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Alternative Layout System

(alternativelayoutsystem.com)
396 points smartmic | 5 comments | 26 Jun 25 19:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.72s | source
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demetrius ◴[26 Jun 25 23:06 UTC] No.44392318[source]▶
I think "Same Sizer" looks ugly because characters are stretched mechanically, so each line has different width. Ideally, the lines should all keep their widths, and the position should be stretched.

I think a better application of "all words have the same size" principle can be seen in Vietnamese calligraphy, which sometimes combines Latin characters with Chinese-adjacent writing style, e.g. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C4%90%E1%BB%91i_-... (this is written in Latin script split into equal squares)

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1. pavlov ◴[27 Jun 25 09:24 UTC] No.44395239[source]▶
Huh. I would never have noticed that your example image is actually in Latin script.

Because I don't read Chinese, anything that looks enough like Chinese seems to mentally go into the bin of "I can't understand this anyway." (I guess in this case it would help if I knew Vietnamese because then I would recognize familiar words and syllables in this calligraphy.)

Fascinating effect.

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2. yorwba ◴[27 Jun 25 10:45 UTC] No.44395674[source]▶
It does not help that "hoa" is stylized as something resembling の口亽.
3. Scene_Cast2 ◴[27 Jun 25 17:13 UTC] No.44398507[source]▶
I still can't read it despite trying.
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4. demetrius ◴[27 Jun 25 19:07 UTC] No.44399383[source]▶
The page below, in the “Summary” section, has a version in normal font, starting with “Tân niên”

(Also, interestingly, there is a version in Chinese characters. Looks like the whole phrase is a borrowing from Classical Chinese? Probably the readers know the phrase as set expression, so it's easier for them.)

5. jjmarr ◴[27 Jun 25 21:24 UTC] No.44400375[source]▶
I can read Chinese and still cannot process that image as Latin script. They've turned every letter into a Chinese character component. It makes my head hurt.