I'm fairly certain that you have to use an image or a custom installed font. However you may not need to use a custom font, there are plenty of system ways to change the way fonts work with css.
body { font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; }
The first value in that statement is the first value the browser recognizes. Then, if it can't find that value, it goes to the next. It's usually practiced to put the actual font name first, then a generic name next. Options for the generic name are:
serif (like, Times)
sans-serif (like, Arial)
cursive (like, Comic Sans)
fantasy (like, Western) (kinda cursive like)
monospace (like, Courier New)
To specify a font name that has a space, such as "lucida console", you have to enclose it in quotes. You could get away with using this if you can find a list of fonts that are installed on most operating systems. I know Windows comes prepackaged with a lot of fonts, you could do something like
body { font-family: Georgia, Bookman, Garamond, serif; } or even add more to the queue, I'm not sure if there's a limit on that or not. My experience is that every browser supports that way to refer to fonts, and there's a pretty big array of fonts you can choose from. Personally, this is how I'd go about it. Maybe install a font and have that as the primary then choose some system fonts as the backup? you could even apply different letterspacing and whatnot make it more polished looking.
(oh and hi, I'm new

)