I have asked myself "What's the closest Google font to..." so many times that I have made an answer. Save yourself the hours of looking through hundreds of Google fonts. Enjoy!
Example: Avenir ≈ Nunuto font
This is my criteria to choose "the closest Google font":
- Most importantly, does the letter spacing create a sentence of comparable length?
- Is the weight the same?
- Is the x-height similar?
- Do the acenders and decenders match? ( g, y, and q)
- Everything else, termimals, ears, finials, shoulders, and especially tails and loops.
We have all received design from a client with non-web safe fonts. The client does not want to pay the licensing, and you don't want to break the law. So you are stuck trying to find a needle in the haystack that is the Google Web Fonts. Stop searching.