# v2 · kalam

A marker font written out by the engine instead of the photographed line: the same mechanism can write anything, which is what the mind would need later.

## What it does

- Kalam Bold (Google Fonts, OFL) is rasterised in the browser at 180 px, thinned to a skeleton and assembled into strokes by the same engine as v1 (`marker.js`): top left first, straight on through crossings, loops counter-clockwise, stem before crossbar, body before dot, pauses between strokes, letters and words. Nothing about the font is hand-tuned: the letter order and directions come out of the shapes.
- After the title a second line is written smaller in the same hand ("austin · may 3 to 6, 2027") to show the engine writing text it has never seen. `?text=your words` writes anything (one line, up to 60 characters); `?line2=` replaces the second line.
- Sheet, ink filter, grain, replay, `?t=` and reduced motion are the same as v1.

## Why

Kalam was the closest of the Google marker hands to the sketchbook line: a quick print hand with a hooked f and a straight-tailed y. Permanent Marker, the obvious "sharpie font", only has capitals, so it cannot write the lowercase line. Shantell Sans (v3) is the rounder, more designed alternative.

## What it cannot do yet

- A font holds shapes, not pen movements. Letters a hand writes with a lift and a retrace (r, n, m) come out as one continuous stroke here, which reads as a cursive print rather than a lifted print.
- No kerning tricks or ligatures; one line at a time; the engine wraps nothing.