Generating Font Previews with Python and Pillow for Enhanced UX

Selecting fonts from lists is tedious when users can’t visualize how text will look. I wrote a Python script using Pillow to auto-generate font previews for easier selection.

In this post, I’ll explain my frustrating experience, the Python automation solution, results, and lessons learned.

The Problematic Font Selection Process

While building a social media post creator web app (Postnitro.ai), I included customizable fonts. Users could choose from 50+ font options.

However, the interface only displayed names in plain text. Users had to:

1. Pick a font
2. Apply to their text
3. Check how it looked
4. Repeat until satisfied

This frustrating trial-and-error process meant guessing how fonts would appear. Users wasted time visualization was impossible.

I needed to show previews of each font alongside names, so users could see how text would render before selecting.

Automating Previews with Python and Pillow

To solve this, I wrote a Python script using Pillow that loops through available fonts and creates and save the preview images for me.

The script:

1. Downloads font files from a JSON list of Google Fonts URLs
2. Checks for errors downloading each font
3. Uses Pillow to create a simple white background image
4. Draws the font name on the image in black text
5. Saves the preview as a PNG file

This allowed me to automatically generate a preview image for every font without tedious manual work.

Here is the json file structure:

[  
   {  
		"family":"Gaegu",  
		"full_name":"Gaegu Light",  
		"postscript_name":"Gaegu-Light",  
		"style":"Gaegu-Light",  
		"url":"https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/gaegu/v10/TuGSUVB6Up9NU57nifw74sdtBk0x.ttf",  
		"category":"handwriting"  
	  },  
	  {  
		"family":"Gaegu",  
		"full_name":"Gaegu Bold",  
		"postscript_name":"Gaegu-Bold",
		"style":"Gaegu-Bold",  
		"url":"https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/gaegu/v10/TuGSUVB6Up9NU573jvw74sdtBk0x.ttf",  
		"category":"handwriting"  
	  },  
	  {  
		"family":"Gaegu",  
		"full_name":"Gaegu Regular",  
		"postscript_name":"Gaegu-Regular",  
		"style":"Gaegu-Regular",  
		"url":"https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/gaegu/v10/TuGfUVB6Up9NU6ZLodgzydtk.ttf",  
		"category":"handwriting"  
	  },  
	  {  
			"family":"Open Sans",  
			"full_name":"Open Sans Light",  
			"postscript_name":"OpenSans-Light",  
			"style":"OpenSans-Light",  
			"url":"https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/opensans/v27/memSYaGs126MiZpBA-UvWbX2vVnXBbObj2OVZyOOSr4dVJWUgsiH0C4nY1M2xLER.ttf",  
			"category":"sans-serif"  
	  }
	  // More google fonts here...
  ]

Here is the full script:

This script enabled generating a set of preview images that could be displayed in the font selection interface.

Integrating Previews to Improve UX

With the script generating previews, I could display them in the font selection interface alongside names:

Now users could visualize how text would look in any font before picking one.

This eliminated the frustrating guessing game and improved the overall experience.

Lessons Learned Automating with Python

This project taught me:

• Python automation simplifies repetitive digital asset creation.
• Pillow provides an easy way to dynamically draw and save images.
• For better UX, preview images should accompany font lists.
• Automated solutions save time compared to manual repetition.
• Scripts allow instantly updating assets like previews.

Summary

• Font picking is frustrating when users can’t visualize options.
• Manually creating previews is time-consuming.
• Python automation generatively handles preview generation.
• Pillow draws and saves font previews on the fly.
• Previews alongside fonts improves selection UX.