How to Match Fonts
Have you ever had trouble finding a font? Perhaps you want to create a document, make an invitation or design a website graphic and you have found the perfect font in a magazine. The problem is you don’t know what the font name is or where you can find it. Maybe you had a business card designed and you don’t have the original file, but you want to have letterhead made. You need to know what the font is to proceed. What do you do? Matching fonts can be frustrating and time consuming. Here is a course of action that will help you find the font you need.
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Instructions
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How to Match Fonts
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The best solution for quickly identifying a font is to find out who made the art work and just ask. Call the designer, print shop or friend who put the art work together. Most people are more than willing to help.
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When going to the primary source for the answer is not an option ask a graphic designer, production artist or printer if he or she recognizes the font. They will enjoy the challenge.
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Nobody you have contacted knows the font name you are looking for, now it is up to you to figure it out. Studying the font and classifying it is the next step. This will help you narrow the possibilities down. Elimination is key. There are thousands of fonts, many of them similar. If you are not able to find the exact font identifying similar fonts allows you to chose a replacement font that closely matches the original font. Ask; is it a body text or a specialty font?Ask; is it a script?Ask; is it serif or san serif. Serif means it has a fine line that finishes off the letter at the top or bottom. San serif mean without a serif. By categorizing the font you can eliminate groups of fonts that do not fit the category.
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Check the computer program you are creating or viewing the artwork in to see if it you have a match. If you have a book of fonts check there. Some computer software programs like Adobe Creative suites will give you a copy of the Adobe fonts. You view fonts in Word, Publisher, Creative Suites by highlighting a text portion and pulling down the font menu.
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Certain letters are key to distinguishing one font from another. Look at the font you are trying to identify and see what stands out.
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If you cannot find the font go to the Whatthefont site. Scan and upload a sample into the site. Their program is very good at identifying fonts. Sometimes even this fails. There is a place on the site to submit the font to an expert.
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Sometimes after your best effort no match for a font can be found. Sometimes you can identify a font only to find it is not on your system, in your CD collections of fonts. You search the internet but you cannot find it on a free font site and you do not wish to purchase the font. It is time to look for a substitute font. You have probably already come across numerous ones that are very similar.
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Take an aspirin I am sure you have a headache.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Ruthieonart
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Comments
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Enjoy the challenge? As if.
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bkyi44
Sep 05, 2009
This article is a joke...
