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I would like to print out 100-150 assorted fonts from Google Fonts on nice paper for clients to be able choose from, for website builds.

Is there a recommended way to do this? I'm wondering if there's already a PDF or if it's easier to print all of them, that's fine too. I just have not found a good example of all (or many) of the Google Fonts in a printable layout that I can show to clients.

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    Why would you let your clients pick typefaces? Surely they don't understand that a typeface choice can completely change the "mood" of any design. – Scott Jul 14 '13 at 15:51
  • I also welcome any creative approaches to printing out font options for clients. It's often not efficient to go thru all of them online. Re: Scott - It's a collaborative process with the clients and internally for designers. Primarily for logo's design & headers, but to your point, my clients have some experience such that the participation outweighs the additional time. – DreamGrowers Jul 14 '13 at 16:02
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Is there a recommended way to do this

The recommended way is to not do that.

The client is hiring the graphic designer for their skills and making decisions like that. If you're just letting the client randomly pick elements of your design, you're not a designer...you're merely an assistant.

If you must print out a bunch of fonts, install them all, and then look at using some font management software--many of which have a feature to do just this.

Again, though, from a Graphic Design standpoint, you really do not want to do this.

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If it's for a website I'd not even think about printing them. If you must make a test page and let them choose from a FEW fonts only, not all of them. Just the ones that fit into the context of the project. This way they get FEELING of having control over stuff. Printing them out would be very misleading. For example if print them out at high resolution they'll think that's what they'll get on the screen of whatever device. After wards they'll wonder why those fonts don't looks so sharp?

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  • Thank you. For my own use, I'd like to print my 50 favorites out - do you recommend any particular process to do that? ...or just install and use illustrator. – DreamGrowers Jul 14 '13 at 23:18
  • If your main line of work is web, I'd stick with illustrator. Back in the the (and maybe still) typehouses would have their font sets printed in books for reference (sizing and typespecking) and there was point to that (npi ;-) ) with a little bit of time and experience you'll know your fonts by heart anyways :-) – vector Jul 15 '13 at 0:02
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Although I do agree with the sentiment that you shouldn't just blindly display all the fonts, I do think it makes browsing the fonts from Google Web Fonts incredibly easier if you have all of them downloaded. This way you don't have to manually go through Google's Web Font directory and select all the ones you want, you can play with them at your own convenience.

https://github.com/w0ng/googlefontdirectory

This is the current directory of fonts form Google Web Fonts. The size is about 2GB.

Everyone is spot on when they say don't let the client dictate the choice of fonts- you are the designer and in that regard, you have the most appropriate, unbiased knowledge to make typographical choices.

Save trees! Use something free like Font Xplorer when displaying fonts instead of having to print them.

http://download.cnet.com/Font-Xplorer/3000-2316_4-10034113.html

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  • Thank you all (especially Vector and Adam...and DA01 for the font management software suggestion). The solutions was Suitcase Fusion 4 for Mac. I was able to choose my favorite fonts and send to PDF. It's only a few pages and now I have them for quick reference. – DreamGrowers Jul 14 '13 at 23:50
  • @DreamGrowers If you have a solution which is not explicitly mentioned here then it's OK to write your own answer (and even accept it). Or you can accept another's answer which you implemented in a specific way. But comments are ephemeral. – Andrew Leach Jul 15 '13 at 17:53

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