How often do web designers get stuck in selecting the best font for their website? Much too often.
Choosing fonts is easy, but choosing the appropriate fonts that could deliver a message at its best, is difficult. Each font has its own characteristics, and they can convey message differently.
But there is something that can help web designers in doing their job, and that is WhatTheFont, a 'Shazam' for fonts.
Developed by MyFonts, WhatTheFont can analyze uploaded images and returns the font style matching the font used in the image.
While it does have a limited database of fonts, the variety is enough for most common fonts used on websites and prints.
Without any signup process, users can use MyFonts by choosing the file they want to upload, and it will take care of the rest. The site includes three tips for ensuring the process is successful.
To ensure that MyFonts can analyze the fonts properly, it's advised to limit the font height to 100 pixels, and use horizontal images. Also ensure that the image is crisp, and the letters aren't overlapping,
And if users can't find the font they are looking for, they can submit the font to WhatTheFont's forum.
WhatTheFont also has an app which utilizes mobile device's camera to recognize any font it sees, including a variation of similar fonts to go with it.
It also allows users to buy the fonts find directly through MyFonts, or even share them on social media.
According to Seah Chickering-Burchesky, Senior UX Designer at MyFonts, the app can identify 130,000 fonts using machine learning. It can also recognize multiple fonts in one image, as well as connected scripts.
It's a designer's dream to get their job done quick and easy, and WhatTheFont is certainly a help to those out there that are looking to find the name of that elusive font they've been dying to use.
WhatTheFont aims to make it easier for designers and anyone who needs to recognize which fonts are used in any text, from websites to prints. There are a few websites that recognize fonts, like Matcherator and WhatFontIs, but this is the first time that this functionality is available in the form of a mobile app.
The app can come in handy for recognizing fonts in the real world, where visiting a website would be impractical.