Hey, What is This Font?

Have you ever been browsing around the internet and found a great looking website, and you simply love the font they are using? I used to just stare at the font, trying to figure out what it was, or browse through a directory of fonts, hoping I could find it.  Many times I would spend hours, browsing through font directories, until I thought I was going blind.  Most times I did not have much success on locating the font I wanted, and just went on my way, frustrated. I had already envisioned, in my mind, using that exact font on my next project.

Then finally, one day I found the solution to this dilemma. While I was searching on Google for a font, I came across a great website, www.myfonts.com, which has a great feature called “WhatTheFont”. Using their website, you can upload a graphic sample of the font you like, and their program will attempt to identify it. I uploaded the font I had been trying to identify, and I was amazed as seconds later I knew the name of the font.

If you have a font you are trying to identify, here are the steps to using their site for font identification:

  1. Visit http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
  2. On the upload field, Click “Browse” and pick the image that contains a font that you want to find out and hit the “Upload Image” button.
    what-the-font-1
  3. On this tutorial, I use this image as an example.
    what-the-font-2
  4. On the next page, you will have to verify the letter which shown on the image. If the text field is blank, you will need to write down the correct letter on the text field.
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  5. Hit “Search” and you should be able to compare your font with the search result and find the closest match for your font.

WhatTheFont is very good at identifying many fonts, but it is not always accurate.  You will still need to compare the results with your font to make sure it identified it correctly.  Sometimes it may not identify the font at all, but there is a great alternative on their site.  You can upload the font to their forum, and have the typography guru’s who frequent their forum attempt to identify it.  You’ll get the best results if you use a large image of the font.  Though WhatTheFont works great, there will always be those rare times when no one can identify the font for you.

Using the proper fonts in your heading, and subheading can greatly enhance the appearance of your site.  When you can not name the font you are wanting to use, WhatTheFont can save the day!