Free Online Typography Tools

1. WhatTheFont - Identify a Font From a Picture
This is a very  professional site, excellent if you want to identify a font. It is an easy as 1,2,3: you just upload a picture of your font and WhatTheFont will give you the exact match and/or some approximate matches from the database! From there you can buy the font or download it for free (if it is free of course).
WhatTheFont - Identify a Font From a Picture
2. IdentiFont - Identify a Font From Some Clues
But what if your picture of the font is too distorted and the previous tool doesn’t work? Don’t worry, there is a solution: Identifont. There you should go to “Fonts by Appearance” and answer some questions describing the font you’re looking for. You are sure to find a satisfying example in the database! If this is for a logo or something similar and you don’t get the exact font you can download the best similar font and edit it in Illustrator letter by letter or you can try TypeNav and see if you have more luck with it.
identifontcom
3. Online Font Converter
Another very useful site is OnlineFontConverter.com, where you can upload a font and convert it in whatever format you want: .otf .ttf and so on. In addition, with this tool you can extract a font from a .pdf file, if the file has the font embedded! As a bonus, if you make yourself an account you get a history of every font you have converted.
Online Font Converter
4. sIFR Generator
With this tool you can create sIFR flash files automatically. With just a few clicks you can customize and create the files needed for your site: a .swf file, a javascript and a html snippet and you will have selectable text with any font you like within your site.
sIFR Generator
5. Text Fixer - Text and Html Tools
Another great site is Textfixer.com. Here you have a series of useful text tools such as capitalizing the first letter of sentences or removing whitespaces or removing line breaks and so on. You have also some nice html tools for converting badly formatted word text to clean html, CSV text to html tables or for compressing/uncompressing html code.   

Text Fixer - Text and Html Tools
6. BitFontMaker for Small Pixel Fonts
With this BotFontMaker you can make some nice small pixel font (10 px high). You can then save it or send it to your friends. BitFontMaker is 100% compatible with any modern browser on any operating system. The framework is made in Javascript so you can use it on a device with no flash enabled as well.
BitFontMaker for Small Pixel Fonts
7. Wordle - Text Cloud Generator
If you want to make yourself a cool text cloud and you don’t have the time to type every word in your favorite graphic application you can use Wordle. With just a few mouse clicks you can make something similar with what you see here by inserting the same text or by pointing Wordle to your Blog RSS. You can then print the text cloud on paper or if you have a Acrobat Professional installed you can print it directly into a PDF file that you can edit with Illustrator or Corel Draw if you are not satisfied.
Wordle - Text Cloud Generator
8. STC FontBrowser - Browse Your Own Fonts
This tool is the equivalent of Bitstream Font Navigator, Font Manager or other applications. The only difference is the fact that it is online and, perhaps, that is free. It is not so customizable, you can’t see the detailed character map but it is the best choice for you when you want to show the clients what fonts they have (or not have) installed on their computers.
STC FontBrowser - Browse Your Own Fonts
9. CSS Grid Caclulator
This tool is a CSS generator. You can create columns, rows, you can set the gutter the width, the font, make custom-size divisions etc. quickly and effortless. The CSS code will be generated in a separate window in real time, so you can copy it and use it anytime.
CSS Grid Caclulator
10. Font Struct - Online Font Maker
Font Struct is a site where you can build your own font using a grid system. Basically, you can use simple geometrical shapes that you put together. It all depends on your own creativity! The results can be amazing! You can then use your font, if you are satisfied with it, as the site offers you true type file once you have finalized your project. It’s a great way to build your own font in a very short time.
Font Struct - Online Font Maker
11. Horus - Online Font Editor
If Font Struct is not enough for you, you can modify your font with Horus, online font editor. With this tool you can edit fonts: just open it and go to the desired letter or number from the glyf section. Unlike FontStruct, you can edit any point of your vector and thus you have full creative freedom.
Horus - Online Font Editor
12. TypeTester
Another interesting tool is Typetester, which is useful for comparing screen types. Here you can choose several fonts if you can’t decide which one to choose and you can vary the size of the letter, leading, tracking etc. and compare the results at the same time. When you have reached a conclusion, just indicate which column you prefer and you will get the CSS code.
TypeTester
13. Text Ascii Art Generator
With the tool on this site you can easily create ASCII Art files. Just type your letters or text and choose some symbol patterns that you want to use. You can quickly switch from one pattern to another and see how your text looks. In this way it will be easier to make a decision.
Text Ascii Art Generator
14. Pixel to Em Converter
PXtoEM is a tool that allows you convert pixels in/from Ems. Ems are a relative measurement unit. One ‘Em’(1em) is equal to the height of the capital letter “M” in the default font size. This is often used in CSS sites where you want to allow the user change the font size at will.
Pixel to Em Converter
15. CSS Gradient - Gradient Text Generator
This is a tool that generates selectable text that has gradient, with no Flash required or JavaScript. It uses a simple CSS trick that puts a semi-transparent PNG file over the desired text.
CSS Gradient - Gradient Text Generator
16. UpsideDownLetters
This site is a tool to turn the text upside down. This is a very non-conventional tool but you could use it if you have in mind a creative text-arrangement on your site. Unfortunately this tool is useless for rotating the text 90 degrees. For that there are multiple different methods depending on the browser.
UpsideDownLetters
17. Free OCR
Free OCR is a site where you can upload scanned document and convert it into text. It’s free and it works perfectly if the text is readable enough.
Free OCR
Hopefully, you will find these tools useful and they will help you in the creative process. They can surely allow you to save time and, most of all, they are all free to use online so go ahead and try them out! Do you use the above tools or other tools? Share your thought in the comment below.

0 comments: