Wired:
O’Leary developed a handy, handheld tool she calls Spector that captures typefaces and colors in the real world, and then transfers them directly to InDesign.
Full disclosure: Spector is a prototype. A working prototype, but a prototype, nonetheless. You can’t buy it, and while O’Leary is interested in commercializing it, she’s in no rush.
And:
Place Spector over a piece of media and depress the button on top. A camera inside photographs the sample, and an algorithm translates the image into information about the shape of the typeface, or the color’s CMYK/RGB values. Spector beams that information to a font or color database, which IDs the sample. If your computer is nearby, a custom plugin ports the font or color information to InDesign, where highlighted text or projects will automatically change to the typeface or color of your real-world sample. No computer? No problem. Spector can store up to 20 font samples, so you can transfer them to your computer later.
Smart idea. I hope that Fiona O’Leary gets some good advice here. Mine would be to see a patent attorney, do a basic search to see if this idea can be protected by a patent. Even a pending patent will greatly increase the value of this invention.
Why not an iPhone/Android app instead of a physical device? Maybe for matching the color value, dedicated hardware will be more accurate, but for the headline feature—font identification—it seems an app and a backend service could do the job.
O’Leary may have decided that a devise is a better business model, but I won’t be surprised if someone launches an app that competes with this, possibly before O’Leary’s device makes it to market.
There is prior art from the font defining aspect:
Years back, there was an app for iOS that allowed you to take a photo and submit it for analysis. So long as the photo was clear, and the text large enough to capture subtle details, the results were impressive.
As for color, there have been tools available for years that do just that. Combining them together in a small handheld device would be nice, but I don’t see the two major technical selling points to this tool as being patentable.
We used What The Font for years in the display advertising department of a major metropolitan daily. Excellent app. What it required, however, was a very good knowledge of fonts. That was the part that could not be bought, and that required years of training.