Very many users of modern computer systems, or rather, designers, one way or another face the problem when it is required to recognize the font of the text contained in some image. Now we will consider several simple options for how to do this with minimal time and effort.
Font recognition: basic aspects
Let's start with the fact that, in general, it is naive to think that font detection is the same as text recognition. Recognition of text created in some editor or simply typed on old typewriters is just a special case of a more general definition. And even such powerful programs as ABBYY Fine Reader are not always suitable for this. Of course, they are able to extract text fragments from the desired image, but in most cases the analysis is carried out exclusively on the basis of standard fonts, which are universal for all types of text editors and are freely integrated into applications of this type, whichallows you to use them even regardless of the main software platform.
But what to do when you need to recognize a font created by hand, say, in a graphics application or even hand-drawn? Judge for yourself, because the artist can depict any letter in any way.
As the simplest example, you can take at least the original collections of Russian folk tales, where each capital letter at the beginning of the first paragraph of the text was decorated with a patterned pattern. From all this accumulation, the computer program must choose exactly the letter, discarding everything else. Actually, that is why the recognition of Cyrillic fonts, even in comparison with hieroglyphs, is a rather difficult task. However, there are some means for this.
Apps to recognize fonts in pictures
Now let's focus on a few simple software products that will suit a user of any level.
First of all, it is worth noting the CuneiForm application. This is a font recognition program, including Cyrillic, which allows you not only to determine which language the text belongs to even with an unusual font, but also to preserve the original structure of the entire document. For example, if it was created in some computer application, it contains tabular data (as well as the table itself), the application can easily determine such a structure and save it when displaying results. Samealso applies to the formatting used in the document.
One of the main features of the application is that, in addition to supporting several languages, the program has its own dictionary, which is used when analyzing text after the font recognition process is completed. At the same time, the program works quite well with low-quality documents, say, scanned old photographs with text or historical documents. Among other things, you can add new data to the dictionary database for further use.
Font Analyze can also be called a very simple application. Without delving into the principles of its functioning, we note only the process itself. Here, the user simply needs to upload an image with a font into the analyzer field, and then activate the recognition process. Here the "trick" is that after receiving the scan result and processing it can be edited.
The Font Matching Tool system is also interesting. Among other things, this application is recommended to be used in conjunction with the Compare It! program, which allows you to compare the source document and the result with recognized fonts.
Online font recognition service
In addition to programs installed on a computer, or their portable versions, you can use the services of many Internet resources. Font recognition in the picture in the action plan is performed similarly to previous applications. The only difference is that the user uploads an imagedirectly to the site, and the result is downloaded to your computer.
Among the most popular and in-demand services are such online systems as What The Font, Identifont, Message Boards: Typophile, Bowfin Printworks, Type Navigator, Flickr Typeface Identification and many others.
Conclusion
It only remains to add that it is better not to rely on programs or Internet resources. Do not expect anything supernatural from them. Judge for yourself, because not all Internet bots recognize even the usual captcha. But the analogy with programs designed for font recognition is obvious here. So when using such tools, you can mainly rely on the results of determining the simplest fonts. Another thing is that they are recognized not from printed office documents, but from pictures. This, in fact, is the main advantage of all software products and services of this type.
