Google has added a new font family – Lexend – that will help you read faster and better. The font is available inside Google Docs, Sheets and Google Slides or you can download it directly from the Google Fonts website and use it in offline apps like Microsoft Word.
Here’s a sample Google document rendered with the Lexend Deca font.
Thomas Jockin and Bonnie Shaver-Troup, the font designers, have also uploaded the font files on Github under the Open Font License which allows you to use, modify and redistribute the fonts freely as long as they are not sold by themselves.
To enable the Lexend font in your copy of Google Docs, open a new document inside Google Docs, click the Font dropdown in the toolbar and select More Fonts. Search for Lexend and select them to add them to your default font list.
The study suggests that students were able to increase their reading speed (total number of correct words read per minute) by 19.8% when the same document was formatted in the Lexend typeface vs the Times New Roman family. The font’s development has been financed by Google.