5 ms·

I'm missing the point. Who wouldn't view source / inspect element to see the real text?

mistercow 15y ago
I think you're thinking of it backwards. The source looks jumbled, but the font that the browser renders the page with is readable because the font acts as a substitution cipher. Still pretty pointless though, since substitution ciphers are child's play to break.
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
  >Still pretty pointless though, since substitution ciphers are child's play to break. // It's an interesting result that probably hasn't been considered by most people. Also, child's play is big business.
  - mistercow 15y ago
    >It's an interesting result that probably hasn't been considered by most people. Is it? I mean it's cute to see it actually implemented, but this is something I thought of the first time I read about substitution ciphers. I suppose it is, if nothing else, an interesting way to introduce someone to some basic cryptography concepts (assuming they already know about typefaces).
    - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
      The first time you saw substitution ciphers you thought "hey how about using webfonts as a one time key"? I guess because I learnt about such ciphers when our primary school only just got it's first computer, running at 4MHz, the conflation of webfonts and subst. ciphers never struck me before. Before today I've seen this done with javascript and, TBH, I think that would have been the first method that sprung to mind but I've not really ever bothered to think about it. Quick search only found one other example of this technique: http://eligrey.com/blog/post/tag/rot13 http://eligrey.com/blog/post/tag/rot13 (rot13 fonts, lol) as well as this http://jsfiddle.net/QQ9WQ/ http://jsfiddle.net/QQ9WQ/ from the current author. It's hard to search as there is a font called "cipher font", which of course is available as a webfont! Of course there are lots of pages using js, like http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/substitution.php http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/substitution.php which does some funky substitutions.
      - mistercow 15y ago
        Don't be glib now; of course I didn't think "webfonts". I thought "fonts". The addition of "web" to the concept is trivial and uninteresting.
        pbhjpbhj 15y ago
        Trivial I'll give you with reservations but I found it interesting as a concept to develop. I think it's got more possibilities than just the simple font, particularly the idea of creating the webfont on the fly.

I think you're thinking of it backwards. The source looks jumbled, but the font that the browser renders the page with is readable because the font acts as a substitution cipher. Still pretty pointless though, since substitution ciphers are child's play to break.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago
>Still pretty pointless though, since substitution ciphers are child's play to break. // It's an interesting result that probably hasn't been considered by most people. Also, child's play is big business.
- mistercow 15y ago
  >It's an interesting result that probably hasn't been considered by most people. Is it? I mean it's cute to see it actually implemented, but this is something I thought of the first time I read about substitution ciphers. I suppose it is, if nothing else, an interesting way to introduce someone to some basic cryptography concepts (assuming they already know about typefaces).
  - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
    The first time you saw substitution ciphers you thought "hey how about using webfonts as a one time key"? I guess because I learnt about such ciphers when our primary school only just got it's first computer, running at 4MHz, the conflation of webfonts and subst. ciphers never struck me before. Before today I've seen this done with javascript and, TBH, I think that would have been the first method that sprung to mind but I've not really ever bothered to think about it. Quick search only found one other example of this technique: http://eligrey.com/blog/post/tag/rot13 http://eligrey.com/blog/post/tag/rot13 (rot13 fonts, lol) as well as this http://jsfiddle.net/QQ9WQ/ http://jsfiddle.net/QQ9WQ/ from the current author. It's hard to search as there is a font called "cipher font", which of course is available as a webfont! Of course there are lots of pages using js, like http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/substitution.php http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/substitution.php which does some funky substitutions.
    - mistercow 15y ago
      Don't be glib now; of course I didn't think "webfonts". I thought "fonts". The addition of "web" to the concept is trivial and uninteresting.
      - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
        Trivial I'll give you with reservations but I found it interesting as a concept to develop. I think it's got more possibilities than just the simple font, particularly the idea of creating the webfont on the fly.