Word Grain guide
Every control
The panel on the right, top to bottom. On a phone it is the sheet at the bottom of the screen; press its bar to open it.
Load and save
Your own picture, the next sample, the build again, and the three saves.
- Your pictureButton
- Opens a PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF or SVG from your device. A drop on the page or a paste does the same. The picture stays in this tab only.
- Try a sampleButton
- Opens the next sample with its own words, rows and tones (→).
- Build againButton
- Builds the picture again, tag by tag (Space).
- PictureButton
- Saves the picture as a PNG (E), 4000 pixels on its long side, in the frame's shape.
- SVGButton
- Saves every tag and word as vector in an SVG, to print at any size.
- TakeButton
- Saves the build as an MP4 at 60 frames a second, with a short hold at the end. The line under Build says how long and how large before you press it.
Words
The box at the top holds your words: commas or lines split them, spaces otherwise, in any language, repeated in order until every tag is filled. Under it, the ready sets and how the words are set.
- SetsPick one
- Puts a ready set of words in the box: Thank you (in many languages), Moon, Elders, Ridge, Stars or Love.
- CapitalsOn or off · starts on
- Sets Latin words in capitals.
- Words on the tagsPick one
- Quiet (as the room opens) sets each word in a shade of its own tag, lighter on dark tags and darker on light ones, so the picture stays whole from afar; Bold sets it in the darkest or lightest ink, whichever reads better.
- FontPick one
- The font for Latin words: Mono, Outfit or Cormorant, loaded from aikizi.com itself. Other scripts use the best font your device has. See advance width.
Picture
Which sample, how the picture is read, and the frame's shape.
- SamplesPick one
- Five portraits by cyberyogi, each with its own words, rows and tones: Elder, Gaze, Gold, Freckles and Frost.
- Auto levelsOn or off · starts on
- Stretches the picture so its darkest and lightest one per cent become black and white. See auto levels and percentile clip.
- Sharpen featuresOn or off · starts on
- Sharpens the picture a little before its tones are found, so eyes, mouths and edges keep their shape.
- FramePick one
- The frame's shape: Picture (the picture's own, as the room opens), 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 or Poster A. The picture fills it, centred. See aspect ratio.
Grain
The shape of the tags, how many rows, how small a tag may be, and the space between tags.
- Tag shapePick one
- The outline of every tag, and each one fits into the next with no gap: Block (as the room opens), Slant, Arrow (a point into a notch), Hex (pointed and notched tags in turn) or Curve (a bulge into a matching hollow). It is drawn the same in the PNG, the SVG and the Take.
- RowsSlider · 24 to 180 · starts at 84
- How many rows of tags, from 24 to 180. More rows give smaller tags and a sharper picture.
- Smallest tagSlider · 0.6 to 5 · starts at 1.2
- The shortest a tag may be, as a share of the row's height. A shorter piece of tone joins the neighbour closest in colour. See tone run.
- GapSlider · 0 to 0.4 · starts at 0.1
- The space around each tag. See gutter.
- Reset grainButton
- Puts Tag shape, Rows, Smallest tag and Gap back to how the picture opened.
Colour
Where the inks come from, how many there are, and what lies under the tags.
- PalettePick one
- From the picture (its own colour groups, as the room opens, see K-means clustering), True colour, or a preset: Ink, Indigo, Forest, Saffron or Night, laid on the picture by lightness.
- InksFilled in by the tool
- The inks in use, darkest first.
- TonesSlider · 2 to 7 · starts at 4
- How many inks, from 2 to 7. See flat tone.
- GroundPick one
- What shows between the tags: Darkest tone (as the room opens), Lightest tone, Black or Paper.
- Reset colourButton
- Puts the palette, Tones, Ground and Words on the tags back to how the picture opened.
Title
Two fields, a title and a small line under it, both empty until you type, and where they sit.
- Title placePick one
- Top, Bottom or Off (as the room opens).
Build
How the tags appear, how long that takes, and the loupe.
- Build orderPick one
- How the tags appear: Tone by tone (darkest first, as the room opens), Reading order (see reading order) or Scatter.
- TimeSlider · 1 to 10 · starts at 3.5
- How long the build takes, from 1 to 10 seconds. A Take is this long, plus a short hold.
- LoupeOn or off · starts on
- Shows the loupe: hover the picture to read the words under the pointer. See loupe.
Reset
- ResetButton
- Puts everything back to how the room opens: Elder, its words and its look (R).