This magical gadget can scan text and tell you what the font is

Font nerds, rejoice! There's now a magical gadget that can scan fonts and colors, figure out exactly what they are, and even transfer them for use in Adobe's InDesign desktop publishing software.

The Spector, as the gadget is called, is like a "physical eyedropper" says designer Fiona O'Leary who created the device for her graduation project.

The device contains a camera inside that takes a picture of a font when its capture button is pressed. The Spector can also capture real-life colors and determine their CMYK or RGB values.

All parts of a font (serifs, kerning, etc.) are captured instantly and then wirelessly matched against a font database. The same goes for captured colors.

Users can then either store the fonts and colors on the Spector itself or import them through a custom plugin for use in InDesign.

As you can see in the video above, the Spector looks like it would be a great tool for designers, allowing them to essentially "save" any fonts or colors they see for use on a digital canvas.

In its current state, the font database is limited with the ability to identify only seven fonts. Expanding the database, however, is something O'Leary says she's working on.

It already sounds like the perfect Kickstarter.

According to Wired, O'Leary created the Spector because of her own desire to find a solution translate print to a screen. 

"When you design for print on screen, it never looks like how it’s going to print," O'Leary says. "If you’re going to design for print on screen you should start with print."

The Spector is currently only a prototype with no plans for commercialization, but it already sounds like the perfect little thing for Kickstarter. O'Leary, if you're reading this: Make it happen!

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