Can I make a monospace font with just nine shapes?

You have to put a ` between every character and start every other line with a `, for example:

A` `q`u`i`c`k` `b`r`o`w`n` `f`o`x` `j`u`m`p`s`
`o`v`e`r` `t`h`e` `l`a`z`y` `d`o`g`.` `S`p`h`i`n`
x` `o`f` `b`l`a`c`k` `q`u`a`r`t`z` `j`u`d`g`e` `
`m`y` `v`o`w`.` `A`b`o`u`t` `s`i`x`t`y` `c`o`d`
f`i`s`h` `e`g`g`s` `w`i`l`l` `m`a`k`e` `a` ` `
`q`u`a`r`t`e`r` `p`o`u`n`d` `o`f` `v`e`r`y` ` `
f`i`z`z`y` `j`e`l`l`y`.` `G`r`u`m`p`y` `w`i`z`
`a`r`d`s` `m`a`k`e` `t`o`x`i`c` `b`r`e`w` `f`o`r
t`h`e` `e`v`i`l` `Q`u`e`e`n` `a`n`d` `J`a`c`k`.
`N`e`w` `f`a`r`m`h`a`n`d` `p`r`o`v`e`s` `s`t`r`o
n`g` `b`u`t` `l`a`z`y`,` `p`i`c`k`i`n`g` `j`u`s`
`t` `s`i`x` `q`u`i`n`c`e`s`.` `C`r`a`z`y` `F`r`e
d`r`i`c`k`a` `b`o`u`g`h`t` `m`a`n`y` `v`e`r`y`
`e`x`q`u`i`s`i`z`i`t`e` `o`p`a`l` `j`e`w`e`l`s`.`

In the future we will have metadata attached to each letter. Metadata will also indicate the ordinal letter order of each word. And wrapping will start lines with the space rather than today where the space is on the end of the previous line.

From top to bottom, I have included a 'future' letter category, Morse code, the letter and some letter width data, unicode bits, and the letter beginning along with case.

Big Brother is watching you. Or maybe space aliens?

Another attempt to make a readable font narrower than Arial Narrow. I am basing the letters on ovals now, to try to make them easier for my eyes to deal with at small sizes. Works well at size 9. Arial Narrow is still better than this at size 8.

A font designed for small sizes. Blockle is my most readable text font yet.

This font atempts to represent letters that look like what is called the "God's Eye" yarn project for children, which has to do with winding colorful yarn around two crossed sticks. I've decided to double the size so that the X and T have the same internal dimensions.

This started out as an attempt to make a Courier with vertical as well as horizontal serifs. Why do so many of my fonts look like a pirate made them?

I went and mangled Spelunker by Zephram. I am messing with the shapes of the spaces between the letters. The name of the font indicates that most of the letters are wearing bell bottoms.

I have changed the name. It looks sort of piratey and sort of painted. It looks sort of like letters painted upon a piece of cloth - a pirate flag. The letters look a little choppy and drawn as if drawn on fabric. Uses the new half-arcs.

Each letter has a width inverse to its frequency in English.

This is the 7/6 block version. I've been liking this weight for programming at size 8.

Friendly Geek:
 Good for...
  - Labels
  - Upper case
  - Code
  - Table cells
  - Outlines
  - Display
  - Printing
  - Informality

 Not Good for...
  - Normal Text
  - Sentences
  - Formality
 
 Sometimes Good, Sometimes not...
  - For each display screen size, one or two weights work well

I have changed the 'h' and the '+' to work better for programming. Changed the 'F' to make it more clearly different from the 'f'. Before it was looking a little bit like lower case somehow.

Friendly Geek is the regular version of Friendly Geek Light. Its widths are all 6/6 block rather than 4/6 block. The outlines of the glyphs have generally been left the same, with the insides being filled with 2/6 extra width.

Here is my fourth attempt to make a narrow font that accentuates diagonals. It seems to be a good programming font at size 10. It makes it surprisingly easy to read upper case consonant names.

Design is as follows:

Monospaced of course, because code pretty much requires this. Code fonts are built for both reading and editing, and when some letters are very narrow like the i and l in most fonts, that makes them very hard to select with a mouse and therefore very hard to edit and makes these fonts very hard to use for programming. In addition block cut and paste is important for programming and monospaced is required to do this easily.

Small sizes need to be easily readable. Sometimes you need to be able to see a lot of code on one screen.

Two Dimensional - designed for two dimensional grid-like work such as spread sheets and programming. Lines to draw reader's attention vertically are preferred over lines to draw reader's attention horizontally (as in most fonts). That makes this font more difficult for reading text and less difficult for reading code.

Glyphs are wide in the center of each letter so that diagonals and crossbars are easy to see, and narrow toward the top and bottom so that the characters pull away from each other and are easy to tell apart.

Bodies of the lower case letters are made relatively tall so they are easy to read in code, yet maintaining a clear difference between the height of the lower case and upper case characters - very important.

From top to bottom: 2 blocks upper diacritics, 1/6 block space, 2 blocks stems and upper case, 5.5 blocks lower case body, 1/3 block space, 2 blocks lower diacritics.

Clear distinctions exist among the members of each of the following groups of glyphs: ({[  ])}   Il1  aes   Ss56$   Zz217?   `'   .,   uUvV   coCO0D   pP   ;:   ~-  to help tell exacty what each glyph is. This is critical in programming.

Numbers are really large. It doesn't hurt at all for numbers to stand out in programming. This is ok because numbers never have diacritics. The 7 has a bit of a scoop so it does not look like a 2 when underlined.

Vertical alignment - The pairs {}  ()  and []  line up precisely vertically.

The dots are large and distinct so they show up easily in code.

Large numeric 'operators' +-/\%^~=* are easy to read in code.

At least one block touches the right edge in each glyph so that Visual Studio can figure out what's going on. This also means that many glyphs do not touch the left edge and some narrow puctuation glyphs have a tiny extra block off on the right edge.

Floating a little bit above the zero line helps in dealing with underlines.

Avoids horizontal strokes to reduce problems with pixelation at various sizes in various programming tools.

Sans Serif (mostly) so that you can cram glyphs together more tightly.

Also:

Diacritics have lots of space since the area above and below the capitals is more than 2 blocks, so they can be added later on.

Looks scripty - There is a bit of a scripty thing going on because of the wide bases for the lower case i and l, so this is enhanced a bit in the I, J, S, U, Z, f, t, u, z and s.

Narrow enough to be mistaken for an informal text font although since it is designed for two dimensional work, simple lines of text are not that easy to read.

A little too thin - A little bit too thin to be easy to read on a pixelated screen below size 10, although it does print very nicely, so I am labeling this Friendly Geek Light, and I am building a Regular and a Bold font also.

Recent Changes:

Made the 'h' lean to the right to distinguish from the 'b'. Straightened out the '+'. Made the 'F' drop below the rest of the upper case to make it look less like an 'f'. Heightened the 'v' to make it smoother.