I'm Iris, new to web development. A little while back, 2 days ago probably, I wrote about not knowing what to learn first. The comments on that post were really encouraging, and they pushed me to stop overthinking it and just take action, start building something, even if it's not perfect, even if I don't know everything yet.
That "something" is Fontly, a free copy-paste font generator. It's not some big, ambitious project. It's small, and I'm just getting started. But it's mine, and it's real progress. This post is an update on where that decision has taken me so far: what I've built, what I've learned, and where it's headed.
The idea
If you've ever tried to make your Instagram bio, WhatsApp status, or a social post look a little different, you've probably searched for a "fancy text generator." Most of the ones out there are cluttered with ads, slow to load, or hide the good fonts behind a paywall.
That's the gap I'm trying to fill with Fontly, a clean, fast, completely free tool where you type your text once and instantly get a bunch of stylish font variations you can copy and paste anywhere. No sign-up, no clutter, no nonsense.
Where I'm at
I'm still early in my web dev journey, so this project is as much a learning exercise as it is a product. Right now I'm:
- Finalizing the site's core functionality
- Working through the basics of clean UI and page speed
- Learning how SEO and discoverability actually work before launch, instead of scrambling after
Doing the planning work up front, thinking about structure, naming, and how people will actually find the tool, has honestly taught me more than the coding itself.
What's been challenging
A few things I didn't expect to spend so much time on:
- Naming and branding: landing on "Fontly" took longer than I thought, and I wanted a name that would still make sense if I build more tools later
- Thinking about SEO pre-launch: most guides assume your site is already live; figuring out what to do before that was a bit of trial and error
- Balancing "keep it simple" with "make it actually good": as a beginner it's tempting to either overbuild or underbuild
- What's next
I'm continuing to build out Fontly and documenting the process as I go, the wins, the mistakes, all of it. If you're curious or want to follow along, I'll be posting updates here as things progress.
Would love to hear from anyone who's built a small tool/side-project as a beginner, what do you wish you'd known earlier?
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