Are you a font nerd?

Even if you're not a typographer, once you know what to look for it's fairly easy to tell Arial from Helvetica: if the ends of the strokes on the letterforms cut off at a slight angle, you're probably looking at Arial, whereas if they're perfectly vertical or horizontal then it's almost certainly Helvetica. You're welcome; at best this useful information will help you score slightly better in the very first round of Font Nerd.

It's a font identification game sponsored by MyFonts.com that'll probably show you that you don't know half as much typography as you thought you did. It shows you a sentence in a particular font (you can switch between upper- and lower-case letterforms) and simply asks you what the font in question is. If you're feeling confident you can opt to type in the name; otherwise you can play it safe and score fewer points by taking the multiple choice option.

The first, easiest level is free, and then if you want to unlock the rest you'll firstly have to pay a pretty reasonable 69p / 99c, and then score enough points to actually unlock them. If you're not that hot on typography then you'll find it a bit (or a lot) of a struggle, but it's a good way to pick up some font identification skills.

Naturally it contains links through to the MyFonts.com site so that if you see a font that you like the look of, you can easily add it to your collection. It's as great little exposure piece for MyFonts, and while it's basic it's definitely capable of expanding your typographical knowledge.

Key info

• Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
• Price: Free
• Developer: Instinkt ApS
• Version: 1.0
• App size: 8.9MB
• Age rating: 9+

Words: Jim McCauley

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