Find fonts by appearance
The Identifont expert system enables you to identify a typeface from a sample by answering a series of questions about key characteristics.
After several questions you are shown a list of possible fonts matching the answers you have given.
At each stage the left-hand column shows a list of the questions you have already answered. Click on a question to review the options, and optionally change your reply. If you are unsure about any question click 'Not sure' to skip that question.
Filter
The Filter allows you to filter the questions based on the characters in your sample, and the date of your sample. Click the Filter to specify a filter.
Popular matches
During the identification the Popular matches list shows up to five of the most popular fonts that are among your current list of candidates. This will often give you a short-cut to the font you are looking for.
Results
Finally you will be shown a list of one or more possible fonts matching your answers. Click Show all matches to expand the results list to include fonts that could be candidates based on your answers.
How it works
Identifont uses an expert system containing information about a large number of features for each typeface, and from this asks a series of questions about key features of the typeface. For example, one question is: "Does the upper-case J descend below the baseline?".
The system is adaptive, so at each stage the sequence of questions is chosen to identify the font in the smallest number of steps. A typical identification takes about 15 steps, after which it shows the matching font or fonts, together with character-set samples to allow the user to check the answers.
Identifont also includes links to the main vendors of each typeface, so the user can order the typeface once they have identified it.