What it does
Google Fonts Tools, or gftools, provides open-source utilities for font-family metadata, comparisons and release preparation. Its main audience is Google Fonts contributors, with local commands also useful to other type engineers.
For a family update, choose the command that answers your immediate question. After pip install gftools, use gftools compare-font before.ttf after.ttf to compare files. The add-font command creates family metadata in METADATA.pb, and sanity-check can produce a repair script.
The examples also cover comparing variable output with static fonts or a family hosted on Google Fonts. The qa and family-html-snippet commands require a Google Fonts API key, and QA has extra dependencies. Local comparison and metadata commands are separate from those online operations.
Packaging a contribution uses Git and can prepare a pull request. Review generated repairs before publishing an update.
Strengths
- Family metadata, comparisons and packaging utilities share one toolkit.
- The documentation includes variable-versus-static comparison examples.
Watch out for
- The qa and family-html-snippet commands require a Google Fonts API key.
- QA and packaging have additional dependencies beyond the base package.
Best for
- Google Fonts contributors
- Type engineers maintaining family metadata and QA
Sources
- Google Fonts Tools README (Oct 27, 2026)
- gftools Apache License (Oct 27, 2026)