Fiona O’Leary, a student at London’s Royal College of Art, is working on a new piece of technology that will allow the user to ‘capture’ colors and fonts they see in their environment. Spector is geared towards designers who are frustrated by their inability to perfectly emulate a color or typeface that has inspired them. The handheld device will “bridge the gap between designing on digital screen and the finalised print.”
Imagine taking a walk and being enthralled by the pinkish hue of a particular flower — with Spector, you’ll be able to scan the flower and be given information on its CYMK, RGB or Pantone values. The device can store up to 20 samples, which is handy when you’re out and about and far away from your computer. Using Bluetooth technology, Spector sends the information to your computer where it can be imported into a design program such as InDesign.
Spector is also being programmed to recognize and identify fonts. Like the font you see on an advertisement while waiting for the bus? Whip out Spector and it can identify the name of the font, as well as details about its size, kerning, and where you can purchase/download it for your own work.
There’s no word yet on when Spector will be available on the market, so we can only hope that O’Leary perfects her prototype soon and makes the device retail-ready.
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