We often get original fonts from clients without any file. We do our best to match the font, but without the original art it’s time consuming. Now we can replicate fonts quickly with Spector, a handheld tool that takes a photo and uploads the font directly into InDesign. This gadget can even download any color and convert it to CMYK or RGB within InDesign as well.

Using a machine-learning algorithm, Spector is able to translate an image into metadata to be read by a computer and then, using bluetooth, convert to InDesign. The inventor of this device, Fiona O’Leary, created the prototype for her thesis at the Royal College of London. Though the product is not yet on the market, O’Leary expects it might be on Kickstarter within the next two years. We’re pretty sure it will get funded.