Tools for identifying a font
Posted on: 01/07/2010
Its quite common to see a typeface that you really like, be it on a website a magazine or even a shop front, but actually identifying that font can be difficult. While looking through every font on every single font directory you can find might be a fun task to some, to others it can be a bit of a chore. So here are some ways that could help you in discovering exactly which font it is, or at least close to it.
Identifying from an image
This isn’t the most reliable way to get an exact match of a font, but you can get quite close and all it takes is an image of the font you wish to identify. The site will then process the image and ask the user to identify the letters then it will display a list of similar looking fonts in hopes one of them is a match.
What the Font
What Font is
Identifying the unique aspects
These focus on the users ability to identify defining features of a font, from how the number 4 is shaped to the shape of the letter Q’s tail. By answering a series of questions these site will narrow down their search until it finds a match.
Identifont
Lino Type
Bowfin Printworks
Type Navigator
Ask someone else
If the above fail or you want to just go straight to asking someone else, message boards and forums are as good a place as any to see if anyone can identify the font. Typophile is one of the most popular places to go when posting this type of request as they have a dedicated section especially for this type of question.