Typophiles Rejoice. WhatTheFont is Here… and it’s Free.
Let’s just get the bad news out of the way first. There are limitations to the iPhone’s camera that prevent focused photography of smaller typefaces, the app itself is hampered by some minor stability issues, and its photo recognition seems to struggle a bit with ornate or script fonts. WhatTheFont returned an accurate result 3 out of 4 times in my initial tests (the failed attempt coming from the Affair used in our masthead), with the most accurate results coming with larger sans serif fonts set dark on a light background. That being said, I’m a huge fan of the web app and the ability to have this tool in your pocket is simply awesome, especially if you have short term memory on the serif fonts (my hand is raised). The iPhone is already the closest thing to wizardry, and this is just one more reason to be happy if you have one. Download it, give it a go, and 75% of the time you won’t be disappointed.
