Fragmentz Font

Fragmentz is a True Type font which consists of bits and pieces, or fragments of characters rather than whole characters. This gives the user an alphabet of shapes that can be used, "letter" by "letter" to spell a picture. This is a variation on an idea I first played around with several years ago called Tinker Font.

The fragments are all drawn on a grid of fixed points with a spacing of 300 font units. The lines forming the fragments are all 150 font units in thickness. To draw some pictograph (or character from an alphabet or syllabary) begin with an empty grid, like the one shown below, and sketch the desired glyph on the graph.

Next, consult the table of fragments given below and select the keystrokes necessary to draw the image. In this case, the image is drawn with the character string: !KC.g.FNC.g5. The same figure can be drawn upside down with the sequence: 4CL.h.HIC.h*. (I used the curved bottom tails instead of the diagonal lines in the sketch) The resulting figures, as actually displayed with the Fragmentz font looks like this:

Each element is available in every possible vertical location. The elements are grouped in related sets, with the vertical positions assigned bottom to top. For example, the keystrokes a b c d e each draw a short horizontal bar, with a drawing the bar in the bottom location and e drawing the same bar in the top location. The keystrokes A B C D E draw a longer horizontal bar, again, bottom location to top location.

In some of the table entries below the elements are only shown in some of the drawing positions to prevent overlap and clutter in the diagrams. It should be remembered that each element is available in every possible vertical location, even if a particular vertical location is not shown in the diagram.

Keystrokes that draw elements do not advance the cursor. To advance the cursor to the next column in the character block use period (300 font unit advance). The space bar advances to the next full character block, a distance of 600 font units. The cursor can also be advance 1/2 the column width, or 150 font units, using the underscore character. Since each element is drawn with a line 150 font units thick, characters can be drawn which are 450, 750, 1050, 1350, or more units wide. This is equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 4 or more vertical columns in width. A single character might be drawn that is a long composite character spanning an entire line of text, although such an extreme is probably not very useful.

If you decide to add characters to the font, do not assign any element to the character hyphen "-". For some unknown reason, using that character in a string causes Microsoft Internet Explorer to display the font incorrectly. This is the only application I've found so far that won't handle the hyphen properly.

You might notice that some of the elements can be drawn in more than one way. For example, the element I can also be drawn j-k. These elements are provided as shortcut methods for drawing commonly used elements. Character definitions will be shorter when a complete circle can be drawn as O rather than assembly four circular pieces with 5^-2!.

You can download the font here. Once you have downloaded and installed the font, the examples below should display properly. This version of the font was uploaded Dec. 13, 2008, and replaces the earlier version. (The key mappings have been extensively modified from the earlier version, and a problem using the font with Microsoft Internet Explorer has been corrected.)

Since you cannot see what keystrokes you've used when looking at the character string using only the Fragmentz font, it is a good idea to use a word processor with font capabilities for designing glyphs. Keep a copy of the glyph you are working on in an ordinary font, and, on a second line, the way it appears using the Fragmentz font. That way you can cut and paste any corrections or changes from the plain-text line to the display line to see the result.

There are loads of special characters still unassigned in the Fragmentz font, leaving room for many additional fragments or pre-fabricated glyph pieces to be added. If you have any suggestions or ideas for fragments that could be added to the font, please drop me an email with your ideas. Also, I would be pleased to see any online uses you've made of the font.

Take a look at the beginnings of a pictographic language I call PIKTO using this font.
I see a man with a glass of wine: AP.FH nkpm+rt uD.oH.f._AES. zA.wF Eh.hf.hfe.h
He does not see me: uD.oH.f._PJ. nkpm+rt AP.FH
I will take his wine and (then) run away: AP.FH C.zu FHac.!# Eh.hf.hfe.h._t_u.doH.f._aezu gk.Hmcu


1 2 3 4 (bottom to top) (locations 1 and 4 only are shown)	5 6 7 8	! @ # $ (shift 1 2 3 4)	% ^ & *

a b c d e	A B C D E	f g h i	F G H

j k l m	n o p q	r s t	u v w

x y z	I J K	L M N	O P Q

R S T	U V W	X Y Z ; :	( ) [ ]

{ } \ \|	/ ? ~ `