iPhone App Proposal: Font Identification

A few weeks ago, a truck was parked at a gas station near my work. The graphics on the side of the trailer were very well done and used a typeface I couldn’t identify. So I took a few shots with the iPhone with the hope of later identifying the font…

I’d love to see an iPhone app that would allow you to take a series of pictures of a typeface and then automatically compare them to a database to determine the typeface. Kind of an advanced, mobile version of What the Font?

What the Font? is a web site that allows you to upload scans of type. If the automatic identification doesn’t work, then the image is transferred to a forum where users share their typographic knowledge.

The app would let you take a series of pictures. Those pictures and a brief description would be uploaded and compared to a database. If the software can identify the typeface, it sends back the answer. If it can’t, then the images and description would be posted to a forum for other users to review. The app could also allow users to view “unsolved cases” and identify the type.