How This Site Works

The text styles

Each text style has a map from the letters and digits you type to Unicode characters. Tests check every character of every map against the Unicode Character Database, version 16.0.0: that it is assigned, that it sits in the expected block and that it carries the expected name, with the expectations written from the Unicode data, not copied from the maps.

The program that puts your text into a style is checked with awkward input in every style: emoji made of several code points, combining marks, line breaks, other scripts and very long text.

The symbol lists

Each list on the symbol pages is made by a program from a written rule: conditions on the Unicode names, blocks, general categories and properties of characters, not a list of characters picked by hand. Where the words of a rule also take in a character named for something else, that character is left out by hand, each with its reason written down. Each page states its rule.

A test checks each rule against an expectation written from the Unicode names, and another checks that each published list equals a fresh run of the program.

The cursive letter drawings

The drawings on the cursive letter pages are outlines that a program in the site's code takes from one handwriting font with an open licence. The font file is not part of the site and is not sent to your browser; a check of the built site fails if it is. The font is named and credited on that page.

The words drawn on each letter page come from a published word list, also credited there, by a fixed rule in the code, with a short list of words left out by hand, each with its reason.

The text you type

What you type into a box here is turned into styles inside your browser. The script that does it makes no network request at all, so the text goes nowhere else. A test runs the built script on each kind of page that has a box and fails if it sends anything.