ZalgoFont, can it be done?

sam

Zͭ̍ͮ͐̌̽̃ͮ̉ͧ̂̀̎ͧ̌̂̅͌ͯ̀̓̅͒̆ͣ̋̓̂̈́ͨ̎͗̔̔̉ͥ͒̊̂ͥ̈́ͮͬ̾ͦ̿̀͛͂̏̆̀͊̎̃̒͗̀̓̋̿̎̀͂̋̎ͨ̽ͯ̃̎̒̈̾͆͒̉̇̓̄̀̓̑̆̾̚a͊̅̂ͨͤͭ̏̐ͣ̒ͦͦ̋̐ͯ͒̈ͨ̎ͭ͛͊̊ͫͪ̔̑ͨ͒͌ͭ͂͊̔̉ͮ̔̊͐̉ͤ̈̓̈́̊͂͑ͤ̑ͭͧ̉̃ͦͤ̃̊ͧͬ̾̌ͯ̓ͣͦ͊̿̓̔̋͊̄ͬ̐̉͒̂ͦ͂̾ͥͣ͐̿̾̀ͫͤͧ͌͒̂̂͆͐ͣͤͣ͛lͨͬ̓͛̓͒̓̅̅͒ͯ͋̈̇͐̎̈ͩ̊ͦ̂ͫ͛ͯͭ͛̓̏ͦ͑͐͊͑͛͊̏̓͂ͩ̊͐̌ͤ̚gͣ̄ͨ͊͋̽͑ͪͤͥ̉ͦ͋͒͆̏̃̈́̌ͦͮ̌͐ͥͤ͋̿̅̀ͯ͒̾ͤ͗̇̏o̿̏̓́͂̿̉̄͛̑̂ͬ̾͂̂̓ͯ̚̚ Text is kind of cool, but you know what would be more cool, if we could use these unicode combiners to somehow orchestrate a "font" that is readable on top of words. You would basically use the combiners on top of 5 letters to somehow render a single letter on top of it.

Can this sort of thing be done? Has anyone done it?

Cursorkeys

That would be very interesting. I wonder if brute-forcing the problem might work? Use one of the free OCR libraries like Aspire and then attempt to transform each letter in sequence into another letter that the OCR can recognise. There aren't a large amount of diacritics that affect the 'middle' of characters so the problem space shouldn't be unreasonable.

Edit: Oh. I see what you mean. Literally above the character. That might be a bigger problem to force

PleegWat

Might depend on your renderer as well? I seem to recall people mentioning that the super-combining-characters-tag in CS renders differently depending on user agent.

VinDuv

FYI most uppercase Latin letters exist as Unicode combining characters:

#!/usr/bin/python
import unicodedata, string
for letter in string.ascii_uppercase:
    try:
        print u"%s%s\n" % (letter, unicodedata.lookup(u"COMBINING LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL %s" % letter))
    except LookupError:
        try:
            print u"%s%s\n" % (letter, unicodedata.lookup(u"COMBINING LATIN SMALL LETTER %s" % letter))
        except LookupError:
            print u"%s missing\n" % letter

gives out

Aͣ

B missing

Cͨ

Dͩ

Eͤ

F missing

Gᷛ

Hͪ

Iͥ

J missing

Kᷜ

Lᷞ

Mᷟ

Nᷡ

Oͦ

P missing

Q missing

Rᷢ

Sᷤ

Tͭ

Uͧ

Vͮ

W missing

Xͯ

Y missing

Zᷦ

Filed under: That makes my browser crawl, FUCKING HELL WHY IS <big> CLOSED PREMATURELY IN THE COOKED POST BUT NOT IN THE PREVIEW?

Arantor

@Discoursebot can you help me out here please?

discoursebot

Days Since Last Bug: 0<t3551p5>

sam

Was thinking more in the line of

o̓̓̓̓̓̓̓̓o͆͆͆͆͆̓̓̓o͆͆͆͆͆͆͆̓o̓̓̓͆̓̓̓͆o̓̓̓͆̓̓̓͆o͆͆͆͆͆͆͆̓o͆͆͆͆͆̓̓̓o̓̓̓̓̓̓̓̓

Which would be an attempt at the letter A over a bunch of Os

ben_lubar

Here's an A over a bunch of Os:

Ḁ̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥

darkmatter

@sam said:

o̓̓̓̓̓̓̓̓o͆͆͆͆͆̓̓̓o͆͆͆͆͆͆͆̓o̓̓̓͆̓̓̓͆o̓̓̓͆̓̓̓͆o͆͆͆͆͆͆͆̓o͆͆͆͆͆̓̓̓o̓̓̓̓̓̓̓̓

here's a big A over a bunch of O's over a big C?
HAR!

oh well, it'd be a lot funnier if it were a different member of a certain group.

sam

Filed under: It's Os all the way down

Luhmann

I was wondering how long it would take for this topic to be become unreadable. 8 posts down. That is even sensible.

ben_lubar

It's just perforated.