dotsies is here. That says "dotsies is here". Dotsies is a font that uses dots instead of letters. The latin alphabet (abc...) was created thousands of years ago, and is optimized for writing, not reading. About time for an update, no? Dotsies is optimized for reading. Follow me on twitter for periodic tips on learning it (it's not that hard) or to tell me what you think.
Since latin letters (a, b, c, etc.) are optimized to be written by hand, they take up a lot of unnecessary space. Your eyes have to move at a frantic pace from left to right to read. The letters in Dotsies words smoosh together, so words look like shapes! Get more screen space! Save paper. Have a more comfortable reading experience.
Drag this link to your browser's toolbar to create a bookmarklet: dotsies
Then click the bookmarklet whenever you want to make a web page you're looking at use the Dotsies font.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o |
| 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 |
| p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
It is significantly more horizontally condensed than normal fonts, letting about twice as much fall within the area of your field of vision that perceives fine detail. As to overall space efficiency in practice, the jury is still out. That won't be apparent until many people have spent time acclimating to it. (Think how you began with large letters when you learned to read, but then preferred smaller typefaces after some time.) It is hoped it will eventually be legible by people when taking up half as much space. Imagine your phone having twice the screen space! Here's this paragraph repeated in dotsies for comparison:
It is significantly more horizontally condensed than normal fonts, letting about twice as much fall within the area of your field of vision that perceives fine detail. As to overall space efficiency in practice, the jury is still out. That won't be apparent until many people have spent time acclimating to it. (Think how you began with large letters when you learned to read, but then preferred smaller typefaces after some time.) It is hoped it will eventually be legible by people when taking up half as much space. Imagine your phone having twice the screen space! Here's this paragraph repeated in dotsies for comparison:
It's easier than you think. There are only 26 letters. Numbers and punctuation aren't altered. You've probably learned more than 26 things in a single hour-long class or lecture. It takes only about 20 minutes at memorize.com/dotsies to get them into your short term memory. Skip the next episode of Glee and test your mental acuity!
You'll be very slow at first, but will noticeably speed up over time. As you progress, words start to look like shapes, or even letters ("the" is the). It'll be fun!
Read the tutorial below, or go to Ways to learn and pick the one that seems like the most fun. If you think Dotsies has potential, tell the world!
links:
Ways to learn
Download the font
Use as web font
What people are saying
Inspiration for the name
experimental:
Script version
Design your own
Type with 5 keys
hi there!
can you read this?
if you can read this, keep going.
this section gradually teaches you to read dotsies.
the dotsies font is made out of only dots.
here are some words in dotsies: nice job.
move your mouse over or touch the light underline to see what they say.
from here on out, some letters will be in dotsies.
move your mouse over or touch their underlines when you need to.
if you can get all the way to the bottom, you'll be reading the dotsies font.
believe it or not, you've already made a lot of progress!
you are on your way to doing what only a few people have done.
the top dot means an a, right? let's take them away.
and the bottom dot is an e, so let's hide them too.
these gray underlines are getting cluttered, so let's remove them.
you can still move your mouse under or touch the letters to expose them.
the most common consonant is the t. goodbye t.
ok, we've gotten rid of the three most common letters.
the fourth most common letter is the o.
if you got this far you are doing really well!
only two more, and half of all the letters will be hidden!
that's because the six most common letters occur half the time.
letters i and n are next. that wasn't too bad, right?
here are a great couple lines from steve jobs:
"life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact; that everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you.
the minute you understand that, you can poke life; you can change it, you can mold it, embrace it, make your mark upon it."
let's remove some of the mouseover hints, before adding letters.
you probably know a, e, and o pretty well, so no more hints for them.
also, i is pretty easy and looks like an i, so no hints for i now.
you are doing very well if you've gotten this far.
let's do no more t hints. t is everywhere.
if we do no n hints, we can move onto more letters.
this could be a good time to go to memorize.com/dotsies.
or, if you're enjoying just reading this way, that's good also.
s is the next letter. it is an easy one.
it looks like a small snake. see how it sits in the middle.
letter h is after s on the frequency list.
h is harder than s but is higher than i.
did i mention you are doing fantastically well?
only two more, and about three fourths will be dotsies!
r kind of looks like an r, with the hole at the top.
r is not rare so don't error when reading it.
d is a dot above the e, of course.
indeed, d was added under the middle.
Great job so far! Tweet me at @DotsiesFont and tell me your thoughts! If you want to continue with something a little less intense, try reading a story here. Or, if you are enjoying the tutorial, continue on:
excellent, that takes care of three fourths of letters.
after the next group we'll be at about ninety percent!
now do the first two tables on memorize.com/dotsies.
do the sixth and seventh tables too, since they correspond.
that should help you be comfortable with the first ten letters.
now we can start turning some hints off.
let's remove s because it's so simple.
now so long to h hints for now.
only two more left, and we're at seventy five percent.
r has the hole at the top, so let's remove it.
and d is the single dot, so let's delete its hints.
wow, now three fourths of the letters are dotsies.
that is fantastic! be sure to tell us on twitter.
it is down hill from here.
do the third table on memorize.com/dotsies.
that way we can add the next five all at once.
they are l, c, u, m and w.
ok, so how is this? you're now up to ninety percent!
the last eleven letters are used surprisingly rarely.
the last six are only used two percent of the time.
some have argued they should be removed from the alphabet.
let's see where we are now: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
not bad! you are doing splendidly if you're reading this!
reach around to your back and give yourself a good pat.
or maybe even a quick massage.
ok, stop massaging yourself. hints off!
we'll do the next two tables quickly.
once you know most of the letters you can often guess the rest.
now go to memorize.com/dotsies and do the fourth table.
the letters are f, g, y, p and b.
they're off now, but it doesn't look much different, eh?
it's truly down hill now. only one more group after this.
i'm going to turn the hints off in a moment.
are you ready? the letters in that group were so rare anyway.
ok, the hints are off again.
now, onto the very last group!
go to memorize.com/dotsies. and do the last table.
letters v, k, j, x, q and z are now dotsified!
that means every single letter is dotsified and you're a friggin expert :).
if you didn't notice, check out the "combine" link on memorize.com.
you can use it to do all the tables at once.
ok, hints are now off for the last group!
this is the full dotsies font without the hints!
you may notice that it's no longer stretched out as well.
the dots are very close to squares.
and here it is a bit smaller. congrats - well done! this makes you one of a pretty select group. chat with us on twitter!
How far did you get? Tweet me at @DotsiesFont and tell me what you think! Maybe try reading a story. Or see How to Learn.