A Font Identifier that WORKS!
A Font Identifier That Works!
by Jen White
Identify fonts from scrapbook kits so that you can create your own matchy-matchy elements and word art.
This is a two part mini series showing you how to use WhatFontIs.com with success in digital scrapbooking.
Step One (The Short Version)
Prepare an Image
- Isolate a word from an image.
- Make sure the letters are not touching.
- Turn the image into a black over white JPG file.
For specific instructions, watch the video below and consult the manual.
Step Two (The Short Version)
Identify the Font with WhatFontIs
- Open a private browsing window.
- Upload a black & white JPG file to WhatFontIs.com.
- Identify the letters and choose a matching or similar font.
For specific instructions, watch the video below and consult the manual.
Here’s the scrapbook page I created with my newly found font.
Page: Pure Joy by Jen White
Photo: Jill Osegueda, littlest sister of Jen White
Template: Perfectly Personal Word Art by Jenifer Juris
Kit: Just Peachy by Syndee Rogers
Mask: Choose Joy by ETDesigns
Fonts: DJB ANNALISE, Catalina Anacapa Sans
Online Class
Perfectly Personal Word Art
by Jenifer Juris
In this class, you:
- Will enrich the story YOU tell, making it more meaningful and precious.
- Will break free from the limitations of generic or themed word art.
- Will expertly design personal word art that’s made to coordinate with YOUR photos and any kit you choose.
Buy Perfectly Personal Word Art and Save 20%.
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TIPS and NOTES:
- This technique will NOT work for every unique situation.
- Font identification sites are often affiliated with sites that offer paid fonts.
- Once your font is identified, Google the name of the font to see if there is a free version available.
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Disclaimer: Links or references to individuals or companies do not constitute an endorsement of any information, product, or service you may receive from such sources.
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All comments are moderated.
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Love this – this sight is in my favorites now!! 🙂 Thx Jen!!
That is so cool, Jen! You’re a star!
This is fantastic. I quite often wish I could match the font in the word art when I do a layout. Thanks.
Awesome!!! Thanks Jen!!
Handy thank you so much will give it a go!
great tips! i’ve been using this for QUITE some time and you are right … it’s fabulous! however, i haven’t had as much luck with script fonts. they do have the box to check if there is more than one letter but still, unless you separate the letters in the script, i’ve not had much success. and even when you separate the letters, it’s not always that great. that being said, i use it continuously AND if you find a font on a web page, i’ve used that option and it works beautifully just indicating the webpage! i will definitely try your tips on the more difficult ones. thank you!
Thanks, been wanting this for quite some time as it always frustrates me when scrappers do not list their fonts. And thanks also for the hints on using the site.
It would be great if all designers would just include the fonts they used in their TOU. But this tool is unfortunately necessary. Thanks for the tips.
There have been many times I have wanted to match the font on a sign or identify a font used in a restaurant name, for example. I am anxious to try it. Thank you.
Thank you, Jen, for this information. I am a font fanatic and what a great tool this will be for identifying new fonts.
Thanks, Jen!! I have wanted this forever!
You clever clever clever gal! What a handy dandy tool to use.
Jen, would it have helped if you had use the brush tool to fill in the grungyness of the letter G after using the threshold adjustment?
Great question, Dorrie. Yes, that certainly would have helped. But I’m a little too lazy for that. (Wink)
Loved your answer…:)
Once you are in the image editor, how do you separate the letters from one another? Thanks in advance.
Hi Maureen. Great question. Make sure you go through their instructions really well. If you still have questions, you can contact them directly for assistance. Do let us know if you figure it out. xoxo
Thanks so much Jen, this is awesome!! I have emailed designers a couple times asking for the font used in their kits – so this is going to be GREAT. You’re a doll for finding and sharing all these cool tips.
You are the most brilliant person I know! Thank you a hundred times over!~
Thank you so much for this tip and tutorial, because we often
looking for the right font! I’m allowed to link to
your blog on my Facebook page. Again THANK YOU! Nicky
Glad you found the post useful, Nicky. Yes, you should always feel free to share a link to any of our material, whether on the blog or the website or in the store. xoxo
Can you provide a web site with good useable fonts for scrapbooking? I have spent hours at this and still do not have but I few I really like. Need several good ones in the near future.
Thanks Jen,
Marsha
Hi Marsha.
There are a LOT of font sites. Many of them make it difficult to find the font download button and try to trick you into downloading advertiser’s software. For that reason, we avoid recommending specific sites because we don’t want to be held responsible.
My best advice is for you to Google “free fonts” and then choose one of the sites at the top of the list. I hope that helps. xoxo
Just used it for the first time. Found what I was looking for in a script font. So glad I recalled that you had a blog post and after reading the directions I was able to find what I was looking for.
Thanks so much, I could have used this so many times in the past. I don’t know how many hours I have wasted searching for fonts!
This is a great tool. Thank you so much!
