Did you like the article? Share it!
Google Fonts: an amazing tool for designers
Google has released Google Fonts, a wonderful tool for designers and non-designers alike, for quite some time now. No matter who you are, if you need to find fonts to use in your projects, Google Fonts is the website for you. Finding free fonts has never been easier. In this article, we will explore what Google Fonts is, how to use it, and why it is so useful.
Here are the points we will cover in this article:
How to download a font on Google Fonts
Introducing Google Fonts
Google Fonts is truly a valuable tool, as well as one of the most popular font services on the web, that provides a wide range of free and open source typefaces for use in graphic projects in general, but especially for digital ones like websites and applications.
As we know, one of the challenges any designer faces when starting a new project is finding the right font for their needs. Finding the "perfect" font is crucial for the success of a design, as the typography is what gives the design its own identity, and especially when it comes to the web, it is one of the elements that determine the entire user experience.
In this regard, Google Fonts is very useful, because it allows you to easily find free fonts with a Creative Commons license, which can be used freely (a very important detail that should not be taken for granted), and which are sometimes not even available on other websites.
The Google Fonts interface is extremely simple and quick to use. You can search for fonts based on your needs and order them alphabetically, by popularity, or by newest or least popular. The search bar allows you to filter the results based on family, thickness, height, width, and style. You can save the fonts you like to review later or create shareable collections to use with colleagues.
Another great feature of Google Fonts is the ability to preview the fonts before downloading them, to avoid installing a file that may not be suitable for your intended use. Thanks to this Google tool, you can preview the font through a graphic text that will help you evaluate the final effect. You can do this with sample text or a paragraph, or by entering your text.
In short, on Google Fonts, you can find a lot of fonts to use in your projects or on your website, and all you have to do is choose one among the many available and download it.
What are the fonts by Google?
The fonts available on Google Fonts are a collection of characters created by designers from all over the world, which Google then distributes. The collection is constantly expanding and growing daily, thanks to adding new fonts to the library.
Google Fonts help you improve the appearance and readability of text on your website or graphic design. Furthermore, the fact that they are OpenSource resources means that you can use them without having to pay any license fees or worry about copyright infringement. In short, easy-to-find and download fonts that are free to use, which is something truly brilliant.
FFont families on Google Fonts
Serif. Serif fonts are characterised by small decorations, called "serifs", on the ends of the letters. These decorations are designed to make the letters more readable and distinguishable from each other, especially when printed in small sizes. They have been used for centuries and are often associated with classical typography, printing, and traditional publishing. They are commonly used in books, newspapers, and magazines as they aid reading and allow a better understanding of the text.
Some of the best serif fonts available on Google Fonts include Lora, Playfair Display, EB Garamond, Libre Baskerville, Gloock, and Roboto Slab.
Sans Serif. Sans serif fonts are characterised by the absence of decorations on the ends of letters, meaning they are "without serifs", hence the term sans serif. This gives them a clean and modern look, often used in graphic design projects, logos, titles, and minimalist-style texts. Unlike serif fonts, they were created more recently, in the 19th century, in response to contemporary graphic design needs. Thanks to their simplicity, they are often used where strong text legibility is required, such as in digital graphical interfaces.
Some famous examples of free sans serif fonts available on Google Fonts include Roboto, Montserrat, Raleway, Poppins, Nunito, Josefin Sans, and Barlow.
Display. Display fonts are decorative and creative, characterised by a unique and distinctive style, often used to draw attention to specific words or phrases, hence "display". They are designed to be used at larger sizes than standard text fonts, such as in headlines, logos, or posters; they often have elaborate and complex letters, although sometimes they are minimalist and geometric. They are useful for creating a unique and memorable corporate image and are often used in product or company branding. They are great when combined with standard text fonts to create contrasts and variations in design. However, due to their highly decorative nature, display fonts can be difficult to read and are mainly used to emphasise specific words or phrases.
Some examples of display fonts include Climate Crisis, Bebas Neue, Lobster, Abril Fatface, Bungee, Black Ops One, Fredericka the Great, Faster One, Monoton, and Press Start 2P.
Handwriting. These fonts are designed to emulate the look of handwriting as if written with a pen or pencil. Handwriting fonts can vary greatly, as they are based on a certain type of handwriting; some fonts may appear lighter and messier, while others are more elegant and refined. They can create a warm and personal atmosphere and are often chosen in invitations, greeting cards, logos, and design projects that require a personal and creative look. Like display fonts, due to their decorative nature, they can be difficult to read, especially in longer portions of text.
Here are the best handwriting fonts available for download on Google Fonts: Pacifico, Great Vibes Sacramento, Yellowtail, Architects Daughter, and Parisienne.
Monospace. The monospace fonts, also known as fixed-width fonts, are characterised by having a fixed width for each character. This means that each character has the same width, regardless of its shape or the surrounding white space, unlike proportional fonts where the width of each character varies. Monospace fonts allow for precise alignment and orderly columns of text. For this reason, monospace fonts are often used in programming and coding environments, where the structure and formatting of text are very important. They are also used in graphic design projects to create unusual text effects, highlight certain parts of the text, or give a vintage/retro look.
Among the monospace fonts available on Google Fonts, we can find Source Code Pro, Roboto Mono, IBM Plex Mono, Space Mono, Courier Prime, and Major Mono Display.
How to download a font on Google Fonts?
How does the font download from Google Fonts work? It's very simple and intuitive. Once you have chosen the font and opened the reference page, click on the download icon to download the selected font family. The download is in the form of a . ZIP file, and by double-clicking on it, you can install the entire library on your computer.
How to use fonts by Google Fonts
All the fonts available on Google Fonts are web fonts, which means they are optimised for the web. Using Google Fonts on a website is relatively simple. Firstly, you need to select one or more fonts that you want to use and download them, as we saw earlier. Once you have downloaded the fonts, you can use them on your website differently.
The easiest method is to use the "link" function to link the fonts to your website. You need to copy and paste the code provided by Google Fonts into the "head" section of your website. This way, your website can access Google fonts and use them to display text.
You can also download the fonts and upload them to your server, but this requires more work. Additionally, uploading fonts to your server can increase the page loading time, so it's important to ensure that the fonts are optimised for speed.
Benefits of Google Fonts
Free and Open Source resources. This means that you can use the fonts without worrying about violating copyright or having to pay a license fee.
Web optimisation. The fonts are optimised for the web; your website can load them quickly, as they are hosted directly on Google's servers. They are also optimised for search engines and can help improve your ranking in search results.
Trends and design. Google Fonts are constantly updated and improved, so you can be sure that the fonts you choose will always be up-to-date with the latest trends.
Integration with Google Docs. Google Fonts is integrated with Google Docs, so you can edit your documents and directly incorporate the fonts you like.
Preview. Google Fonts offers a preview page, where you can try the fonts before downloading them. You can view the fonts in different sizes and see how they look in the example text or paragraphs.
The best way to find free, high-quality, and web-optimized fonts online is through the Google Fonts portal. In short, Google Fonts is a valuable resource for anyone in Graphic or Web Design. And remember, for a successful project, it's important to choose a font that fits your project and personality well, but that is also easily readable and of an appropriate size, so as not to compromise the user experience.
Next
Related post
Learn more
May 24, 2022
May 28, 2022
