Your Nerdy Best Friend

If you’re like me, a character with an accent mark or that “n” with the little hook at the end is a show stopper when I’m typing. I have to first remember where to look for the special characters key, and then I have to spend 5 minutes trying to get it right. And if it’s a foreign character? Fuhgettaboutit.

TypeIt.org helps you quickly type phonetic symbols to cut and paste into emails, documents and more.

Now if I could only remember which way the accent goes in voila.

See other font helpers here, such as Identifont, which helps you identify a mystery font.

TypeIt: IPA phonetic symbols and online keyboard

WhatTheFont is a lot like one of my favorites, Identifont. This little free service allows you to upload a graphic that contains words, and the system does its best to identify your font.

I tried it with a few logos I’ve developed where I knew what the font was. It hit about 50 percent of the time, but the misses were darn close. I could have easily used one of the fonts they came up with as a close match to the look and feel.

WhatTheFont is a tool brought to you by MyFonts, which looks to be a pretty inexpensive way to purchase interesting fonts. Of course, I still prefer dafont, which is free. I’m funny like that.

WhatTheFont! « MyFonts.

I’ve long been a fan of Fontifier, which lets you create a font from your own handwriting for $9.

I’m even more excited about their new feature, a signature font creator, that lets you write things like “best wishes” in full signature format (rather than printing — who prints these days?). I haven’t done it yet myself, but it’s great if you need to mass produce thank you notes or if you want to “sign” your electronic newsletters.

Fontifier – Your own handwriting on your computer

This free tool is wonderful when you see a font you like but don’t know the name. Identifont helps you identify a typeface by answering a series of questions. It’ll even help if you have only a few letters to work with (like a flyer headline).

I’ve used it several times, and the font matches that Identifont proposed have come pretty close to the mark.

Check out the fonts Identifont recommended for the font I used for “Cheapskate Freelancer” in my banner. Pretty close!

Identifont – Identify fonts by appearance, find fonts by name

How often have you needed a decorative font to create a quick flyer? Looking for just the right style for a new logo?

Dafont.com is the best place on the web to find fonts with a little pizazz to add a little something something to your look and feel. I love putting my word or phrase into the custom preview box, the searching by theme (cartoon, curly, calligraphy, handwritten…) to find just the right look. Most are free for personal use, and many are just plain free. An awesome resource for any do-it-yourself graphic designer.

A sample from the Groovy Theme:

dafont.com