Show HN: Word Doodle – A generative engine that turns text into dense doodle art

j-ncel.github.io

2 points

3 months ago

I have always loved the look of dense, hand-drawn doodle sketches. The art that filled every part of a notebook page or paper with words and character drawings. Using word-doodle, I have recreated that feeling, including simulation of the process of filling the page but for text only and also emojis.

How it works: The engine uses a three-step pipeline to transform raw text into art:

1. Frequency Mapping: It analyzes word frequency to determine visual weight of each word.

2. Scaling & Rotation: High-frequency words get bolded and enlarged, with a 15% chance of vertical rotation.

3. Collision Detection: It uses a randomized coordinate generator with a retry loop (up to 70 attempts per word) to pack the canvas as tightly as possible without overlapping.

The Goal:

Beyond just a word cloud, it is something relaxing to watch. It’s built with vanilla JS to keep it lightweight as possible.

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/j-ncel/word-doodle

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