Google Docs, the ubiquitous and free word processing tool, uses a sans serif font called Arial by default. It’s classic and straightforwardly simple. Like the white bread of fonts, it’s hard working and versatile, but pretty dang basic.
Last week, Google added 60 new fonts to its catalog of free licensed font families for you to choose from in Docs and Slides with a tweet that basically said, “these fonts are here now!” There wasn’t much detail as to why Google added the fonts, but for anyone who grew tired of the 30 or so default font options available previously, the new offerings will make it much easier to customize Google Docs and Slides.
Here are five of the most exciting new typefaces, showcasing a range of styles, from an updated love-to-hate font to a canonical typeface mid-century modernist Massimo Vignelli himself favored. Your next shared Doc is about to get a lot spicier.
Comic Neue
Google Fonts already has Comic Sans, one of the most widely mocked fonts on the Internet. (Its own designer calls it the “the Justin Bieber of fonts.”) Comic Neue is its more sophisticated sibling. The “squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape,” Google writes, while maintaining the fun that make many love Comic Sans (and love to hate it). Comic Neue’s child-like look could work nicely for younger audiences, but it could have practical benefits, too. Comic Sans is considered a more legible font for dyslexic readers.
JetBrains Mono
This typeface looks like code, and that makes sense: It takes inspiration from it. The rounded rectangular shapes of JetBrains Mono is “made for the specific needs of developers,” according to its designers Philipp Nurullin and Konstantin Bulenkov. It’s a monospace font, so each letter or character takes up the same amount of space. But you don’t need to use it for coding—use it to give a boxy, geometric feel to an otherwise drab Google Doc or presentation.
Bodoni Moda
Bodoni Moda is a long overdue addition to Google Docs and Slides. Bodoni, a serif font first designed by Giambattista Bodoni in the late 18th century, is an all-time classic font. It’s a serif typeface, with sharp edges and straight lines that give it modern appeal. It has been used everywhere: One of its most famous proponents was the iconic mid-century modern designer Massimo Vignelli, who famously used only a handful of typefaces throughout his career; he considered Bodoni one of his six preferred typefaces. Garamond, a typeface similar to Bodoni, already exists in Google Docs. But Bodoni Moda’s contrasting thin and thick strokes make it stand on its own, and it’s high time the font family gets some attention, too.
Goldman
You’ve probably seen a typeface similar to Goldman, with its angled terminals and squared counters (the negative space in letters), used for the front covers of sci-fi novels. Designer Jaikishan Patel expands its use case here, designing it for applications in science fiction, sports, drama, and thriller posters. Now you can bring a cinematic element to your Docs.
Museu Moderno
There are 26 letters in any English alphabet, but in the sans serif Museo Moderno alphabet, one letter is the star: the lowercase W. It looks like someone bent a piece of steel pipe to get those wonky curves. Omnibus-Type first designed the typeface for the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, but it’s easy to see the contemporary geometric typeface on everything from direct-to-consumer beauty brands to specialty consumer goods.
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