Project Overview

Type & Seek is a web-based tool that allows users to upload an image of text and discover visually similar fonts across multiple categories (serif, sans serif, script, display). The goal was to simplify a frustrating and time-consuming design task: identifying and matching fonts from real-world visuals.

The Problem

Designers, students, and marketers frequently encounter typography they want to replicate, but:

Font identification tools are often inaccurate/overly technical
Results are limited to a narrow set of fonts
Users don’t think in exact font names, they think in styles

This creates friction in workflows, especially for presentations, branding, and content creation.

The Goal

Design a tool that:

Quickly extracts text from an image

Surfaces visually similar fonts

Organizes results by style and category, not just rank

Feels intuitive even for non-designers

The solution

Type & Seek combines OCR (optical character recognition) with a visual comparison system to match uploaded text against a curated font library.

Key features

Image-based search: drag-and-drop upload for instant input
Live text editing: users can refine extracted text before searching
Visual font matching: compares letter shapes using canvas rendering
Category-based results: fonts grouped into serif, sans serif, script, etc.
Clickable tabs: jump between font categories instantly

Design Approach

Instead of overwhelming users with a long ranked list, results are grouped into recognizable categories.

Reduce cognitive load

Make it feel exploratory

The experience is designed less like a search engine and more like browsing inspiration with soft UI, minimal distractions, and interactive tags.

Traditional OCR technology terminology was replaced with more intuitive messaging: “search loading” instead of “processing OCR”.

Simplify language

Challenges

Ambiguous font matching

Fonts can look similar across categories. Solved by grouping results instead of forcing a single “best match”, and by allowing users to explore multiple directions.

OCR imperfections

Image quality affects text detection. Solved by adding an editable text field before search, and feedback states guiding the user.

Impact

Reduces time spent searching for fonts

Improves accessibility for non-designers

Creates a more intuitive, visual-first discovery experience