Two Slice, a font that's only 2px tall

JdeBP

There's a whole subculture for fonts smaller than 8 by 8, with real world uses for things such as small LED displays, for example. This is at the extreme end, though.

Also https://stormgold.itch.io/picket-right-font

omoikane

I wonder if there are really tiny fonts that make use of color. For example, this 2-pixel wide Picket Right font could theoretically be even thinner if we were to use sub-pixel features.

At least, I think the 2-pixel high Two Slice font can be more legible with a some anti-aliasing.

hdjrudni

> such as small LED displays

The highest DPI screen is 127,000 PPI. You could fit over 14,000 lines of 8x8 text in a single inch tall screen.

For reference, a decent monitor is 140 PPI.

I'm pretty sure we don't need to go below 8x8 if physical size is the issue.

crq-yml

Pad grid controllers like the Novation Launchpad, and its indie, open-source counterpart, Mystrix Pro, have an 8x8 grid. At first this style of controller didn't use any lights, but as the manufacturing and features progressed, they went towards one RGB LED per pad. So, of course, you end up doing some text and graphics on the resulting grid. Mystrix uses a scrolling marquee which isn't ideal, but does get the job done.

And yeah, you could throw on more hardware to have a display nearby and use that for text. That is not the problem being solved though.

iguessthislldo

That one is relatively easier to read, I guess because it looks like normal font that was cut into strips.

malnourish

Thanks for sharing this. I enjoy seeing these cool subcultures; they evoke the hacker ethos.

JohnDeHope

I’m not a hacker but I really appreciate their ethos. It’s like punk. I’m not punk either. But I will defend it all with my dying breathe.

BSOhealth

I love this. It speaks to me in a similar ways as a lot of the AI zeitgeist—why shouldn’t we optimize for how the brain actually operates at scale versus hundreds-years-old ideas about ligatures designed for reading in candlelight? (In the AI case, a romanticism for having to learn and prove memory in such a rote way)

addaon

Capital H is cursed... unconnected pixels, indistinguishable from 'ii' or "II". The concept's cool, but for this one point the wrong choice was made.

PenguinRevolver

Try reading "HiGh sky buys The lies" in the font. Pretty difficult to make out what it says...

jasonjmcghee

I'm more concerned about V X Y all being identical.

How will I know if it's waxy or wavy?

throwaway808081

Like all of language: context.

Why would hair be like 80s synthpop, or potatoes be in any way related to a by-product of honey?

matznerd

okay but what about "c" being nearly the same as "z", neither of which look like the character and are nearly(?) identical. Is our brain supposed to just be able to figure it out?

cal85

yeah I can read it ok

kelvinquee

Love this. Brings so much joy. Try some punctuation. Hilarity ensues.

HN

Two Slice, a font that's only 2px tall

Two Slice, a font that's only 2px tall