How do you manage font weights and styles with custom fonts?

Managing font weights and styles with custom fonts involves ensuring that the font files include the desired range of weights (e.g., regular, bold, italic) and styles (e.g., normal, italic) required for your design. Here's how you can manage font weights and styles effectively with custom fonts:

1. **Choose a Font Family with Multiple Weights and Styles**:
   - Select a custom font family that offers a variety of weights and styles to meet your design needs. Look for fonts that include regular, bold, italic, and bold italic variants, as well as additional weights like light, medium, semi-bold, and extra-bold.

2. **Include Font Files for Each Weight and Style**:
   - Ensure that you have access to font files for each desired weight and style within the chosen font family. This may involve obtaining font files from reputable sources or licensing agreements that include the necessary variants.

3. **Use CSS to Apply Font Weights and Styles**:
   - Apply font weights and styles using CSS properties like `font-weight` and `font-style`. Use numeric values for font weight (e.g., 400 for regular, 700 for bold) or keywords like `normal` and `bold` to specify the desired weight. Use the `italic` keyword to apply italic styles.
   - Example:
     ```css
     body {
         font-family: 'CustomFont', sans-serif;
         font-weight: 400; /* Regular */
         font-style: italic; /* Italic */
     }
     ```

4. **Font File Naming Conventions**:
   - Pay attention to the naming conventions used for font files within the font family. Common naming conventions include appending suffixes like `-Regular`, `-Bold`, `-Italic`, and `-BoldItalic` to distinguish between different weights and styles.
   - Ensure that your CSS references the correct font files corresponding to the desired weights and styles.

5. **Font Loading Strategies**:
   - Implement font loading strategies to ensure that font files for all required weights and styles are loaded efficiently. Consider using techniques like font preloading, font display descriptors, and font fallbacks to optimize font loading performance and ensure consistent rendering across different browsers and devices.

6. **Fallback Fonts**:
   - Provide fallback font families in your CSS declaration to ensure that text remains readable even if the custom font or specific weights and styles are not available. Use generic font families like `sans-serif` or `serif` as fallbacks to ensure broad compatibility.
   - Example:
     ```css
     body {
         font-family: 'CustomFont', sans-serif; /* Fallback to sans-serif */
     }
     ```

By managing font weights and styles effectively with custom fonts, you can create visually appealing and typographically rich designs that enhance the overall aesthetic and readability of your website or application.