I used to think it was hard to NOT use custom fonts in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets…since we are required to use Google Fonts instead.

But over time, I’ve grown to love Google Fonts! There are so many clean options that are ideal for our students. And I think they have provided a much better alternative than some of the cutesy fonts we used long ago (which are super fun, but not alwasy ideal for our students).

I’ve shared a lot about different Google Fonts over the years…even a list of 55 Favorite Google Fonts for Teachers.

But today I wanted to share how you can use a website to find your own favorite new fonts…and I have a special feature to help save you time (because you know I always love to save teachers as much time as possible!).

How to find new google fonts

To find your new favorite fonts, we will use the Google Fonts website. This website has an enormous list of fonts…many of which we can add to Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, and Sites.

Here are the quick steps, plus that bonus feature I was talking about!

Ok. The Google Fonts website currently has over 1,600 font families. They have a traditional search feature with a phrase to help you see how the characters look…but this is not always super helpful for teachers who need to see ALL of the letters, to see if the font is student-friendly.

To help with this, I have a special link that leads a search with all of the alphabet letters in uppercase and lowercase (plus some punctuation marks):

Now we can use the filters to refine our search and find those font styles you like!

First, click the Filters button at the top of the site:

There used to be so many filters to sort these fonts! Unfortunately, there are only a few filters now…but they can still help us find your favorite styles.

Click on Decorative Stroke in the filters menu. This will allow you to choose between Serif, Slab Serif, and (my personal favorite!) Sans Serif:

Another helpful filter is Classification. Here you choose from options such as Display and Handwriting:

Now that you’ve started to narrow down some of the fonts, you can head to the top of the page and use the dropdown filter and choose from trending, popular, and newer fonts:

Do you see a font you like? Click on it to take a closer look.

The font will have the basic preview text provided on Google Fonts, but if you scroll down a bit you can preview the alphabet and punctuation we’ve been using:

And it gets better.

There is a special tool to preview the font in a doc format!

You can use this to test out the different font weights and type some sample text to see if it will work well for you:

You can double-click on any of the preview text you type in this area and click on the filter in the Weight menu, to find your favorite weights:

Add your new font, fast!

Think you’ve found a new Google Font you love? Time to see if we can use it in Docs, Slides, and Sheets!

Double-click on the font name to select it, then copy the name:

Open a new Google Doc, click on the fonts dropdown menu, and then select More Fonts:

Paste your font name into the search. If it is available, you will see the name pop right up! Click on the font to select it, then click OK to add it to your fonts menu:

Your new Google Font is now added to all font menus in your Google Drive!

I hope this will be of help if you are looking for new Google Fonts!

Have you found any new favorites? Please share them with us below!

MOre Font fun…

55 Favorite Google Fonts for Teachers

these quick steps will help you add fonts in an instant!

Read Post

An Incredible Student Friendly Google Font

a font for all readers…and the easy steps to add it to your drive

Read Post