Google Fonts is a free interactive directory of over 1200 font families that Google has made available to developers and designers. The project was developed in 2010 to combat the licensing and compatibility issues that web developers faced when using proprietary fonts.
Most of the fonts are published under the SIL Open Font License and others under Apache. This has enabled users to make use of fonts on their websites and in different projects without the need to upload them to their own servers.
[ You might also like: 10 Best Websites to Find Free Fonts Online ]
If you were excited about Google Fonts wait till you read about today’s app: Font Downloader.
Font Downloader is a free and open-source Google Font downloader application. With it, you can search for new fonts and easily switch to them to test their appearance. The alternative would be to search and download fonts individually for each new typeface you want to test.
It features a clean user interface that supports light and dark theme modes.
Features in Font Downloader
- Free and open-source. Source code available on GitHub.
- Simple, themeable user interface.
- Light and dark theme styles.
- Search for Google Fonts.
- Install Google Fonts directly.
- Download installable/embeddable font files.
- Preview fonts in the app.
- Filter font face families.
Installing Font Downloader on Fedora
It is relatively a new project so no, it’s not a snap app yet. If you’re using GNOME Builder, just clone the project from GitHub and then build it using meson.
If you are using a different builder, you must install libhandy as a dependency first. Run the following commands to install meson and libhandy:
$ sudo dnf install cmake meson ninja $ sudo dnf install libhandy1-dev
Next, build using meson:
$ git clone https://github.com/GustavoPeredo/font-downloader.git $ cd font-downloader $ mkdir build $ meson build . $ cd build $ ninja $ ninja install
Run Font Downloader from your terminal with the command:
$ fontdownloader
Font Downloader is an active project and the developer will be happy to collaborate with other developers to improve the app. And if you’re a Google Font user, check this app out and tell us about your experience in the comments section.
