To download all the free fonts from Google’s Web fonts collection (they can be used in printed projects as well!), follow the directions for downloading and using a special utility at http://code.google.com/p/googlefontdirectory/. Currently, the collection takes 1.3 GB of space, but after you download the entire set, the utility lets you download only new ones as they are added.

To see and download individual fonts, go to: http://www.google.com/webfonts

Then:

1. Find one or more you like and click the blue “Add to Collection” button.

2. Click the “Download Your Collection” link near the top right of the page.

3. In the pop-up dialog that appears, click this link:

“Download the font families in your Collection as a zip-file”

4. Install and use your new fonts!

For a helpful guide for combining pairs of Google fonts, see http://designshack.net/articles/typography/10-more-great-google-font-combinations-you-can-copy/ and http://designshack.net/articles/css/10-great-google-font-combinations-you-can-copy/

For a quick tutorial on how to use Google Web fonts on your Web pages, see http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-fonts-web-project/

There’s a useful visual display of the fonts that have more than one style or weight (a “family”) at http://somadesign.ca/demos/better-google-fonts/

Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.