14 DAY TRIAL // MyFonts has confirmed that its WhatTheFont iPhone application has been downloaded over 100,000 times since it was approved by Apple in the App Store three months ago. The iPhone version of WhatTheFont uses the phone’s built-in camera to snap the text in magazines, posters, billboards, etc., and instantly identify the font being used. On the iPod touch, WhatTheFont will identify fonts in images saved from apps such as Safari and Mail.
WhatTheFont has the ability to snap a photo right within the app, choose saved ones from the Photo Library, but can also view font details in Safari, offering the possibility to e-mail a link to oneself, while the in-phone image processing optimizes the upload for speed and accuracy.
Users simply snap a photo or choose one that they previously saved from Safari, Mail, and other apps, improve the accuracy of results by cropping the photo down to the important text, tell WhatTheFont what letters appear in the image, and even get the closest font matches to it. Ultimately, one can go to a web page about the font.
“For nearly ten years, the WhatTheFont service has helped hundreds of thousands of people distinguish unidentified fonts, yet we recognize that people encounter interesting fonts in many more places than just sitting in front of their computer,” John Collins, vice president and chief technology officer at Bitstream, said.
“Making this service mobile through our iPhone application has quickly expanded the usefulness of WhatTheFont, providing the kind of utility only a mobile device can offer. By mobilizing WhatTheFont we’re making it possible for people to enhance their creativity with instant access to font information from wherever they are.”
According to the iTunes App Store description, WhatTheFont also does “Instant gratification,” meaning it connects directly to the MyFonts font-identification service (helping customers pinpoint mystery fonts since 1999) and uses Wi-Fi or the mobile phone network, “so you can get your font fix right there on the spot.”