WhatTheFont: Font Identification for iPhone

February 11, 2009

I’ve written at some length about the importance of fonts in visual design, mainly because so many eLearning developers and presentation designers fail to grasp it – to the great detriment of their products. My rule: use Comic Sans and instantly lose all credibility. But I digress…

I have no doubt that font selection has a tremendous impact on how your content (or product) is perceived by your audience. Believe it or not, the way letters look can often be just as important (if not more so) than what they say. It’s just human psychology. Good marketing folks know this. Good Web designers know this. Good print designers know this. Good eLearning and presentation designers should know this.

I recently had a debate with a good friend of mine regarding the importance of fonts. He, frankly, didn’t see the point – claiming that all fonts ultimately look the same. “Not true” I wailed, aghast at his failure to comprehend such a simple visual design concept. He actually called me a “freak” because I knew the now-famous font Obama used (with great success, obviously) in his presidential campaign (it was Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones, by the way – but of course you knew that).

Fortunately, my friend is not involved in eLearning or visual design in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, many eLearning and presentation designers share his “who cares” attitude about fonts. And that simply must change.

So, how to get started? Well, you might begin your path to font enlightenment by conscientiously looking for fonts that appeal to you – and learning what those fonts are. Some typographic designer put many long days (months, years) of sweat and tears into those letters you’re looking at. It’s true!

Back in June I mentioned the WhatTheFont?! website, where you can identify (and buy) fonts that catch your fancy. I use this site frequently.

And now MyFonts has increased my love for them by releasing the free WhatTheFont font identification app for the iPhone.

The cool thing about WhatTheFont is you can take a photo of text you like, say a sign on a storefront or the cover of a restaurant menu, and WhatTheFont will try to identify it right on your iPhone. Brilliant!

Get font savvy. Please. And if you own an iPhone, give WhatTheFont a look.

Posted in Apple, eLearning Design, eLearning Development Tools, iPhone