A wordspotting system and method are disclosed. The method includes receiving a keyword and, for each of a set of typographical fonts, synthesizing a word image based on the keyword. A keyword model is trained based on the synthesized word images and the respective weights for each of the set of typographical fonts. Using the trained keyword model, handwritten word images of a collection of handwritten word images which match the keyword are identified. The weights allow a large set of fonts to be considered, with the weights indicating the relative relevance of each font for modeling a set of handwritten word images.