Took me to only commercial fonts and only 3/100 were close. On the plus side, this was the engine that even came close.
Well, just reading all these messages from delighted people who’ve successfully identified fonts your way only makes me frustrated and angry – sorry to say. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but trying to follow your ‘Simple’ instructions is impossible for me. What’s a ‘Word Art File’? To me, that’s something out of Microsoft Publisher – irrelevant to what I’m doing here. I submitted a clear, large, black-and white, single word I’d snipped from the screen as a jpeg. It failed to recognise it as a font image at all, saying ‘Error – minimum no. of characters is 2 (it had six). Yours was the seventh website I’d tried to identify this font with. None of them have got it. I just give up. Things like this just make me all biter and twisted. Not your fault. Just so frustrated at the constant failure..!
Hi Steven. I’m so sorry to see that you are frustrated.
When referring to a ‘word art file’, I’m talking about a png or jpg file that contains a word that’s been creatively displayed. If you snipped a word from your screen, that would basically be the same thing. So, I think you are good there.
Unfortunately, this identifier will not work with everything. There are always exceptions.
Since you cannot get it to work, this is my suggestion for you:
1) Upload your image (screenshot) to image hosting site such as Flickr.com
2) Ask the gals in our forum if they recognize the font. You’ll have to attach a link to the image so they can see it.
Our community is very knowlegable and kind. It might just be the solution you’ve been looking for. 😀
I’m finding that most of the font matching sites seem to match you with an affiliate of theirs that charges $50+ for the font that yours has been “matched” with.
Kind of a sneaky game they play.
Does anyone know of a font matcher that will also consider which free fonts might match?
Hi Richard. I didn’t notice any agenda at all in the matching. If you are matching with a paid font, then it’s a paid font. You’re not going to be able to get around that. Sorry. 🙁
You’re right, the top 3 results on Google for Font Identifier can’t even recognize Times New Roman. They all redirect you to pay sites that charge $50-$90 for a TNR knock off.
Hi Richard,
I’m the designer/programmer of “Find my Font” a font identifier containing about 135.000 fonts in it’s online database, and consider the following font sources when matching:
a) Many free-font sources (including the 40.000+ fonts of dafont.com)
b) Google web-fonts (very useful to web designers)
c) A lot of commercial font foundries
d) Your local fonts! (installed or just stored) in your PC
More than this you can also select which source you want to compare your sample to, you may want for example to find the best matching of a commercial font to a Google Web font.
It’s a software application – not a site – and is not free (and that’s why it doesn’t try to sell you the fonts) but you can download the 30-days-free-trial here:
http://www.findmyfont.com/index.php/download/download-free-edition
The matching precision is superior to WhatTheFont and WhatFontIs and there is no need for any image pre-processing.
I think you can love it 😉
Fivos
Have to give Fivos my support here.
I have been using Find My Font for a couple of years now and it is far better than anything else I’ve tried.
It is fast, easy to use and the result is most of the times spot on. Good work!
I had to download this software and because of the interface looking really old, I didn’t think I would find anything but it proved me wrong! Font found! Thank you guys!!!
It works! Unlike the other once reputable services mentioned here which gave me junk results, “Find my font” got it right the first time. I will be purchasing paid version when my 30-day trial is up. Highly recommended!
Two thumbs up for ‘Find my Font’. Have been using it for a while now and has never disappointed me.
All the steps that Jen describes (crop, threshold, save as etc) are not necessary with this program. You just click a couple of letter and get the matching font(s). A small drawback is that sometimes you get too many similar matching fonts and you have pick the right one… but I can live with that.
Ohh, and they have a free smartphone app too.
I spent 3 hours looking for a font all over the net. Tried whatthefont & whatfontisthis online and like many posters above, they linked me to commercial fonts. I wouldn’t mind paying for the font, but I just couldn’t find it – SO frustrating.
Then, out of sheer desperation, I tried findmyfont for mac, and it located my font in about 30 seconds. Incredible.
The font I was searching for turned out to be Nunito – a Google Web Font that did not show up in any searches.
Brilliant piece of software. Cheers
perfect!! found my font 🙂
Having trouble with the site recognizing my font, but I realized my font is the same as the words “font identifier” in your banner. What is that font?
Hope this helps. I used Superclarendon Regular and Susie’s Hand Regular for the header image of this blogpost. 😀
WOW It actually WORKS, no kidding, I was searching a font for days! Next time i’ll use that page. THANKS 😀
Nice one!! Great find. Bookmarked that site. It worked a treat. Free font was an exact match too.
hello it’s is a great artical and it’s very useful for me i search my company logo font that was not searched before two day … it’s is great and now i found my font through whatfontis.com..
