Here are a few gift ideas for any designer… or at least THIS designer… I’ve taken a few minutes to collect some Christmas gift ideas for those of you who just don’t know what to get your geeky, creative, web designer loved one. I am here to help!

Fisheye, Wide Angle and Macro Lenses for the iphone from photojojo.com. As if I don’t spend enough time on my phone already!

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The ABCs of New Orleans poster from Java Jane Designs on esty.com  Could anything be more lovely?? Each letter comes from architectural photography.

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Camera Lens Mugs from photojojo.com. My cup runeth over! Canon and Nikon zoom lens mugs… And the nikon zoom mug actually zooms. They come with lens caps, too.

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May the Force of Typography be with You posters from h-57.com… This is something my entire family would love!

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Serif Typography Wall Art by PepperSproutDesigns.com. And if you’re a sans-serif type (he, he!) person, they’ve got some wall art for you as well!

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Keyboard Shortcut Skins for Macs custom-fitted color-coded keyboard skins from Photojojo.com matched for your application and your computer. I will be getting the photoshop skin for my macbook pro.

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the Muji Envelope Template just sounds like fun for all, doesn’t it.

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The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog Memory Game from HandyEyeSupply.com Mmmm… my first typographic memory game!!!

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The Smashing Book I should have this already. I know.

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Paper e-mail from thinkgeek.com. That’s just funny!

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App Pillows by Design-milk.com. When I rent out the top floor of an old building downtown, with brick walls and old oak floors. And there is a couch by the door for all my clients to sit and wait till I have a sec. That couch will be covered with these pillows.

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This is a sample of what I had to work with.

Recently, I did.

I was working on a web design for a client who wanted to match his style and font to a print ad he had an ad firm create a year or so ago. All I had to work with was a pdf of the design. There were about 12 words, all lower case. And a font I couldn’t recognize.

Now, I’ll tell ya, I pride myself on the fact that someone can point out a billboard or newspaper ad and I can usually name the font. I’m good. It’s a talent. Not a talent that many value or would even want… but that’s okay. I take what I can get…

Anyway…

This font, I couldn’t name. So, what to do? I ran on over to fonts.com’s Identify Fonts By Sight page. The interface asks a series of questions, assuming you have the font, or part of it, in front of you. They ask about the letter shapes, descenders, ascenders, tails, bowls and serifs. Never fear – if you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s okay. ‘Cause there are pictures.

I love pictures…

So, to find my particular font, I had to skip several questions. I didn’t have any upper case letters and not all of the lower case. No numbers or punctuation. By the end, I was doubting that this clever little tool would be able to help me at all.

Until the end.

META. That was the answer. And it was correct! Brilliant!

So, if you ever find yourself in a font identification crisis, you now know where to turn. Fonts.com ‘Identify Fonts by Sight’ tool is a perfect solution!

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