Select the image or outlined text, and then select Window > Retype.
Last updated on
Sep 11, 2025
Learn how to use Retype to identify the fonts in raster images and outlined text.
Identify fonts
You can also access Retype panel from the Type menu and the right-click menu, and the Quick Actions section of the Properties panel.
Select Find Matching Fonts in the Retype panel. A dotted line appears around the words that Retype auto-detects. If adjacent words have the same font, they have a common border. Retype highlights the text with the largest border, surrounds it with a marquee, and shows its matching fonts in the panel.
By default, the panel shows 10 matching fonts, ordered by their closeness to the highlighted text’s appearance. To get five more matching fonts, scroll to the end and select Find more font matches.
Select Roman or Japanese in the Choose Script And Match Font menu to specify the script, if needed.
Deselect From Adobe Fonts or From your device from Apply Filter to exclude font suggestions from one of those sources.
Do any of the following to get a better preview of the suggested fonts:
- From the panel menu, select one of the three text sizes.
- Type your own sample text in the Type your text to preview on card field.
Select any other text in the image or outlined text for which you want font suggestions. Retype highlights all the words with the same font, even if they aren’t adjacent. If your desired text doesn’t have a dotted line around it, drag the marquee over it.
Note
- Use the marquee only if you don’t see a dotted line around the text.
- Marquee works best on horizontally aligned single-font text.
To add a matching font from Adobe Fonts to Illustrator, hover over it, and select Click to add . The fonts you add will be available across all Creative Cloud apps.
To add a font as a favorite, hover over it, and select Add to favorites .
Press Exit to exit the Retype scan mode. When you exit, the Retype panel automatically shows the fonts you marked as favorites. To get all the suggested fonts from the last scan, select Clear Filter .
Select Reset Retype panel to remove the suggested fonts from the panel.
Use Retype on Japanese text
If you’re not using a Japanese version of Illustrator, select these options for Retype to work on Japanese text:
Select Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or Illustrator > Settings > Type (macOS).
Select Show East Asian Options and Enable Japanese Font Preview in ‘Find More’.
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