The web is a sea of ideas to create content and surely you have seen an image with a typeface that you need to have yes or yes. Knowing the source of an image is easy if you know the correct tools.
If you're designer You can ask one of your colleagues who is a font expert to tell you what type of font he liked. You are sure to be very busy and it may take a while to respond. But if what you need are immediate results, there are better options with useful tools to identify font types.
How to detect what type of source an online image has in a simple way
On the web you can find several application options that are useful to detect what type of letter or font is used within an online image. These applications can also work on web pages and some can be easily loaded on your mobile.
When it comes to letter finders, there are several super useful apps available that will help you identify the source of an image as well as the typography.
Are among them:
- MyFonts
- What source is
- WhatFont tool
- WhatTheFont
- Adobe Types
Some of these applications are available only for PC and others for Android and iOS mobile devices, so we will talk about each one and explain how to use it from the cell phone and from the PC.
From my pc
Take a picture of your PC that has a specific source, could be a billboard. An essential requirement for it to work is that the image has good resolution and the letters are visible quite clear.
- In case the image is on the Web, use google search engine and take a screenshot of the screen with the key combination Windows + Shift + S.
- Select the area of the image that has the source and it will be automatically saved to the clipboard.
- Go to an application where you can modify the image and save it in JPEG Painting it is a perfect tool for this task. If you don't have it yet, you can download the classic version to edit your images.
- Press the keys Ctrl + V and the image will be pasted into the app. Finally save the image in JPEG format.
A very important point to keep in mind is that you have to avoid that the font has several background colors so that it can be identified more easily.
Identify the font with MyFonts
You enter the first link of My Sources, in the area where the sources are identified and there you must upload the image.
- Select image from file explorer or, failing that, drag it from the folder where it is, to the browser.
- When the image is loaded, click on the blue arrow button. It takes a while to try to identify the letter.
- The final result shows different possible alternative sources. The the first search results are exact or as close as possible to the source you are looking for.
The only drawback is that to download the font you have to pay. The advantage is that the result of the the search tells you the name of the font to Google if you don't have the ability to pay it. You probably won't get the same free font, but a very similar one.
Identify the font with What Font Is
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- Select image and perform a search to identify the source. But unlike the other, perform a more exact search by identifying letter by letter.
- Choose the one that suits you, even has free fonts available for download.
- When you have identified the font you want, download it by clicking Download.
Identifying the font with the WhatFont tool
- You just have to download and run this application, then the icon will automatically appear on the right side of your browser's address bar.
- When you have an image you want to know the source of, you just have to select the application icon and move the cursor to the image.
Then, the name of the font will appear and if you select by clicking, a box will appear with more detailed information such as the font family, size, color, code, example of fonts and size of the line it handles.
Using my cell phone
One of the applications that works best on mobile devices is WhatTheFont. A free application that is quite easy to use and that you can get in the Play Store. It allows to identify the type of letter and download it to the mobile.
To use it you just have to follow the following steps:
- From the application take a photo as frontally as possible.
- Wait for the application to detect the letters. Otherwise, you have the manual option to select them and you must do it one box at a time.
- To make it easier, try to make the letters 100 pixels and the fragment has at least 20 horizontal letters and without sticking too much.
- Choose To accept Y next until the app finds the source. Otherwise, will offer you a similar list of options.
The application does not allow you to download the font type, so if you want you will have to download it from the search engine.
Another application that you can use is Adobe Types, This through Adobe artificial intelligence, Sensei, searches for fonts similar to those scanned.
To use it you must:
- Download the Adobe Capture application
- Inside the application take a photo of the image that contains the source.
- The application, with the intelligence of Adobe Sensei, will search for a font that looks like the one in the photo. And ready.
Install a font in Windows
Now the final step is to install the font in Windows. From the compressed file you downloaded, identify the one with the .TTF extension.
Copy the file and paste it on the partition where the Windows fonts are, look for the folder C: Windows Fonts.
Now you can use in different Windows applications, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint. You can even use them in Adobe applications like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Open an app and type any text. Look for the name of the font you just downloaded and you will see that the installation is successful.
Identify the font and typeface of a web page.
You can tell what kind of font a web page has with a Google Chrome extension called Ninja de Fontface. Search for the extension in your browser and select the Google Chrome link. Add the extension to the browser.
When installed automatically display font on page. It even identifies the font color and size. But if you want to do an even more specific search. You can select only the text that you are interested in identifying within the page.
What fonts are used in social networks?
Within the branding of any brand, typography plays an important role. And even if it doesn't seem like it, each social network has a type of typography that can help the algorithm to better position the brand.
Choosing one typeface among so many seems to be a difficult task; However, good to know that quite popular brands use a simple typeface like Arial, Myriad o Trebuchet.
The sources are divided into 2:
- With Serif: It is used in paragraphs that have a certain degree of formality and a large amount of text. They have curved terminals that adorn the typeface.
- Sin Serif: It is used in short and informal texts. They do not have curved terminals and it is the most used typeface in social networks.
The most frequently used fonts in any social network are:
- Helvetica and Futura: A neutral font, versatile and easy to read.
- Franklin Gothic Demi: High rise typography, linear and fairly easy to read.
- Harpsichord: A typeface family that was launched in 2014 and is used on Facebook.
