Google Fonts Library Metadata Extractor

Get structured metadata for Google's free, open-source font library instead of reading it off the fonts.google.com catalog by hand. Look a family up by name, pull every family in one of the five categories, or export the whole library at once, with weights, variable-font axes, language subsets, designer credits, and ready-to-paste specimen and CSS embed URLs.

What this actor does

• Three modes: byFamily, byCategory, listAll
• Every family: weights, style variants, variable-font axes, language subsets, designers
• Ranking signals: popularity and trending positions across the whole library
• Ready-to-use URLs: a specimen page URL and a css2 embed URL for each family
• Empty fields are always omitted — records only contain data that actually exists

Output per font family

Field	Description
family	Font family name (e.g. Roboto, Open Sans)
displayName	A display-friendly variant of the family name, when Google Fonts publishes one separate from family
category	Sans Serif / Serif / Display / Handwriting / Monospace
stroke	Stroke classification when present (e.g. Sans Serif, Slab Serif)
classifications	Secondary tags (e.g. Display, Monospace, Symbols)
subsets	Language / script subsets (e.g. latin, cyrillic, greek, vietnamese)
weights	Distinct numeric weights (e.g. ["100","400","700","900"])
variants	All style variants incl. italics (e.g. ["400","400i","700"])
axes	Variable-font axes: [{tag, min, max, defaultValue}]
isVariable	true when the family ships a variable font
designers	List of designer / foundry names
popularity	Popularity rank across the library (lower = more popular)
trending	Trending rank across the library
dateAdded	Date the family was first added to Google Fonts
lastModified	Date the family was last updated
primaryScript / primaryLanguage	Primary script / language when set
colorCapabilities	Color-font tech when present (e.g. COLRV1, OTSVG)
isOpenSource	true when Google Fonts marks the family open source in its metadata (true on virtually every family, since the whole library is open source)
isBrandFont	true when Google Fonts flags this family as a brand font
isNoto	true when the family is part of the Noto font collection
googleFontsUrl	Specimen page, e.g. https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
cssUrl	Embed stylesheet, e.g. https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Open+Sans
recordType	font
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 timestamp of the scrape

Output per failed lookup (recordType = error)

When a requested family name in families doesn't match any family in the library (mode=byFamily), the actor emits a typed error record instead of silently skipping it:

Field	Description
error	Short error type, e.g. not_found
message	Human-readable explanation
input	The family name that didn't match
sourceUrl	The Google Fonts metadata endpoint queried
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 timestamp

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byFamily	byFamily / byCategory / listAll
families	array	["Roboto"]	Exact family names (mode=byFamily), case-insensitive
category	string	Sans Serif	One category (mode=byCategory)
maxItems	integer	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000)

Example: look up specific families

{
  "mode": "byFamily",
  "families": ["Roboto", "Open Sans", "Playfair Display", "JetBrains Mono"]
}

Example: browse every monospace font

{
  "mode": "byCategory",
  "category": "Monospace",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: export the whole library

{
  "mode": "listAll",
  "maxItems": 2000
}

Use cases

• Design systems — build a searchable, filterable font picker from live Google Fonts data
• Web performance — pull the exact css2 URLs and weights you need before self-hosting
• Typography research — analyse the library by category, popularity, or variable-font support
• App onboarding — offer users a curated font list without hand-maintaining metadata
• SEO / content tooling — enrich articles and galleries with accurate font specifications
• Localization — filter families by language subset (Cyrillic, Greek, Vietnamese, and more)

FAQ

Where does the data come from? The official public Google Fonts metadata catalog that powers fonts.google.com. No login or API key is required.

How many fonts are covered? The entire library — over 1,900 families and growing. listAll returns all of them (up to maxItems).

What are the categories? Sans Serif, Serif, Display, Handwriting, and Monospace.

What's the difference between weights and variants? weights lists the distinct numeric weights (e.g. 400, 700). variants lists every shipped style, including italics (e.g. 400, 400i, 700, 700i).

What are axes? For variable fonts, the adjustable axes — such as wght (weight), wdth (width), slnt (slant), or opsz (optical size) — each with its min, max, and defaultValue.

How do I embed a font? Use the cssUrl in a <link> tag, then reference the family in your CSS font-family. You can add :wght@... to the URL to request specific weights.

Are these fonts free to use? Yes. Every Google Font is open source (licensed under the SIL Open Font License or Apache License 2.0) and free for commercial and personal use.

How fresh is the data? Live — the actor fetches the current metadata document on every run, so new families and updates appear as soon as Google publishes them.

Is this affiliated with Google? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads Google Fonts' publicly available library metadata and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.