5 Tools to Identify a Font on Web & iPhone

We come across numerous fonts daily, some may be beautiful, some may be ugly, but some may also force you to know its name and if you’re a designer then, at some point of time you might have got the doubt about “how to identify Fonts”. It’s a sad truth but there are quite a few tools around the web to identify fonts.

WhatTheFont This is the best font identifying tool; it’s initiated by “MyFonts” which has the world’s largest collection of fonts. You have to submit an image (Upload an image or mention the URL of the image) in which the font has been used, and then select the characters in the image. Its blazing fast, you will get the Font’s details in less than ½ minute.Your browser may not support display of this image.

This tool is also available for iPhone, you can download the iPhone app here (don’t worry, it’s a free app). For optimal results, try to get the text (in the image) as horizontal as possible, Make sure letters are around 100 pixels tall in your image and they aren’t touching each other. When I submitted the “Youtube Logo” to find out what font they have used, the best match was “Newhouse DT Super condensed Black”

Link: WhatTheFont

WhatFontIs WhatFontIs is almost equal to WhatTheFont; the only difference I could guess is the database of Fonts, in which WhatTheFont would have an upper hand. It also has a forum where you can post the image in which the font has been used so that the members can help you in identifying the font, but I personally don’t recommend it as it’s inactive. In my opinion WhatTheFont Forum is better than WhatFontIs Forum.

Link: WhatFontIs

WhatTheFont Forum WhatTheFont website also has a highly responsive forum where you can know the Font details by submitting an Image, only in case you didn’t get any result by using “WhatTheFont” Tool. They solve numerous cases everyday and more than One hundred thousand cases are solved till date! As it’s a forum you need to register in order to post the image and get your case solved.

Link: WhatTheFont Forum

TypoPhile Forum If you aren’t satisfied with WhatTheFont Forum then, don’t forget to check Typophile Forum, they will surely solve your case within 2 days.

Link: Typophile Forum

IdentiFont IdentiFont uses a quite different approach for identifying fonts i.e. it asks a series of questions about key characteristics of the Font you are searching for. You can even restrict the questions to certain letters. At each stage the left-hand column shows a list of the questions you have already answered. Click on a question to review the options, and optionally change your reply. You can even restrict the questions to specific letters.

Finally you will be shown a list of one or more possible fonts matching your answers. It’s a quite tedious process actually, as the questions increase one after the other if you click the “Not sure” option for the questions. Your browser may not support display of this image.

Link: IdentiFont

Bowfin Print works Tool This is a good alternative to IdentiFont; it uses the same technique i.e. asking questions about the key characteristics of the font. But it asks very limited number of questions so you can get to know about your favorite font in seconds but at the same time it also decreases the accuracy. In accuracy point of view, IdentiFont is better than this tool.

Link: Bowfin Print works Tool

Last but not the least, Don’t show your madness (or maybe Geekiness!) by trying to identify fonts used by Popular websites like Google, Facebook, Digg, TechCrunch etc.

Guest Writer : This article is written by Vibin who runs a Blogging tips blog at BloggingJunction.