font

a tiny google fonts cli for installing fonts on your machine.

this exists because google fonts should be installable from the terminal without api keys, browser clicking, or downloading a zip like it is 2012.

usage

install globally:

npm install -g @extoci/fonts

then:

font add inter

to launch the interactive installer:

font add

it uses google-webfonts-helper, so you do not need a google api key.

requirements

• node 20+ for the published cli
• bun if you are developing locally
• internet access, obviously
• on linux, fc-cache is nice to have but not required

what it does

font add installs font files into your user font directory:

• macos: ~/Library/Fonts
• linux: ~/.local/share/fonts (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts)
• windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts

installed fonts are tracked in a small manifest so font list, font remove, and font update know what this cli put there.

commands

interactive mode:

font add

scriptable commands:

font add inter
font add inter -v regular,700
font download "Source Sans 3" --dest ./fonts --woff2
font find inter
font find --all
font list
font update
font remove inter

useful flags

• -v, --variants regular,700 – install or download specific variants
• -d, --dest ./fonts – save font files somewhere instead of installing them
• --woff2 – download woff2 files instead of ttf
• --refresh – refresh the cached google fonts catalog
• --all – print the whole catalog with font find
• --limit 10 – limit font find output
• --select – pick one narrowed font find result interactively
• -y, --yes – skip prompts where possible

quick examples

install inter regular and bold:

font add inter -v regular,700

search google fonts:

font find mono

print every font in the catalog:

font find --all

download web fonts into your project:

font download inter --dest ./public/fonts --woff2

remove fonts installed by this cli:

font remove inter

development

run with bun:

bun run dev

build:

bun run build

test:

bun run test

troubleshooting

• font add worked but the font is not showing up restart the app you are trying to use the font in. some apps cache the font list.

• linux font list did not refresh install fontconfig so fc-cache is available, then run fc-cache -f.

• search feels stale run with --refresh to redownload the google fonts catalog.

• windows install is weird windows font installation is windows font installation. this cli installs into the current user's font directory and registers the font for that user.

notes

this is bun-first for development, but the published binary is a bundled node cli so npm install -g @extoci/fonts works normally.

acknowledgements

uses google-webfonts-helper for the font catalog and file urls. built by exotic with codex.