I am a font lover. There. I said it. I love great fonts and I cannot lie! I believe that a well-chosen font has the power to change the entire aesthetic of a slide deck, document, sign, or assignment. I think we can all agree there is a big difference here:

One note makes you feel loved while the other makes you scared for your life!

So… I am a lover of great fonts and the power they have to evoke different emotions. I am also a hater of terrible fonts. Please don’t ever use Comic Sans… unless you are a clown… and even then I think you could probably do better! With all of the amazing free fonts that Google has to offer – plus a couple of tips and resources that can help those fonts look especially great – we can REALLY have some FUN with FONTS!

1. Adding Fonts to Google

No matter which Google App you’re using – Docs, Slides, Sheets, or Drawings – you can change the font from the default by highlighting the text you’d like to change and clicking on the name of the font from the menu at the top of the screen. A ton of great pre-loaded font choices spill down for you to choose from… but right there at the top of that drop down there is an option to find “More Fonts”. When you click on “More Fonts” a new window pops open that shows you hundreds of great free fonts that Google has to offer. Any font that you want to be added to your drop-down of fonts you simply click on to add the checkmark next to it – and add it to your fonts.

2. Choosing the right font – fonts.google.com

Sometimes I find myself trying to find just the right font for something and I end up going back and forth between looking at how my text in that font and then searching for another font, then looking at how my text looks in that font… and so on.

There is an easier way! Check out fonts.google.com

This site allows you to type in your text and see how it will look in every font google has to offer! Once you find the perfect font to express your message, you come back to doc and change the font with confidence! No more trying on fonts one at time! Now you can preview them all at once!

3. Limit Fonts to 2-3 per document

Now that you know how to find all these great fonts, you may be tempted to try using many different fonts all in the same document… but control yourself! You’ve got to control yourself! It just looks messy when there are more than 2-3 fonts in a document. You’ve got to edit down. You can still have fun and experiment with different fonts in different documents, just remember to stick to 2-3 per document so you keep it classy!

4. Choosing Fonts that Go Together

Sometimes it is hard to know which fonts to pair together. Especially when you were just told to pair it down to 3 or less! How can one decide what fonts complement each other??

Fontjoy.comto the rescue!

Font Joy gives you random font pairings that they believe (or maybe their algorithm believes) compliment each other well. BUT – the part I love the MOST is that you can search for a font you’ve already determined you want to use, lock it in, and then click the “Generate” button to see what fonts go well with the one you’ve chosen. SO helpful!

5. Use Word Art

I love using Word Art for so many reasons! I can control the color of the fill AND the font’s outline. I also love that I can resize Word Art as I do shapes or images by clicking a corner and dragging it. Tip: If you hold down the shift key while you click and drag a corner to resize Word Art (or any shape or image) the image will stag exactly proportional – no more squishing or smooshing!

To add Word Art to your Google Doc, Slide, or Drawing, go to:

• Insert
• Word Art
• Change the font
• Change the fill color
• Change the line color
• Change the line thickness

You have so much control!

6. Layer Word Art

Another HUGE reason I love to use Word Art is because it allows me to layer words – which you can’t really do with text boxes. This layering effect is great for creating titles or an image using text. Here is an example of layered text to create a title:

I’ve been working on the presentation pictured above and one of the slides I’m going to share is:

I hope you agree and that you’ve found a tip or resource that will help you to create high-quality content with amazing and non-boring fonts!