Arranging characters partially random on a typographic grid with Processing

Programming Questions

noidsign

Arranging characters partially random on a typographic grid with Processing

in Programming Questions • 2 years ago

Hi everyone,

I wanted to experiment with typography with Processing.

What I wanted to do was to display characters on a grid. The posisioning assign to the characters is defined but not fixed. Let me just show you this image

In this case for example the first J is the first letter of a four letter word. This means that the character can appear in whichever position in the grid but whith these conditions:

1. it should appear in the second or in the third row (now it's in the second)

2. it should not appear in the first or the last column (this should be fairly easy)

3. it should appear in whichever of the other columns but it has to leave room for the following three letters, so it can be displayed only in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th column.

4. it should not appear in the gutters(the smaller columns)

So on for the other letters.

It seems to me that I have to create a two dimensional array populated by objects containing the characters... But I have no clue if this sounds any logic and - if so - how to go on...

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Replies(3)

PhiLho

Re: Arranging characters partially random on a typographic grid with Processing

2 years ago

I cannot infer the conditions you are giving from the starting point. You should express them more rigorously / algorithmically / mathematically.

noidsign

Re: Arranging characters partially random on a typographic grid with Processing

2 years ago

OK, I try to reformulate.

First of all some images as examples

So... this word is "JUAN". Conditions:

the characters should stay only in the pale yellow squares.
the characters should not stay in columns (e.g. the U after the J cannot stay under the J)
it doesn't matter if there are "gaps" within two characters
the first letter doesn't have to apper necessarely on the first column, but it cannot apper after the 4th column: this is a 4 letter word, therefore if it appers after the 4th column there would be a letter overlapping on columns: the following image helps to understand how it SHOULD NOT appear

Hope this help...

PhiLho

Re: Arranging characters partially random on a typographic grid with Processing

2 years ago

Indeed, a two-dimensional array might be a solution to store where the letters are put.
The difficulty is in controlling the randomness to follow the rules (BTW, the first part of 2. is gone).
We can imagine an iterative process. J can have a given probability to be on the first column, a stronger prob. to be on the second, etc., the probability increasing to be of 1 (no uncertainness at all!) for the row NB_OF_ROWS - lengthOfWord.

Your definition is still incomplete, with regard to vertical span: how much letters can go down, can letters of a word go below highest letters of another word, etc.
Rigor in your definitions is part of the analysis of a program, the most important part, actually. If you haven't a clear idea of where to go, you will find harder to go there...

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