EPIC!! I really did find my font. Thanks so much 🙂
Hi. I don’t know if this is the right place for me to be asking this question. But for the life of me, I cannot find this font. I’ve went on a bunch of font identifying websites, and none were able to find the font I’m looking for. The two closest fonts any site came up with, is octin prison & united serif semi ext stencil. The main matching identifier in this font should be the letter M. A picture of the font can be found here. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/BlackCaScorpio/Female_Square_large_zpsyig2gy52.jpg
Patrick, I’m glad you stopped in. Have you tried using the website I suggest?
Based on your sample word, FEMALE, I think your sample font is Defense Bold. Available at myfonts.com and also shown on this site: http://www.identifont.com/similar?3NUM)
Thank you so much! The Ps editing was a crucial step that I hadn’t taken.
I am looking for a script font that none of these sites seem to be able to identify
Hi Lu. If you’ve tried this site without success, I’d suggest contacting the source of the image asking what font was used. Good luck!
I spent a lot of time with some adjustments. But I could not find a clear match. I tried with 2 letter and more contrasted colours. but no result. Any help.
Hi Sameer. I’m sorry you cannot make it work for you. Not all font situations will work.
My suggestion: Some font sites will allow you to contact them to identify a font. You can try that. Also, you can try looking up font groups on Facebook and asking their members if anyone recognizes the font. That is where I would start.
Hope this helps.
Thank you so much! I’ve found my font!
ok so I can’t seem to get it to allow me to click on two of the pieces it show of my font..I trybut it says I only selected one and says I need to upgrade..help! thanks
Hi m. Sorry it’s not working for you. You might want to contact the page owner?
guess I could try that thanks
Fantastic. Worked perfectly when other websites had failed to identify my font. Highly recommend it.
Doesn’t work… Very limited to find…
Agree! Limited
omg thank you so much. i’d been trying to find the font used in my company logo, after the original designer no longer works here. it finally worked. THANK YOU!!!!!!
It’s not working…
Still works great for me, Alina.
Hi,
i just tried some other font-identifyers out there with the same approach (Image upload) but they all fail. This one worked!!! Great – thanks a lot!
Thank you very much….this is the only site that works well uffffff
It worked… but all I couldn’t download most of the fonts I tried. i suppose this was due to having complex fonts. I doesn’t work well with cursive though. But thank you!
“what the font” used to be a very excellent font identifier. but lately, they somehow changed their system to only give results that are available on their product database.
i have noticed they are only suggesting substitute fonts they can sell. not really identify the exact font.
they can’t even identify the most basic arial or helvetica or futura. they always give some substitute which has some price to it.
most font identifiers nowadays no longer work as “advertised”.
Agreed!!!!
Sadly it is true. After many years I dumped them since they seem to have become shameless merchants of only the fonts they offer to sell. As a test I uploaded several samples in most popular fonts (helvetica, garamond, news gothic) and received some idiotic/exotic results. Oh well…
Thank you!!!! you save my life!!!
Thanks so much!! So helpful!! finally found what I was looking for!
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for all the neat tips.
Unfortunately, it no longer works properly (2018). They have changed the algorithm and it no longer matches even simple fonts.
I now use Font Squirrel (with mixed results).
Source: Graphic Designer
I just used it today 3/4/19 and it worked perfectly, and I found the font right away.
This is the font identifier from myfonts and it always matches and I never have to edit the files. Almost every paid font available is at myfonts. https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
It’s what I always use 🙂
Omg, you were right! This actually worked! I’ve tried several other ones, uploading an image or answering dozens of questions and none of them could find it. This one found it within a few minutes of going to the website. THANK YOU!
I just tried this after spending literally… 5 hours? 6? playing around on Identifont and FontSquirrel, to no avail. The first sample image I tried found close results, but wasn’t quite there. The second I took a sample with a capital W, brightened up the image a bit, and it was the first thing I found. (Nyala Regular. Turns out it’s not even on Identifont.) THANK HEAVEN I CAN GO TO BED NOW. Thanks so much!!
OMGGGG finally! thank you very much! tenia mas de 1 hora intentando hallar una fuente de un logo viejo de un cliente. esta pagina es una maravilla! agregada a mis favoritos.
As long as you pay $29. per year! Otherwise no searches!
That’s not correct. It is completely free to use. I just used is to identify a font with ease. Drag and drop screen grab of image from a scan into the site window. That’s pretty much how the site is interacted with.
LOL I think what she is saying is you will get better results (which is needed) on the paid version. I too will agree with the rest of the people, it’s a horrible program
Still totally useless.
I’ve been seeing this font in the lower thirds graphics while watching the old ‘Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet’ episodes. I’ve been looking for it for weeks, and have not yet found it. Can someone please help me out here?
Hi there. I’m happy to help. I recommend taking a small screenshot of the type you want to identify. Then, use PS/PSE and the provided instructions to identify it. Hope this helps.
For some reason I can’t find the download like you always have at the end. Help!
Hi Kaaren. Sorry for the confusion. The link to get the PDF Manual is above each video. Let me know if you need further help.