Font Grabber 🔤

February 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

A professional, production-ready tool for quickly searching and downloading fonts from Google Fonts. Built for creators who need fonts fast.

Features

✅ Search 1000+ Google Fonts with fuzzy matching (handles typos)
✅ One-click downloads - all font variants automatically
✅ Clean, modern GUI - dark/light themes
✅ Configurable output - save fonts where you need them
✅ Plugin architecture - easily add more font sources later
✅ Environment variable support - secure API key management

Quick Start

Option 1: Run from Source (Recommended for First Use)

Install Python 3.8+ (if not already installed)
- Download from python.org
- ✅ Check "Add Python to PATH" during installation
Download Font Grabber
- Extract this folder to your preferred location
Get Google Fonts API Key (Required)
- Visit: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
- Create a new API key
- Set environment variable:
```
# Windows
set GOOGLE_FONTS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

# macOS/Linux
export GOOGLE_FONTS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
```

Install Dependencies

# Open terminal/command prompt in the font-grabber folder
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the App
```
python main.py
```

Option 2: Build Standalone Executable

Create a portable .exe (Windows) that runs without Python installed:

# Install PyInstaller
pip install pyinstaller

# Build executable
pyinstaller --onefile --windowed --name="FontGrabber" --icon=assets/icon.ico main.py

# Your .exe will be in the 'dist' folder

Note: First launch may be slow (Windows Defender scanning). Subsequent launches are instant.

How to Use

Basic Workflow

Launch the app
- Double-click main.py (if Python is associated) or run python main.py
Search for a font
- Type the font name (e.g., "Roboto", "Inter", "Montserrat")
- Press Enter or click "Search"
- Fuzzy matching handles typos: "Roboto" finds "Roboto", "Roboto Mono", etc.
Download
- Click "Download" on the font you want
- All variants (Regular, Bold, Italic, etc.) download automatically
- Files save to your configured output directory
Find your fonts
- Default location: ./fonts (in the app folder)
- Change in Settings (⚙ button)

Settings

Click the ⚙ button to configure:

Output Directory: Where fonts are saved
Theme: Dark, Light, or System default

Usage Examples

For Your Media Project Workflow

Based on your asset list (FNT_PRIMARY):

1. Launch Font Grabber
2. Search "Montserrat" (or your desired font)
3. Download → Files appear in ./fonts/
4. Import to your video editor/design tool
5. Mark FNT_PRIMARY ✅ in your tracker

Batch workflow for multiple projects:

Keep Font Grabber open
Search → Download → Next font
~15 seconds per font

Technical Details

Project Structure

font-grabber/
├── main.py              # Application entry point
├── config.py            # Configuration management
├── core/
│   ├── manager.py       # Font search/download orchestration
│   └── sources/         # Plugin-style font providers
│       ├── base.py      # Abstract source class
│       ├── google.py    # Google Fonts implementation
├── requirements.txt     # Python dependencies
├── config.json          # Generated on first run (settings)
└── fonts/               # Default download location

Adding New Font Sources

The plugin architecture makes it easy to add new sources:

Create a new file in core/sources/ (e.g., fontsquirrel.py)
Inherit from FontSource base class
Implement search() and download() methods
Register in manager.py

Example:

from .base import FontSource

class FontSquirrelSource(FontSource):
    @property
    def name(self) -> str:
        return "Font Squirrel"
    
    def search(self, query: str) -> List[Dict]:
        # Your search logic
        pass
    
    def download(self, font_id: str, output_dir: str) -> List[str]:
        # Your download logic
        pass

Troubleshooting

"No results found"

Check spelling (fuzzy matching helps but has limits)
Try a simpler search: "Roboto" instead of "Roboto Light"
Google Fonts API might be temporarily down (rare)

"Failed to download"

Check internet connection
Antivirus might be blocking downloads
Output directory permissions (try changing in Settings)

Application won't start

Verify Python 3.8+ is installed: python --version
Reinstall dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade
Check for error messages in terminal

Downloads are slow

Normal for fonts with many variants (10+ files)
Network speed dependent
First download per session may be slower (cache warming)

.exe is flagged by antivirus

False positive (common with PyInstaller)
Add exception in your antivirus
Or run from source: python main.py

Configuration File

config.json is auto-generated on first run:

{
  "output_dir": "./fonts",
  "theme": "dark",
  "window_size": "600x500",
  "api_keys": {
    "google_fonts": ""
  }
}

Notes:

api_keys.google_fonts is optional (not required for basic usage)
If you hit API rate limits (unlikely), get a free key from Google Cloud Console

System Requirements

OS: Windows 10/11, macOS 10.14+, Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+)
Python: 3.8 or higher
RAM: 100 MB
Disk: 50 MB + space for downloaded fonts
Network: Internet connection required

Dependencies

customtkinter (5.2.2) - Modern UI framework
requests (2.31.0) - HTTP client for API calls
thefuzz (0.22.1) - Fuzzy string matching
python-Levenshtein (0.25.0) - Fast fuzzy matching backend

Known Limitations

Google Fonts only (for now) - other sources coming in future versions
No font preview in search results (planned feature)
No batch download from list (planned feature)
No auto-install to system fonts (manual installation required)

Roadmap

Future enhancements:

Additional sources (Font Squirrel, Fontsource)
Font preview in search results
Batch download from CSV/text file
Auto-install fonts to system
Recently downloaded history
Favorites/bookmarks
LLM-powered font recommendations

License

This software is provided as-is for personal and commercial use.

Font Licenses:

All fonts from Google Fonts are open-source and free for commercial use
Check individual font licenses in the Google Fonts catalog
Font Grabber does not modify or redistribute font files

Support

Issues/Bugs:

Check this README first (especially Troubleshooting section)
Verify you're using the latest version
Report issues with full error messages

Feature Requests:

Font sources you'd like added
UI/UX improvements
Workflow optimizations

Credits

Built with:

CustomTkinter by Tom Schimansky
Google Fonts API
TheFuzz for fuzzy matching

Version

v1.0.0 - Initial Release

Google Fonts integration
Fuzzy search
One-click downloads
Settings management

Happy font hunting! 🎨