3 ms·

Show HN: 433 – How to make a font that says nothing

51 points by rpastuszak 1y ago

jasonjmcghee 1y ago
Long time fan of your art and writing. Is the idea here with Coffeeshop mode that typos can be dealt with later?
- yorwba 1y ago
  It seems like the gimmick of Ensō is that it's write-only and doesn't allow you to edit anything, so not being able to see your typos might be for the best actually.
  - rpastuszak 1y ago
    Spellcheck and autocorrect are disabled when Coffeeshop Mode is on. (although, IIRC, you can override that) Another reason: autocorrect/autocomplete can trigger visible previews/highlights on the screen. (thinking about this out loud here: what about IME/pinyin? That works well in both modes, it's necessary)
- rpastuszak 1y ago
  Thanks! And yes, although the same idea applies to Ensō in general. Looking at the feedback from people, I see two camps: those who rely on autocomplete and those who abhor it. I normally use it in two ways: - quickly turn it on/off when someone is passing by, so I can carry on writing undistracted - keep it on for several minutes at a time, esp. when writing in a busy public place
efskap 1y ago
Very cool, like <input type="password"> except with whitespace so you retain a vague sense of the wordshapes :) I could honestly see myself using this in a coffeeshop for the compromise between privacy and feedback.
- rpastuszak 1y ago
  Thanks! I use it all the time. Someone on lobste.rs mentioned Redacted Script (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Redacted+Script https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Redacted+Script) and I'm considering building something similar, even if just for fun, but for the entire first unicode plane, since otherwise the characters wouldn't get masked.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
landgenoot 1y ago
Reminds me of dotsies [1]. However the goal of dotsies to keep it still readable and use less space. What are the odds someone in a coffee shop is able to read dotsies as well? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18703805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18703805
- rpastuszak 1y ago
  Ah, the original site is dead but I found this: https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/dotsies.htm https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/dotsies.htm The way dotsies stack remind me a little bit of Cistercian Numerals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals) I am thinking about adding a little semi-hidden "Toy box" option with little experiments, incl. generative art/playthings like drawing vines during typing or a spacial writing system. (I'm very hesitant to do that since I want to keep Ensō as distraction free as possible)
bouyaveman6 1y ago
Thanks for the sharing, installed and ready to try for my next coffeeshop session
- rpastuszak 1y ago
  Let me know how it goes! I'm in bug bashing mode atm
spiffytech 1y ago
I always loved the idea of the Dotsies glyph system for coffeeshop mode. It's a font that converts the English alphabet into a compact dot notation. Never got around to becoming fluent in it, but I'd like to someday. https://web.archive.org/web/20240418032751/https://dotsies.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240418032751/https://dotsies.o...

51 points by rpastuszak 1y ago

jasonjmcghee 1y ago

Long time fan of your art and writing. Is the idea here with Coffeeshop mode that typos can be dealt with later?

yorwba 1y ago
It seems like the gimmick of Ensō is that it's write-only and doesn't allow you to edit anything, so not being able to see your typos might be for the best actually.
- rpastuszak 1y ago
  Spellcheck and autocorrect are disabled when Coffeeshop Mode is on. (although, IIRC, you can override that) Another reason: autocorrect/autocomplete can trigger visible previews/highlights on the screen. (thinking about this out loud here: what about IME/pinyin? That works well in both modes, it's necessary)
rpastuszak 1y ago
Thanks! And yes, although the same idea applies to Ensō in general. Looking at the feedback from people, I see two camps: those who rely on autocomplete and those who abhor it. I normally use it in two ways: - quickly turn it on/off when someone is passing by, so I can carry on writing undistracted - keep it on for several minutes at a time, esp. when writing in a busy public place

efskap 1y ago

Very cool, like <input type="password"> except with whitespace so you retain a vague sense of the wordshapes :) I could honestly see myself using this in a coffeeshop for the compromise between privacy and feedback.

rpastuszak 1y ago
Thanks! I use it all the time. Someone on lobste.rs mentioned Redacted Script (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Redacted+Script https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Redacted+Script) and I'm considering building something similar, even if just for fun, but for the entire first unicode plane, since otherwise the characters wouldn't get masked.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

landgenoot 1y ago

Reminds me of dotsies [1]. However the goal of dotsies to keep it still readable and use less space. What are the odds someone in a coffee shop is able to read dotsies as well? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18703805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18703805

rpastuszak 1y ago
Ah, the original site is dead but I found this: https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/dotsies.htm https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/dotsies.htm The way dotsies stack remind me a little bit of Cistercian Numerals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals) I am thinking about adding a little semi-hidden "Toy box" option with little experiments, incl. generative art/playthings like drawing vines during typing or a spacial writing system. (I'm very hesitant to do that since I want to keep Ensō as distraction free as possible)

bouyaveman6 1y ago

Thanks for the sharing, installed and ready to try for my next coffeeshop session

rpastuszak 1y ago
Let me know how it goes! I'm in bug bashing mode atm

spiffytech 1y ago

I always loved the idea of the Dotsies glyph system for coffeeshop mode. It's a font that converts the English alphabet into a compact dot notation. Never got around to becoming fluent in it, but I'd like to someday. https://web.archive.org/web/20240418032751/https://dotsies.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240418032751/https://dotsies.o...