Phil Plait, the ambigram

[01101001]

I subjected you to some of my ambigram art before, mostly names of some science greats, in the Explain your name topic.

I am pleased to announce that I have created a Plait ambigram.

For background, an ambigram is a word or phrase expressed so that it can be read in more than one way. I like to do rotationally symmetric ambigrams that read the same upside down as they do right side up.

Someone asked if I had read Scott Kim's book, Inversions (available here). Indeed. It's the bible of ambigramming. I highly recommend it, not just for its specific topic of graphical manipulations but also for its insights into creativity and design.

To kick things off, here is a rotationally symmetric ambigram of Phil:


Here are some more given-names ambigrams from my collection [of course, copyrighted; all rights reserved; they are hard work!]:

Anna


Bob


Candy


Dave


George


Jim


Julie


Ken


Michael


Mimi


Molly


Vivian


Will


So, where's Plait? Not yet. It's not ready for publication. I'm still tweaking it -- one-pixel adjustmets, here, there, to improve readablity. I'll unveil it in a couple of days. In the mean time, puzzle lovers might want to try their own versions. See if you come up with a similar solution, or even a better one.

[The Bad Astronomer]

Wow.

Wow.

Now, if you can The Bad Astronomer, I might have a use for it. :-)

[pghnative]

...I'm still tweaking it -- one-pixel adjustmets, ....

Do you have a program that changes the second (symmetric) pixel automatically, or do you have to do that manually?

[mickal555]

Cool you did michael....

[01101001]

...I'm still tweaking it -- one-pixel adjustmets, ....

Do you have a program that changes the second (symmetric) pixel automatically, or do you have to do that manually?

I wish. I think Scott Kim once published a Macintosh program to facilitate ambigramming that might have had that feature. I should look for something like that, or just grit my teeth and write it.

Yeah, due to its rotational symmetery, when you push an ambigram in one place, it pops out somewhere else. That's what makes readability a challenge, for if you change a part so it looks better, its corresponding part might well look worse.

There's nothing like that in the paint programs I use. I just mark the point of symmetry in a project and keep making changes, copying the half I changed, flipping it over and taking a look at the whole result, often rejecting the change. Some of that certainly could be automated.

Incidentally, one thing that I don't think can be automated yet, something many people have suggested, is the part that requires creativity. Many urge that a computer program could just morph and massage opposite ends of a word and get them to look like each other. While something certainly would result, I think it would be hard to have a machine to fully understand readability, what makes letters distinct and equally important what makes them similar. It would be an interesting artificial intelligence problem to render really good ambigrams.

Somewhere on the Web is, or was, an automated ambigrammer, but it was pretty ugly. It simply worked letter-by-letter, just having a table of how every letter could me forced to look like every other letter upside down. The results were... less than pleasing.

I usually have to doodle with a word for many minutes or hours, sometimes mull it over for days, to come up with a good ambigram -- if I even can. Converting it to digital form is just a painful step I do at the end, but sometimes it can take longer than the fun part.

[Nicolas]

I've once written a JAVA prog that automatically draws the other pixel. It wasn't hard at all. I've lost the code though.

[Maksutov]

Great work!

Wait until our third most numerous poster sees her name!

More examples of how skilled the human brain is at picking out patterns and shapes, even when extremely distorted. Its ability to discern all the variations on the basic alphabet has always amazed me. No wonder we often see things that aren't really there, even on Mars. :wink:

[Normandy6644]

I also like how that first "Phil" also looks like "Phd."

[Candy]

Great work!

Wait until our third most numerous poster sees her name!

I'd like to thank the academy..

[Maksutov]

I also like how that first "Phil" also looks like "Phd."

Yeah, that is nice. For some reason the first thing it reminded me of was

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BTW, research into Phil's middle initial (it's "C" not "H", darn, as documented on the second page of a certain book) led me to this page. Phil's doing great work, but something has to be done about that "NASA E/PO Education Resource Director" acronym!

[The Bad Astronomer]

That acronym was chosen on purpose. 8)

[Maksutov]

OK, you got your revenge!

[sarongsong]

...Wait until our third most numerous poster...

Aha...a Candygram! =D>

[01101001]

Phil's doing great work, but something has to be done about that "NASA E/PO Education Resource Director" acronym!

Sometimes, an ambigram doesn't take very long to do.

Nerd

[lyford]

That acronym was chosen on purpose. 8)

Yes, but I swear that pic sure makes it look like you have a giant earring (xmas ornament, I know, but still....) Would a true NERD be so stylish?



Or was that pic chosen on purpose too?

[Amadeus]

Ha!

Take that, Da vinci code!
Lost secrets indeed!

[Argos]

Beautiful art. Very cool. Congrats. :wink:

[mickal555]

Awesome btw

[Candy]

Phil's doing great work, but something has to be done about that "NASA E/PO Education Resource Director" acronym!

He used this for the AstroFest, too! :P

[lyford]

oh and i forgot - great stuff 01101001!

I like dave and george the best since the look like "normal" script, and then reveal their secrets later!

[A Thousand Pardons]

Sometimes, an ambigram doesn't take very long to do.

I thought I'd try it with Milli, and it was fast:

so I tried it with Pardons, but I used my left hand. It didn't come out so well:

[Kebsis]

Do Kebsis! Do Kebsis!

[jfribrg]

Have you ever seen an ambigram for dyslexic?

[lyford]

so I tried it with Pardons, but I used my left hand. It didn't come out so well:

Now practice it a THOUSAND TIMES!!!! :wink:

Have you ever seen an ambigram for dyslexic?

Or an ambigram of a palindrome? *pop*

[01101001]

Have you ever seen an ambigram for dyslexic?

Or an ambigram of a palindrome? *pop*

I think Scott Kim's book, Inversions, has an ambigram of either dyslexic or dyslexia. It had mirror symmetry, reading the same left to right as right to left.

Ambigrammed palindromes tend to be strings of letters that themsleves, individually, have, or can be made to have, symmetry. Madam, I'm Adam is an example.

Oh, I found the automatic ambigram generator, Ambigram-matic, that I spoke of earlier. They have Able was I ere I saw Elba some ways down their main page. It lacks a certain something -- like having the result seem all of the same font/face.

At work, I have a gallery of my ambigrams posted on the wall. On several occasions, I received what I consider my highest compliment, from people who didn't understand what they were seeing: "Hmm, interesting collection of fonts." That elates me.

[George]

George

Cool 8).

Thanks.

Hmmm....but, how do I know wether I am upside-down or not? :wink:
It's like lookin in a mirror and wondering what he's thinkin? #-o

[Candy]

What's a goopsod? :wink:

[Maksutov]

George

Cool 8).

Thanks.

Hmmm....but, how do I know wether I am upside-down or not? :wink:
It's like lookin in a mirror and wondering what he's thinkin? #-o

It all depends on what kind of reference frame you're dragging with you.

[Maksutov]

What's a goopsod? :wink:

It's where they grow the plants that are used to produce this stuff:

[mickal555]

kebsis:
there you are

I'm lucky in that my first name is the same length as my last name:

Michael
Scotson

So I could get michael and flip it into Scotson