Recognizing fonts
Nowadays, everything consists of digitally written text. Real mail that is handwritten is quite rare these days. At most, you’ll still get a letter or maybe a vacation or Christmas card, but not much more handwriting. So digitally written text, on the other hand, is wildly popular. Everyone today has a digital device like a PC, a tablet or a smartphone and so can send digital messages with it.
The text you send from A to B always has what is called a font. This is the styling of how the text looks that you receive. From the start of the digital age, there have been several fonts developed and many new ones are still being added daily!
I think you recognize one of these fonts. These are the top 10 fonts:
Since these are most commonly used fonts, I think you will often encounter and recognize them in your digital communications. But what if you come across a beautiful font but don’t know which one it is and would like to know it? We will explain how you can recognize which font it is!
Recognizing fonts through free tools
You’re surfing the web or get an email or other digital message and see a font you haven’t seen or recognized before, but think is really cool. So how do you figure out which font it actually is?
Well, fortunately, smart people have created some cool free font tools that allow you to easily identify fonts and then search the internet to download and install them on your device.
The software we are looking for is called in the broad term a font finder tool. A so called font finder tool.
What are the most popular font recognition tools?
- WhatTheFont
- WhatFontIs
- WhatFont
- Fonts Ninja
- FontSquirrel Matcherator
- IdentiFont
- Google Fonts Database
What the Font (WhatTheFont)
One of the most popular and in my opinion most used font finder tool is : What the Font (WhatTheFont). On this website you can simply upload a picture/screenshot you have taken of the font after which the website will analyze the image and try to recognize which font it is. Once the website has found it, it will display it within seconds and you will get the information you are looking for about the font.
WhatTheFont has a database of over 135,000 fonts, so the chances that the font you are looking for is in there is very high.
What Font is (WhatFontIs)
The font recognition tool What Font is is also a very good tool. Like WhatTheFont, it also has a very large database of fonts and is therefore also accurate with your search. The downside is that in order to use it for free, you have to register yourself on their website. This is not necessary with WhatTheFont.
What Font
This is not a tool that is on the internet but a free Google Chrome Extensions. You can install it in your Google Chrome internet browser after which you will get a What Font icon in the top right corner. Once you click on it, it will look for the font of the page you are currently on. Also very handy and you don’t need to make a screenshot or picture of the font!
Fonts Ninja
Again, this is not a tool on the internet but a free Google Chrome Extensions plugin. You install it on your Chrome browser which, just like What Font, allows you to use an icon to scan the web page and get information about the fonts.
FontSquirrel
FontSquirrel is a large database of fonts that you can download for free. However, the site also has an ability to recognize fonts. This tool within the FontSquirrel website has: Font Identifier or also called Matcherator.
This also allows you to upload an image or screenshot of the font after which FontSquirrel’s system will search their entire font database to see if they recognize your font.
IdentiFont
Identifont is still similar to any tools or Google Chrome Extensions as above. It is a website that is going to try to figure out what font you are looking for based on questions to you. It is relatively relevant, but I still recommend using one of the tools above.
Google Fonts Database
A final option that is also a bit trickier is to search within the completely free Google Fonts database yourself. This database also has tens of thousands of free fonts and styles, and it’s possible that a beautiful font will come up that you’re looking for, or you’ll see something cool that looks like it!
How can you best recognize a font?
In this case I really recommend you to use What the font. This is the most accurate free tool that can recognize almost any font in the world and give you all the information you need.
You can therefore easily and quickly download and install your font and use it in your own software, for example.
The other tools are certainly not bad either, but I would start with What The Font and if your search doesn’t have the desired result try the other tools or Chrome Extensions.
Recognizing fonts from an image
Suppose you have received an image, poster or digital creation and are curious which font is used there. In this case you can also use one of the above tools, but again I recommend you use:
- What The Font
- FontSquirrel
- WhatFontIs
You upload on these free font recognition websites again an image, picture or screenshot and the website goes to work for you. Within seconds, the entire database has been searched and you get an answer whether they were able to find your requested font! Ideal, right?
Download and install fonts
Did you find the font you were looking for and download it to your PC or device?
Then it’s time to know how you can install this font on your device. Below I will explain how you can do this per operating system.
Install font on Windows
- First, make sure you have downloaded the fonts and thus saved them on your PC. Often fonts come in a .ZIP file. This is a compressed file containing several small files. You therefore unpack this .ZIP file first via the right mouse button -> unpack.
- After unpacking a new folder has appeared in which the font files are located. You search for your font file and right click on it.
- In the menu that opens, click on the button “Install” after which Windows will start to install your font.
- The font is now successfully installed. If you now open a program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word, you will see that your font is in the dropdown list of all available fonts. Cool right?
Installing fonts on Mac OSX
- First, you make sure you have downloaded the fonts to your MAC computer. Often the fonts come in a .ZIP file and you will need to unzip it by double clicking on it. This will create a new folder in which the font files will be displayed.
- After unpacking, open the new folder. There you will see your font file. Double click on it and a font window will open.
- In the font window you click on the button: “Install font” after which your MAC will start to install the font.
- The font is now installed. If you now open the text editor on your MAC, you will see that your font is in the dropdown of all fonts!
Font Flipper, your tool for new cool and cool fonts
Font Flipper is a really cool tool. It allows you to try out multiple fonts online at the Font Flipper website and see if there is something cool for you.
The way Font Fipper works is very simple: You choose a font from the available font list and Font Flipper will do its magic and show you what it looks like in different colors, sizes and postures.
So you enter your own text and then play around until you have a nice result that you want to use for your software, website, flyer or advertising / marketing.
So suppose you are designing a flyer and want to see which text style fits your design best, then you can use Front Flipper to easily and quickly try out certain font colors, options or combinations and see how they match your design. Super handy right?