Type addicts with iPhones are being spoiled with riches of apps. For little or no money you can download typography manuals, catalogues, resources and even games. Here’s six apps you might be interested in.
Reference and Catalogues
If you love type, this app could possibly become one of your best friends. The Typography Manual is like a desk reference on your phone. Features include a style guide, HTML character codes, EM calculator and a visual glossary. Cost: $5
What The Font from the MyFonts.com site, is an image recognition app that will tell you the name of a font you’ve snapped with your camera. You can take a picture of some text in a newspaper, magazine, advert or web page, and What The Font will identify very rapidly. Cost: Free
The Font Shuffle app, created by Font Shop is a huge catalog of their fonts. You can find and compare typefaces in six major classifications of type: serif, sans serif, slab serif, script, blackletter, and display. This is pretty handy if you want to buy one of their fonts, or just nice to look at if you love letters. Cost: Free
Fun and Games
Type Drawing, as the name suggests, mixes letters with drawing. You type in your text and then start to draw with it. This is brilliant fun and you’d be surprised how cool some of your creations can look. You can share your masterpieces on the Type Drawing Flickr Group . Cost: $0.99
Also from the creators of Type Drawing comes Type Photo which has a similar concept. You type in a sentence or some words, choose a photo and apply the text to create some typographic art. Type Photo also has a Flickr group. Cost: $0.99
And finally, Kern the game! This has a touch of Tetris about it as you endeavour to fit letters into a small space. Here’s the official blurb;
KERN is a minimalist typography experience challenging you to precisely place a missing letter into a falling word while avoiding any unnecessary ligatures! Practice and prove your typographical acumen with a score that gives new meaning to point-size!
Cost: $0.99
So will you be downloading any of these apps? Have you come across any other typography related apps that you liked?
Jennifer FarleyJennifer Farley is a designer, illustrator and design instructor based in Ireland. She writes about design and illustration on her blog at Laughing Lion Design.
