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Lisa Campo

By: Lisa Campo on May 20th, 2015

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Quick Tip: What's that font?

Graphic & Information Design | Lead Generation & Growth Strategies | Content, Social & Digital Marketing

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article

The phrase "there's an app for that" is so true it's unnerving. You can find almost anything on the internet, from websites that are helpful to your job to things you never wanted to know or see.

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out which font was used in a JPG we have in our files. I didn't have the original EPS or PSD file (if you're wondering, here's a good resource on what those file types mean and when to use them). We wanted to recreate the same type of image, though, so I needed to identify the typeface. While there are quite a few typography nerds out there who are excellent at recognizing fonts just by seeing them, I'm not one of those people -- and I bet you're not either. 

I found a couple of excellent free websites that help. I used WhatTheFont to identify the font used in a call-to-action image. You upload your image, then make sure the website is identifying the characters correctly, and voila!: It tells you what fonts are used. Obviously, this works best if you have a higher resolution picture, but you can try it with pretty much any image. If you use a design firm for your graphics, or have a graphic design person who isn't always in the office, you're probably going to need this. So, for example, let's put HighRoad's logo through WhatTheFont

HR-logo-blue300

It comes up with 5 matches. In this instance, none of them are the exact match, but they are all incredibly similar. 

But let's try another one, this time a bit higher resolution and from an Apple.com ad:

2015-05-20_11-47-26

WhatTheFont gives us a definitively correct answer this time: It's Myriad Pro Light, and Apple's been using it for the past couple of years in its ads, so I know that's correct.

After it gives you suggestions, you can click on each font and have the option to buy.

If you're in a pinch or just feeling like a copycat, this is a great font recognition tool.