Ink Weight guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

Why are some of my characters dropped?

A character the font cannot draw, which would show as an empty box (tofu), or a colour emoji carries no ink the tool can measure, so it is dropped. With fewer than three different characters left, the Crow words are used and the line under Words says so. If the device has no font for the script you picked, the line names the script and the Crow words are used.

What does vertical writing change?

The columns run top to bottom, and the columns run right to left, as Japanese is written by hand (tategaki). The .txt has one line per column, the rightmost first, and the SVG keeps the same order.

Can I save it on a clear background?

Yes. Turn on Clear paper: the PNG and the SVG have no paper behind the characters. The checks in the frame only show you where it is clear.

What is the gold character?

The spark: the one brightest cell, drawn with Spark glyph in Spark colour. Turn Spark off to leave it out.

I see boxes instead of characters

A box is a character no font on the device can draw. The tool leaves such characters out of the picture, but a saved SVG or text opened on another computer can show boxes if that computer has no CJK font. Save a PNG when the look must stay the same everywhere. See font fallback.

The picture is lost in the dark

Raise Brightness, or lower Ground so fewer cells are left empty. Invert swaps light and dark, for a picture whose subject is darker than its ground.

It looks crowded or blurred

Lower Columns for fewer, larger characters, or raise Spacing to give each one more room. Haze at 0 clears the ground.

The top and bottom of a tall picture are missing

A very tall picture would make more rows than the tool writes, so it keeps the middle and the line under Layout says the picture is cropped to its middle. Lower Columns, or crop the picture yourself first.

Does it work with Devanagari, Tamil or Latin?

Yes. Pick Devanagari for Sanskrit words, Tamil, Latin or Symbols under Words, or press Your own and type any characters, in any script or a mix. A syllable with its vowel sign is kept whole as one character, and each script has its own serif, sans and mono fonts.

My picture did not open

The tool opens what your browser can show as an image: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP work everywhere. If the browser cannot read a file, a message says so and the picture you had stays.

Copy did nothing

Some browsers do not let a page write to the clipboard, and the tool says Copy failed. Use Save .txt for the text or Save PNG for the picture instead.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. On phones and touch screens Columns opens at 64 and stops at 120, and Size opens at 10. Every set, ink and save stays.

Is my picture uploaded?

No. The picture is written on your device and never leaves it. Your own words are kept in this browser for your next visit, and nowhere else.

The picture does not move

Press Play under Motion, or Space. With reduced motion turned on in your system settings, the picture appears at once instead of settling when it opens; Play and Record video still work.

How long is the video?

One take of the motion, 5 or 10 seconds as Length says, in H.264, the kind phones, Photos and Instagram play. It starts and ends where Play does, so it loops cleanly.