38 comments

  • Yitong ZhangYitong Zhang, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    This redesign is awesome, but I think it might have killed my side project.

    I’ve been working on a site that offers google fonts with better visuals and search by font feature (x-height, stroke contrast, etc) functionality.

    Sunk 30+ hours into it designing + coding up the front end while my friend works on programmatically tagging the font on the backend.

    I want to continue working on my project, but it now feels a lot less relevant. Any advice, DN?

    For the curious, here's a wireframe of the main screen.

    15 points
    • xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx, almost 7 years ago

      Based on that wireframe you're still offering more options for picking out fonts. This is still the same old Google Fonts really, with the same feature set, it just looks and works a little different. I would keep going man.

      7 points
    • Sander VisserSander Visser, almost 7 years ago

      I agree with Tim – your wireframe offers more options on comparing fonts and would definitely be relevant. You should only realise that Google might eventually push certain updates through, as they apparently seem to keep improving and / or changing their current version.

      3 points
    • Alec LomasAlec Lomas, almost 7 years ago

      I would love to see a search tool for x-height, contrast, etc.

      1 point
    • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, almost 7 years ago

      Turn it into an Electron app for OS X and Windows that syncs Google Fonts to your system. SkyFonts already does this, but I think it's very poorly executed.

      1 point
    • Michael YoungMichael Young, almost 7 years ago

      Keep going with your idea, there can never be enough ideas for browsing for fonts. This is why we continue to develop https://fontpath.com, as we can provide tens of thousands of fonts (paid options).

      0 points
    • Sarah Hum, almost 7 years ago

      Some properties on Typekit are pretty useful for choosing fonts (eg. Default figure style)

      0 points
  • ミンニシオ 。ミンニシオ 。, almost 7 years ago

    It deserves https://fonts.google URL

    15 points
    • Alec LomasAlec Lomas, almost 7 years ago

      I always go there first and get the 404. Google needs to move all their projects to either subdomains or subdirectories, but the mishmash is annoying

      0 points
  • Nic TrentNic Trent, almost 7 years ago

    “Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls' bottoms. I get kicks out of looking at type websites.” -Erik Spiekermann -Me

    9 points
  • Ted McDonald, almost 7 years ago

    It is so much better than before. The one thing that drives me crazy though is the fact I can't right click anything to open in new tab. That makes searching through fonts a real pain.

    7 points
  • Steve SunderlandSteve Sunderland, almost 7 years ago

    It would be nice to have the option of viewing the fonts in a list rather than a grid...

    5 points
  • Mike MaiMike Mai, almost 7 years ago

    But I prefer www.google.com/fonts, this is a tool, it doesn't need to be pretty. The old version works pretty great already, not sure what this new version is trying to prove. Just for the sake of using material design? That's missing the point.

    The grid view is extremely tiring to browse through, my eyes go all over the place. And the "show all styles" option is gone...

    Instead of completely revamp it, why can't they just improve upon what they already have?

    4 points
    • Beth RBeth R, almost 7 years ago

      I completely agree. All they have done is added their "Material Design" skin to it. Now it looks exactly like everything else out there.

      0 points
  • Alexander KäßnerAlexander Käßner, almost 7 years ago

    Oh yeah, this looks much better than before!

    4 points
  • James Young, almost 7 years ago

    It looks way nicer but almost instantly I wanted to be able to view the fonts in a single line not a grid and change the size of the type but couldn't do either so end up stuck awkwardly viewing only a few fonts per screen.

    Overall nice to see the refresh to material though.

    1 point
  • Michael CookMichael Cook, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    Really happy about the UI refresh but the new icon is immensely disappointing.

    Here's a hi-res of it which is almost pointless: https://www.google.com/images/branding/product/2x/google_fonts_512dp.png

    What's the thinking behind this?

    • Fuck it
    • Modern!
    • Creative differences lead to depressing compromise
    • ...
    1 point
  • Christina FowlerChristina Fowler, almost 7 years ago

    I really like this, so much better than before. However, it's a shame they haven't reviewed the categories of Serif, Sans Serif, Handwriting, etc. I would love to see fotns better tagged.

    0 points
  • Pablo RoblesPablo Robles, almost 7 years ago

    More options to see when you scroll. So fresh and minimal.

    0 points
  • Ken Em, almost 7 years ago

    I love this redesign. Right up my minimal alley.

    0 points
  • Alvaro Ruiz, almost 7 years ago

    Really nice redesign, but it is still missing a lot of the fonts pending to add, like the different weight for Montserrat. Google is stuck with only 2, and on github there is a PR to add the other weights. The design looks really good though.

    0 points
  • Stefano TirloniStefano Tirloni, almost 7 years ago

    Never use G fonts!

    0 points
    • Mick NMick N, almost 7 years ago

      Why?

      1 point
      • Stefano TirloniStefano Tirloni, almost 7 years ago

        http://practicaltypography.com/why-google-fonts-arent-really-open-source.html

        0 points
        • Mick NMick N, almost 7 years ago

          Some interesting takes there, but I think the update at the end highlights some important points:

          Are a lot of the web­fonts we see to­day cruddy free fonts? Yes. And are many of those from Google Fonts? Also yes. But as a type de­signer, I would much rather have peo­ple us­ing cruddy free fonts than sys­tem fonts. Why? Be­cause it re­quires them to over­come their rest­ing in­er­tia—“why should I use web­fonts when I’ve got Geor­gia?” That first step is a big one. Even­tu­ally, some of these peo­ple will get sick of their cruddy web­fonts, and then they’ll be in the mar­ket for bet­ter ones. Which they won’t find at Google Fonts.

          This is something I've definitely noticed, and the designers I work with are definitely at the point now where they are seeking out high quality paid webfonts. It's been a slow process whereas before it would be default system fonts; then it progressed to Google Fonts.

          Google did a great job of making a huge library of fonts easily accessible to anyone who knows a small amount of html & css.

          1 point
  • Cihad TurhanCihad Turhan, almost 7 years ago
    • Awesome filter feature ✔
    • Lazyloading images as you scroll ✔
    • Inline edit feature for each font ✔
    0 points
  • Adam RasheedAdam Rasheed, almost 7 years ago

    Nice!! I love all the changes, but I think this would have been the perfect opportunity to add the functionality to save your favorite fonts for late.

    0 points
  • alec salec s, almost 7 years ago

    Whoooooo! Caught the update mid-way through gathering a list of typefaces for a project and was caught so happily off-guard. Good work.

    0 points
  • Kwang-Su KimKwang-Su Kim, almost 7 years ago

    Wow!

    0 points
  • xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx, almost 7 years ago

    I really like the inline preview adjustment tools

    adjustments

    0 points