples to start using Font Awesome!

or

## Advanced & Packages Pro

### Less Ruby Gem

Use the Official Font Awesome Less Ruby Gem to easily get Font Awesome Less into a Rails project. Generously maintained by @supercodepoet.

1. Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

       gem 'font-awesome-less'

2. And then execute:

       $ bundle

3. Or install it yourself as:

       $ gem install font-awesome-less

If you use Rails, add this to your e.g. `application.less`:

    @import "font-awesome-sprockets";
    @import "font-awesome";

### Sass Ruby Gem

Use the Official Font Awesome Sass Ruby Gem to easily get Font Awesome Sass into a Rails or Compass project. Generously maintained by @supercodepoet.

1. Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

       gem 'font-awesome-sass'

2. And then execute:

       $ bundle

3. Or install it yourself as:

       $ gem install font-awesome-sass

If you use Rails, add this to your e.g. `application.scss`:

    @import "font-awesome-sprockets";
    @import "font-awesome";

## More Information

#### Validators

In order to provide the best possible experience to old and buggy browsers, Font Awesome uses CSS browser hacks in several places to target special CSS to certain browser versions in order to work around bugs in the browsers themselves. These hacks understandably cause CSS validators to complain that they are invalid. In a couple places, we also use bleeding-edge CSS features that aren't yet fully standardized, but these are used purely for progressive enhancement.

These validation warnings don't matter in practice since the non-hacky portion of our CSS does fully validate and the hacky portions don't interfere with the proper functioning of the non-hacky portion, hence why we deliberately ignore these particular warnings.

Getting started - Validators by Bootstrap Team is licensed under CC BY 3.0

#### Internet Explorer 8 and @font-face

IE8 has some issues with `@font-face` when combined with `:before`. Font Awesome uses that combination. If a page is cached, and loaded without the mouse over the window (i.e. hit the refresh button or load something in an iframe) then the page gets rendered before the font loads. Hovering over the page (body) will show some of the icons and hovering over the remaining icons will show those as well. See issue #954 for details.

Getting started - Internet Explorer 8 and @font-face by Bootstrap Team is licensed under CC BY 3.0

#### Need IE7 Support?

If you need IE7 support, you have my condolences. Really. Font Awesome 4.7.0 doesn't support IE7, but an older version does. You'll need to check out the 3.2.1 instructions for using IE7. Then go complain to whoever decided your project needs IE7 support.

#### Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble with Font Awesome, make sure to check out the troubleshooting wiki page. Generously maintained by @gtagliala.

## Download

### Font Awesome 5 Released!

#### More Icons

Get 893 icons right now with FA Free, plus another 1,283 icons with Pro, which also gets you another 46 icon category packs as we finish them!

#### All-New SVG

Our all-new SVG with JavaScript gives you all the power of SVG without the usual hassle.

#### Tons More

Ligatures for easier desktop use, shim for quick upgrades from 4, and more styles, icons, and tools with FA Pro.

### Font Awesome 5

or
No thanks, just download
Font Awesome 4

### Font Awesome 5 Released!

#### More Icons

Get 893 icons right now with FA Free, plus another 1,283 icons with Pro, which also gets you another 46 icon category packs as we finish them!

#### All-New SVG

Our all-new SVG with JavaScript gives you all the power of SVG without the usual hassle.

#### Tons More

Ligatures for easier desktop use, shim for quick upgrades from 4, and more styles, icons, and tools with FA Pro.

### Font Awesome 5