It can be frustrating not to be able to find a source for a potentially useful font because you don’t know its name and you don’t have the means to identify fonts quickly and easily. Even if you have access to a source of well-organized families of fonts, finding one you are looking for can take more time than you might care to expend.

This font style is a rather common, but if you don’t know its name, it could still take time to identify it, or find an exact match.

WhatFontis.com can conduct your search for you in a much shorter time, with greater accuracy, and the application is yours to use for free!

How to Begin Your Identity Search

Gaining access to this tool is simple. Bring WhatFontis.com up on your browser. You’ll be asked to register by entering your email address and clicking the box that tells to whom it may concern that you are not a robot

Once you sign in using the username and password you just created, you can start your first font identification.

Upload a file containing the font you want identified. The file needs to be in a GIF, JPG, or PNG format. You can also upload a screenshot, or a specify a URL that features an example of the font.

There are a few rules to follow, but they are quite straightforward and clearly explained. For example: the letters must be Latin letters, they must be in a horizontal line, and they must not touch one another.

To help you along, WhatFontis.com has provided an FAQ page and a page showing both good and bad examples of font submittals. In most cases you’ll get a positive response, and get it quickly. If the font is a unique custom font, there may not be an exact match, in which case you might be presented with examples of fonts that are not identical but close.

After you click the continue button you will be direct to a page where you will see 100 results. Pick one you think resembles the best or if you’re not satisfied post a copy of your font in the forum. If you spend a few moments browsing through the forum you’ll see that forum members are quite good at locating various font styles, identifying them, and responding to queries.

Frequent Users Will Find the Browser Extension Helpful

If your work involves many searches to identify many font styles, your search process can be streamlined somewhat by downloading the WhatFontis.com browser extension for Chrome. Chrome is more tolerant of extensions and addons than is the case with most browsers, and this particular extension won’t affect your browser’s performance unless it is already loaded down with extensions.

This extension takes the form of a right-click shortcut than enables you to access the search box directly from your desktop or taskbar. There is also a similar extension (called an add-on) available that Firefox users can download, and if you click on the apps button you will get a visual tutorial on how this tool works.

A Premium Version is Available for Frequent and Heavy-duty Users

There are all too many free versions of applications on the market that are nothing more than teasers, and are sub-standard, feature-poor versions of heavily promoted premium versions. That is definitely not the case here. If you need to conduct a search on five or fewer fonts per day, WhatFontis.com’s free version will get the job done.

The premium version is for those who identify fonts for a living, or at the very least will need to use this application frequently and heavily. It costs only $2.99 a month, or $29.99 if you want to subscribe for a year. The premium version does have a few advantages over the free version, including an unlimited number of searches and forum post submittals. All of this is clearly spelled out on the website, so you should have no problem deciding on which version will suit you best.

A Cool Solution to a Common Problem

It’s hard enough to find a word in the dictionary you can’t spell, but its many times more difficult to search through a large collection of fonts because you don’t know a font’s identity. Even if you become an expert at locating seldom-used fonts, your time would probably be better spend on other tasks.

Whether the free version suits your needs, which is highly likely in many cases, or you could make better use of the premium version, WhatFontis.com’s font search and identification application is highly recommended. It would be a valuable addition to your web designer’s toolbox.