: Visual typeface search tool Fontshop.com used to have (at least I think it was them) a index of typefaces that you could use visual / structural specifics to search through their library of

@LarsenBagley460

There are a number of limitations with it, but Adobe Typekit's web interface's Browse Fonts page has faceted search that is the closest I'm aware of.

Here's a screenshot example of it set to find narrow, light sans-serifs with low contrast (i.e. even widths) and a high x-height:



It's a beautiful, clean, simple yet powerful piece of interface design. That's the good news.

The bad news is, the business model it's based on is about the least suitable there is for the kind of casual browsing and buying that this interface enables:


It only shows fonts available through Typekit. There are several thousand (Adobe don't seem to say how many) fonts on Typekit, but it's far from exhaustive - you're not browsing fonts, you're browsing a library of fonts chosen by Adobe.
Typekit is subscription based: great if you're already a subscriber, but really bad if you just want to buy just one font for just one purpose for an indefinite time period. There's no "just buy it" facility: they really want you to subscribe.
Some Typekit fonts are available to buy normally elsewhere, but not all. In my limited experience of using it, less than 20% have been available elsewhere (usually the old classics).


So, you could find yourself using this to browse, finding the perfect font, opening your wallet ready to buy it... and finding you've hit a wall because it makes no sense to start a long-term indefinite monthly subscription just for that one font, and there's no other way to get it.

One thing you could do though, is take a sample of that font, run it through WhatTheFont to find similar fonts that will accept some cash for a normal license, then buy those... Hardly convenient though.

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@Vandalay110

What you're looking for is FontShop's Type Navigator; the link appears to be dead.

Try Identifont; I don't think it's quite what you're after but you might find it to be helpful.

EDIT: I e-mailed FontShop to ask about TypeNav and this is the relevant part of the response. I guess they valued it for font identification more than browsing...


Our TypeNav feature no longer exists, as we now direct any font identification or search requests to our Research Team. If you have an image or screenshot of what the font looks like, please send it and your inquiry to Research@FontShop.com and they can help you identify that specific font or suggestions for a similar font since if we don't have that exact font available on our website.

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