On the last Font Friday post, I shared some of my go-to places to browse for fonts. This week I would like to share two of my favourite tools for matching unknown fonts. They both do the same thing but work in slightly different ways, and as they will be attached to different font databases they will generate different results.
Imagine this situation if you will…….
You’ve seen a fab font that really speaks to you and you think it’s suited to the design you are working on. Or you had a font on an old computer hard drive and since you upgraded your hardware you no longer have it and you don’t remember the name. You have a pdf or a png of the design but as it’s a flattened image you can’t go in and find out what font you used.
With so many fonts around you don’t know where to start.
This is where you need What the Font from My Fonts or the Font Identifier from Font Squirrel.
What The Font
You only need to upload a screenshot of the font’s most unique characters and the tool will search the font database for the closest match. What the Font lets you know what file types to use before you start.
You can crop the file to specific letters or use the whole screenshot. You want to make sure to include any identifying letter shapes that distinguishes it from other similar fonts.
It also has a text box that you can use to correct any of the letters that it is having trouble reading. This especially helps with faded letters and unusual shapes.
The Font Identifier
The Font Identifier doesn’t look much at first but don’t let looks deceive you. Once you add a screenshot it has a lot of features.
It will allow you to crop your screenshot within the tool. It also has an option that allows you to correct the letter if it is being wrongly identified too. You can also choose from 4 different font databases.
These options give you a better chance of an exact match but it doesn’t always happen. It does, however, put you in the right ball park and can suggest similar fonts that are either available to purchase or for free.
In both cases some of the suggestions can be edited using the kerning to make them look closer to the original font. Who knows, you may even find a better font.
Do you ever have trouble identifying fonts?
Whta the font sounds really great. I note it down, so I know it when I need it :9
xoxo
Dorie from http://www.thedorie.com
Author
Hehe thanks, it’s really good isn’t it? So good in fact that they updated the site while I was working on my review and I had to take more screenshots so it was up to date when I set the post live. 😛
Author
It’s a great tool 👍🏻