There are basically three easy ways to do this. The first method involves using tools and the second way is by uploading the image of the text you want to analyze onto a font analyzer website. Then there is the third route, which is finding out the font by manually getting into the code of the webpage.
I have also included a simple way of identifying fonts using your cell phone at the end of this post.
I assume that since most people like me are not professional coders, the first and second routes are more convenient. It saves you a lot of time and makes your life easier.
Each tool has its own set of pros and cons. The idea is to choose one that fits your needs. By the way, these tools are absolutely free to use!
- Installing font recognizing extensions on your web browser
As you may or may not know, your web browser can have extensions to help you with a lot of things. A popular segment of these extensions deals with digital marketing tools. The tools discussed here also fall in the same category.
This is a popular google chrome extension for understanding the type of font used on blogs or web pages. I use it myself and I must say that it is pretty convenient.
The extensions are available on all three major web browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla, and Safari.
All you have to do is just install the extension on your web browser and give it the necessary permissions.
Once that’s done, you can just pull out a webpage that you want to analyze and simply hit the WhatFont extension. This activates the cursor and you can simply hover across the webpage and find out the fonts used on that page.
Simple! Right?
- Uploading the image of the text to sites like Myfonts.com
WhatTheFont is an online tool provided by Myfonts.com. This tool comes in handy if you do not want to install any extensions.
But the caveat lies in the fact that you will have to capture an image of the webpage where you have the text included. Then you need to get it uploaded onto the website for analysis.
Say you have a web page with multiple fonts. But you are interested in a particular one. All you have to do is get a screenshot of the webpage and crop it to reveal only the text that you want.
Then upload that image onto https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
WhatTheFont is a powerful tool. It will try to select the characters found in the images and match them up to all possible fonts in its library.
This particular tool is really great as it gives you some of the closest possible matches. This way you can choose what you like the most.
- Diving into the CSS of the webpage using your browser inspectors:
I kept the hardest part for the end because this is better suited for people with some level of coding know-how. Others might as well get intimidated by just looking at all the lines of code that they have to sift through to find the answer.
To be honest this method is not a very straightforward one but it is a great option for those who understand the basics of HTML and CSS.
You can right-click anywhere on the web page and select ‘Inspect’ or ‘Inspect Element.
Alternatively, you could also achieve the same by pressing the F12 key. On a mac, you would want to press down the fn key before hitting F12.
This will open up a list of styles associated with the website. You can go through the list and find out which fonts are used for which HTML element.
Keep in mind that generally, styles that are crossed are those that are being overwritten. It’s better to check for those that are being executed last.
Usually, right next to the ‘style’ tab there is a ‘computed’ tab found on the right side of the popup once you hit inspect.
The Style tab shows all the styles on the page while the Computed tab deals with properties that are actively applied to elements that you select, which includes the font family.
- For smartphone users, the Find My Font app is a powerful application and simple to use
I had a lot of fun with this one myself. I was pretty surprised too given the accuracy.
You could download the Find My Font app from the Play Store If you are on an Android device. The app is also available on the App Store if you are an iPhone user.
Either way, the app is simple to use and pretty powerful too. Make sure you have an internet connection while using the app.
All you have to do is focus on the text you want to analyze and make sure it falls parallel to the reference line on the screen.
After you click the picture you will be prompted to select the characters in your picture manually.
In the next step, you will have to match the selected characters by typing them in order into the “text to match” section.
There will be a second area called the “text to preview” section where you will be asked to type anything for it to preview the font format.
You will be able to identify the font and the reference text should take the same format as your specimen!
There are a number of tools out there you could opt for but I find those mentioned above to be really useful.
Why are font-identifying tools very useful?
People use these tools to identify fonts for a wide variety of reasons. Most of these people have something to do with digital marketing or marketing in general.
- An entrepreneur sees an ad outside on a billboard in his neighborhood. He really liked the ad, especially the font used on it. He badly wants to know. He takes a pic on his cell phone and mails it to his digital marketing agency.
The guy at the agency uses tools like the ones discussed previously, to identify the font style.
- Say you are someone who writes ebooks. You have made a final draft of your work. At the last moment, you decide to go for a font you saw online on a webpage. What do you do? You use the tool to identify that font.
- Say your sister’s wedding is right down the corner. And you are in charge of all the print being distributed. You came across a print that has an irresistible font on it. You decide to find out what font is on that print. You are definitely going to need some of those tools.
- I use it for something similar and it has a lot to do with marketing. Did you know that the right font and aesthetics of the text on your blog post can have a strong impact on SEO?
Although a direct correlation with your SEO scores is not possible, it does play a vital role in shaping user experience. And user experience is one of the most important factors that affect SEO according to google.
