How to Change Font Color in Google Docs (An Easy 4 Step Guide)

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Matthew Burleigh

While many of the documents you create will simply need the default black text, you might occasionally work on other types of documents. Therefore you might be wondering how to change font color in Google Docs.

Google Docs Change Font Color Instructions

  1. Open your document.
  2. Select the text to change.
  3. Click the Font color button.
  4. Choose the desired color.

Our article continues below with additional information on how to change font color in Google Docs, including pictures of these steps.

Google Docs formatting options include a handful of ways that you can modify the appearance of text. One of these options lets you adjust the color of that text. If this is something that you need to do, you may be wondering how to switch the color of your text in Google Docs.

You can make a lot of adjustments in Google Docs by using the buttons in the toolbar. However, changing a setting there will typically only apply to text that you type after you make the change.

The exception to this, however, is when you have selected something already, then change one of these settings.

This method allows you to apply different formatting to text that you have already typed.

Our guide below will show you how to switch the color of an existing selection of text in your document.

Read our guide on what is the biggest font in Google Docs if you’ve been trying to use larger font sizes but haven’t been able to go past 96 pt font sizes.

How to Switch Text to a Different Color in Google Docs (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of the Google Chrome Web browser, but will also work in other desktop browsers like Firefox or Edge.

Step 1: Sign into your Google Drive and open the document that you wish to edit.

Step 2: Select the text whose color you want to switch.

You can click and drag to select text. You can also press Ctrl + A to select the entire document quickly.

select the text

Step 3: Click the Font color button in the toolbar above the document.

click the Font color button

Step 4: Choose the color that you want to apply to the selected text.

how to change font color in Google Docs

Note that you can use this same process to make other adjustments to existing text, such as using a different font, a different font size, and more.

Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about how to change font color in Google Docs.

How to Switch Text Color in Google Docs App

The mobile app version of Google Docs for your iPhone or Android device also affords you the ability to use new fonts or font colors for your text.

Once you have downloaded the app to your device and you make sure to have Google Docs open on your phone, you will need to select the document in which you want to change the font color. You can also create new documents once you have the Google docs app open on your mobile device.

You can then tap the pencil icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen to enter editing mode.

You can then tap on the screen and move the selection icons to select the text to which you wish to apply the new font color.

Once you have the text selected you can tap the Formatting button at the top of the screen, which looks like an underlined capital A.

Next, you will tap the Font button to see more fonts that are available, then choose from one of the options.

You can then return to the formatting menu and make any other changes that you wish to apply to the selected text, such as a new text color option, or a text highlight color.

More Information on the Google Docs Font Color Setting

A Google Docs document offers you much more than just the ability to change text color.

If you want your Google document to have different paragraph spacing, or even custom spacing, then you simply need to highlight text that you want to modify and choose the appropriate option from the menu at the top of the window.

In the case of spacing, for example, you would click the Format tab at the top of the window, choose the Paragraph & line spacing option, then either choose one of the options found on that menu, or click Custom spacing and enter your own settings.

There are also a handful of default styles that you can utilize based on the type of text you are including. if you go to the Format tab again and choose Paragraph styles there are a variety of options that you could select from to quickly format some text in the document.

Matthew Burleigh

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech content online for more than ten years. He enjoys writing about Google Docs in addition to many other applications and devices and has cumulatively covered Google’s word-processing application in hundreds of different articles.

He has been published on dozens of popular websites, and his works have accumulated millions of pageviews.
While focused primarily on tutorials and guides for popular electronics like the iPhone and iPad, as well as common applications like Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, he covers topics across the entire technology spectrum.

You can read his bio here.

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