What is IL-VERSE?

IL-VERSE is an experimental visual poetry and typography editor that lets you place letters on a canvas with collision detection. Letters are "dropped" in a chosen direction until they hit other letters, the canvas edge, or the page margins. Rotated glyphs collide correctly along their actual (including diagonal) edges.

Keyboard shortcuts

Navigation

• ←/→/↑/↓ : Move grid cursor
• Shift + ←/→/↑/↓ : Set drop direction

Zoom & pan

• Alt + Scroll : Zoom in/out (centered on cursor)
• Alt + Drag : Pan canvas

Modes

• Cmd/Ctrl + A : Switch between DROP MODE and TYPING MODE

Placing glyphs

• Enter : Drop glyph
• Space : Drop space glyph (TYPING MODE) or select space (DROP MODE)
• Any character : Select glyph (DROP MODE) or drop (TYPING MODE)
• Left Click : Drop glyph at set direction
• Right Click : Place glyph exactly at cursor position
• Backspace : Delete glyph highlighted in green
• Tab : Place space glyph at cursor position

View controls

• Cmd/Ctrl + S : Toggle grid snap
• Cmd/Ctrl + G : Toggle grid visibility
• Cmd/Ctrl + H : Toggle bounding boxes (DROP MODE)
• Cmd/Ctrl + D : Toggle drop animation

Glyph transform

• Cmd/Ctrl + R : Rotate next drop
• Scroll : (When SCROLL TO ROTATE is on) Rotate next drop (hold Shift for 1 degree steps)
• Cmd/Ctrl + F : Flip next drop
• Cmd/Ctrl + M : Mirror next drop

Grid size

• Alt + ←/→ : Decrease/increase grid cell size in horizontal axis
• Alt + ↑/↓ : Decrease/increase grid cell size in vertical axis

Font size & tracking

• Cmd/Ctrl + - : Decrease font size
• Cmd/Ctrl + + : Increase font size
• Cmd/Ctrl + k : Decrease tracking
• Cmd/Ctrl + l : Increase tracking

History

• Cmd/Ctrl + Z : Undo
• Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z : Redo

Loading fonts

• Drag & drop a .otf, .ttf, or .woff/.woff2 file onto the window to load a custom font

Font licenses

The fonts are from the Computer Modern family. The versions included in Il-Verse are from https://checkmyworking.com/cm-web-fonts/, licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1. Download the ZIP from that website to see the OFL license if needed.

Versions used:

• Font 1 = CMU Bright SemiBold
• Font 2 = CMU Typewriter Text Light
• Font 3 = CMU Concrete Roman
• Font 4 = CMU Serif Roman

Output license

You can use files you create with Il—Verse for anything (personal, educational, commercial) except those relating to or containing non-fungible tokens ("NFT"), crypto, web3 or blockchain-related projects.

No attribution required, but if you'd like to:

Created with Il-Verse (https://hlnet.neocities.org/il-verse), a tool made by Heikki Lotvonen (https://heikkilotvonen.com)

Output is provided as-is, no warranty.