For the Love of Type

Today, I want to celebrate typography. Here are two interesting DIY ways to use type and two ways to identify type.

If you are good with type, stamps can be an inexpensive DIY way to have organic, professional-looking letterhead and envelopes, or personalized cards. You can create affordable custom stamps for your text of choice or your logo at BesottedBrand‘s Etsy store. (I love her examples!) Then purchase high quality blank stationery and stamp away! You can also create “property of…” stamps for your books and fun stamps to use for art projects or greeting cards.

For witty decoration or the headline of your next party, you can create your own custom banner at Banter Banner. I don’t want to decorate with generic things that just anyone can buy at a discount store. I want something unique. These banners can be statements that are witty and unique, personalized for the space or occasion. It just takes a little creativity and a funny bone! They come in a variety of colors and cost is determined by the amount of letters you use. I can’t wait to create one for my next party!

Have you ever seen a font that you love and wish that you knew what it was called so that you could use it yourself? As a typography lover, I see type all the time that I love so much—I just have to know its name! Here are two super handy ways to figure out the name of a font.

If the font is on a website, there is a bookmarklet called WhatFont, that will tell you the name of the font you are hovering over. Drag this nifty bookmarklet from Chengyin Liu to your Bookmark Bar. When you want to discover the name of a font, click the WhatFont icon, then hover over the text on the web page. A pop-up window shows you the font information.

Another service that I have been using for years is WhatTheFont. Upload a clear, high contrast jpg (black and white is best), that is 2MB or smaller, and WhatTheFont will give you its best match. In the example above, I uploaded an image with the word “CAKE”. WhatTheFont had me then verify the characters it had interpreted them to be. Once verified and my corrections were made, it then analyzed the font, and Whallah!—it gave me some options that would best “match” or be similar. There is also a WhatTheFont app for your iPhone. Take a photo of the font, use your finger to draw a box around it, press upload, verify the letters, press identify, and the app gives you its matches. The website and app aren’t perfect and don’t always get it right, but the percentage of time that they do—make them invaluable tools for us creatives.