Thomas Phinney

The Font Detective

Identify backdated forged documents through fonts? Yes.

Your font & typography problems solved by a globally-known font expert.
Font ID & availability dating. Intellectual property, point size analysis. & more.
Original typeface design, revivals and extensions.

Evidence and answers, promptly with clarity.

Recommended by Microsoft on the timeline and development of Calibri. No other font question is too obscure.

Document Font ID & DATING

What font was used to typeset a document? Did this typeface exist as of the date specified? A document dated before its font was available can prove backdating—even when the only version of the document available is a photocopy or fax.

Font Point Size Verification

Many kinds of documents have a specific minimum point size to meet legal requirements. Does a given text meet the legal size requirement? Did you know that there is no single thing you can measure that is the same as the point size of a font, and different fonts have different physical sizes for the “same” numeric point size? Phinney can explain, get accurate measurements for you, and translate those measurements to actual point size.

Other typography & font Questions

Phinney can answer almost any font or typography question. He has worked with literally every kind of typesetting, from carving letters in stone to designing digital fonts (including the ones used on this web site). He has operated every category of printing press and digital printer, and co-created one of the first web font services. He’s been a product manager at Adobe, and done font-related work for Microsoft, Monotype and Google. If he can’t answer your font question, he probably knows who can.