Thursday, 29 December 2011

How to identify typefaces


Have you ever seen a logo and couldn’t identify its typeface? There are a couple of sites that let you search typefaces by foundry, designer or name. A few of them even let you upload a sample of your type and then it gives you results within seconds.
But if you don’t want to do that and identify the font yourself, then here are a couple of tips that could help you.


 HELVETICA

The letters to look out for are
- upper case R which is pretty distinguishable from the other R's. 












Akzidenz-Grotesk and Helvetica are very similar since Helvetica was designed on the basis of Akzidens-Grotesk.  A few letters like c, e, g, j, t, y of Helvetica have straight cut edges. For example:





































Letters like d, g, p, q in Helvetica are more rounded.



















FUTURA

Futura has a very unusual and a beautiful ‘A’.












Other distinguishable letter is the j, it is completely straight at the bottom.




















GILL SANS

Has a distinct lower case g and t.


















ITC AVANT GARDE GOTHIC

Has a very sleek upper case Q and an R.





BASKERVILLE & GARAMOND

The counter in the lower case g in Baskerville is open while the one in Garamond is closed.


       
 The upper case Q and W in both are very different from each other.






















The serifs of upper case letters like c,e,f,g in Baskerville are a little different from the ones in Garamond.



















The upper case A in Garamond has a twitch at the top.

















The lower case t of Garamond has an almost straight notch at the top while the one on Baskerville is pretty different .
















BODONI & DIDOT

Didot 'a' looks like a sagging tummy.












The terminals of Bodoni are perfectly straight, whereas the ones in didot are slightly curved. For example d,h, k, l etc







































Lower case t of Didot at the top is very much curved as compared to that of Bodoni.















Upper case w are very different from each other.












Q also different.


















So, that's about it. 











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