×5 (pronounced Times Five) is an experimental typeface, based on a 5 by 5 (pixel) grid/matrix that repeats itself. It behaves like a fractal in a sense, and could be considered an ambigram.

This simple principle turns out to be enough to represent the Latin alphabet, Arabic numerals, and most common punctuation marks, arithmetic operators, as well as some basic geometric shapes.

Other writing systems like Arabic, Cyrillic, and Hebrew would be impossible to encapsulate in a meaningful way, but this system does open up some other possibilities. These possibilities fall into two groups: Non-standard (mostly ligatures, monograms, and symbols that do not have a Unicode assigned, usually displayed in red), and algorithmic (where extra layers of logic are introduced in the construction of glyphs, usually displayed in blue).

This type system was designed and developed by ACJ in his spare time, while studying (Typo)graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.

Base

! " # $ % ' ( ) + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ { | } ~ ° ± · ÷ ‡ … ₿ ∴ ∵ ∞ ⋮ ⌂ ⏏ ⏸ ⏻ ■ □ ⒣ ▬ ▭ ▮ ▯ ▲ △ ▴ ▶ ▷ ▼ ▽ ◰ ◱ ◲ ◳ ◀ ◁ ◆ ◇ ◢ ◣ ◤ ◥ ◫ ◻ ☉ ☰ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☷ ♡ ♥ ✝ 𓃑 22 ACJ AF Hb LE code Plus Plus Feed Glider .notdef T-over-H Uni x5 Blinker Toad n Circle² ΤΤΤ Network WiFi Battery Identicon Custom rand()

Second power

! " # $ % ' ( ) + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ { | } ~ ° ± · ÷ ‡ … ₿ ∴ ∵ ∞ ⋮ ⌂ ⏏ ⏸ ⏻ ■ □ ⒣ ▬ ▭ ▮ ▯ ▲ △ ▴ ▶ ▷ ▼ ▽ ◰ ◱ ◲ ◳ ◀ ◁ ◆ ◇ ◢ ◣ ◤ ◥ ◫ ◻ ☉ ☰ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☷ ♡ ♥ ✝ 𓃑 22 ACJ AF Hb LE code Plus Plus Feed Glider .notdef T-over-H Uni x5 Blinker Toad n Circle² ΤΤΤ Network WiFi Battery Identicon Custom rand()

Third power

! " # $ % ' ( ) + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ { | } ~ ° ± · ÷ ‡ … ₿ ∴ ∵ ∞ ⋮ ⌂ ⏏ ⏸ ⏻ ■ □ ⒣ ▬ ▭ ▮ ▯ ▲ △ ▴ ▶ ▷ ▼ ▽ ◰ ◱ ◲ ◳ ◀ ◁ ◆ ◇ ◢ ◣ ◤ ◥ ◫ ◻ ☉ ☰ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☴ ☵ ☶ ☷ ♡ ♥ ✝ 𓃑 22 ACJ AF Hb LE code Plus Plus Feed Glider .notdef T-over-H Uni x5 Blinker Toad n Circle² ΤΤΤ Network WiFi Battery Identicon Custom rand()

Higher powers

Installation

Composer

composer require acj/x5

git

git clone https://github.com/acjbizar/x5.git

Usage

HTML

<!-- Display letter A in size 3, with transparent background. -->
<img alt="" src="https://x5.acjs.net/images/x5-n3-u0041-t.png">

Where n3 represents the size (as in number of iterations), u0041 represents the unicode for the letter A, and -t represents an optional transparent background flag.

PHP

// Display letter A in size 3, with transparent background.
$x5 = new Acj/X5(0x0041);
$x5->setPower(3);
$x5->setTransparent(true);
echo $x5;

Applications

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