Change how paragraphs & fonts look

Want to get more out of Google Docs for work or school? Sign up for a Google Workspace trial at no charge.

You can use the toolbar at the top of a document to:

• Edit and format the text and paragraph spacing
• Change the font and background color
• Bold, italicize, underline, or strikethrough text

Format paragraphs

Change paragraph spacing and alignment

Change paragraph alignment

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Select the paragraph you want to change.
3. At the top, choose an alignment option.

Change line & paragraph spacing

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Select the lines you want to change.
3. Click Format  Line & paragraph spacing.
4. Select a line spacing option:
   • To change your paragraph spacing, click Single, 1.15, 1.5, or Double.
   • To change your spacing between paragraphs, click Remove space before paragraph or Add space after paragraph.
   • To enter a custom size, click Custom spacing. Then, enter the size of the spacing you want before and after a paragraph and click Apply.
   • To keep paragraph headings and text on the same page, click Keep with next.
   • To keep all lines of text in the same paragraph on the same page, click Keep lines together.
   • To prevent single lines at the beginning or end of paragraphs, click Prevent single lines.

Change paragraph borders or color

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Select the paragraph you want to change.
3. Click Format  Paragraph styles  Borders and shading.
4. In the window that opens, change how you want your paragraph to look.
5. To remove paragraph borders or color, click Reset.
6. When you are done, click Apply.

Format font

Change text case

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Select the text you want to change.
3. Click Format  Text  Capitalization.
4. Select lowercase, UPPERCASE, or Title Case.

Choose a default font

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Highlight the text you want.
3. At the top, select the font you want.
4. Click Format Paragraph styles Normal text Update 'Normal text' to match.
5. With the text still highlighted, click Format Paragraph styles Options Save as my default styles.

After you choose a font, your new documents will use this font unless you change it again.

Add fonts to your font list

In some languages, you can add new fonts to your font list.

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. At the top, click the font name to open the font list.
3. At the bottom of the list, click More fonts.
4. Browse or search for new fonts.
   • Click a font to add it to your "My fonts" list.
   • To sort your fonts or change how they appear in your list, use the "Show" and "Sort" arrows.
5. Click Ok.

Available languages

Fonts are available in these languages:

• Afrikaans
• Albanian
• Arabic
• Azerbaijani
• Bangla
• Burmese
• Catalan
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Estonian
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Gujarati
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Kannada
• Kazakh
• Khmer
• Kyrgyz
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Macedonian
• Malay
• Malayalam
• Marathi
• Mongolian
• Nepali
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese 
• Punjabi
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Sinhala
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Spanish
• Swahili
• Swedish
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Uzbek
• Vietnamese

Change the font color

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Select the text you want to change. 
3. Click Text Color .
4. Select the color you want.

Change the background or highlight color

1. On your computer, open a document in Google docs.
2. Select the text you want to change. 
3. Click Highlight Color  .
4. Select the color you want.

Bold, italicize, or strikethrough text

1. On your computer, open a document in Google docs.
2. Select the text you want to change. 
3. Format the text.
   1. To bold: Click Bold .
   2. To italicize: Click Italic .
   3. To strikethrough: Click Format  Text   Strikethrough.

Related articles

• Delete a document
• Print or change the page setup
• Add headers, footers & page numbers
• Crop and adjust images
• Add a title, heading, or table of contents