# Lo-res magazine generator

Two words of your own, cut into coarse pixels and damaged one letter at a time, over a loose heap of print modules on a cheap, uneven print.

Open the generator: https://morph.ogeny.app/lo-res/

## Design choices

- **Bitmap & pixel** (`type.pixel`): Letters constructed on a pixel grid. Set by “Bitmap & pixel”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/bitmap-and-pixel/
- **Glitch** (`surface.glitch`): Corrupted pixels, scanlines, compression artefacts. Set by “Glitch”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/glitch/
- **Eclectic mixing** (`type.mixed-faces`): Many typefaces and sizes combined in one composition. Set by “Eclectic mixing”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/
- **Horror vacui** (`space.dense`): Every area is filled; abundant, crowded, layered. Set by “Horror vacui”. Measured on the opening picture, from 0 to 1: shapes 145 → 156. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/
- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Monochrome** (`color.monochrome`): A single hue, or black and white. “Limited spot colours”: Black and grey. Measured on the opening picture with “Black and grey”: hues besides black, white and grey 0. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/
- **Dark ground** (`color.dark-ground`): Light elements on black or deep fields. “Limited spot colours”: Negative. Measured on the opening picture with “Negative”: brightness of the ground 0.6%. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/
- **Experimental & distorted** (`type.experimental`): Stretched, fragmented, layered or deliberately hard-to-read letters. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/
- **Type as image** (`type.oversized`): Letters so large they become the picture. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/
- **Collage & layering** (`layout.collage`): Overlapping fragments, cut-outs and stacked planes. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/
- **Broken grid** (`layout.broken-grid`): A grid is implied and then deliberately violated or deconstructed. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/broken-grid/
- **Rules & bars** (`ornament.rules-bars`): Thick bars, lines and dots as structural accents. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/
- **Desktop publishing** (`medium.desktop-publishing`): Early Mac/PC layout, bitmap fonts and PostScript. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/desktop-publishing/

## How it works

- Two words fill the top of the sheet edge to edge, each letter cut from a heavy outline into coarse pixels and given a damage of its own.
- Under them, a loose heap of print modules: flat blocks, screened greys, checkers, stripes, dot grids and rules, in one of seven arrangements.
- The print is uneven: patches of flecks and dry streaks run across the inks, and grey is never flat.

It never does:

- No bitmap font: the steps come from shrinking a heavy outline, so verticals stay long and clean and only curves and diagonals stair.
- No gradients, soft shadows or colour mixing, and no photographs. Colours stay flat, except that a screen can sit over an ink.
- No masthead, logo or layout copied from any real magazine; the words are the only type, with at most a three-line technical colophon.

## Controls

- `first` First word (default "TYPE"): The shorter word on top. Left as “TYPE”, each variation picks its own; type yours to set it, or leave it empty for one word only. Very long words break over two lines.
- `second` Second word (default "ERROR"): The huge word below it. Left as “ERROR”, each variation picks its own; type yours to set it. A short word stands to one side and leaves room for more print.
- `coarse` Bitmap & pixel (0.5–2, default 1): How coarse the pixels are. Letters keep at least five or so across, so they stay letters.
- `damage` Glitch (0–1, default 0.5): How much goes wrong: bands that slip, tears, spikes, squares coming away, and flecks and dry streaks in the print. At 0 the letters are whole and the inks clean.
- `mix` Eclectic mixing (many | two | steps | slip | mosaic | dissolve | scan | eaten | streak; default many): Whether each letter gets a different treatment, two alternate, or one treatment runs through both words.
- `density` Horror vacui (0–1, default 0.5): How full the heap under the words is: at 0 only its main blocks on open ground, at 1 packed with stripes, dots and small squares. Measured on the opening picture, from 0 to 1: shapes 145 → 156.
- `roles` Limited spot colours (spots | one | mono | loud | quiet | negative; default spots): Which ink does what: who gets the letters, the big blocks and the bars. Negative prints the ground in black and the black in the ground colour. Black and grey: Measured on the opening picture with “Black and grey”: hues besides black, white and grey 0. Negative: Measured on the opening picture with “Negative”: brightness of the ground 0.6%.
- `effect` Movement (both | slips | squares | still; default both): What happens in the loop, in hard steps four times a second: bands of letters slip and bars shift, or squares leave the edges and travel. Each loop starts from the same still.

## About Lo-res editorial

When the first desktop computers reached designers in the mid-1980s, screens and printers could only draw in coarse pixels. One strand of editorial design took that as material rather than as a fault: letters built from the grid, many treatments on one page, rules and blocks piled loosely, and little colour beyond black and a spot or two.

This generator cuts each letter from a heavy outline by shrinking it, so verticals stay long and clean and only curves and diagonals stair. Then each letter gets its own damage: bands that slip, squares that come away, scan lines, mosaic, dry streaks, eaten edges. Type any two words: long ones break over two lines, and short ones stand to one side and leave room for more print.

Under the words sits one of seven arrangements of flat blocks, screened greys, checkers, stripes and dot grids, and over everything run hairlines and patches where the ink did not take. In motion it moves in hard steps, four a second: bands slip and return, and squares break away and travel, always back to the same still.

Lo-res editorial in Stylogeny (1984–1998): https://stylogeny.com/styles/emigre/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "lo-res",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 15,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "first": "TYPE",
    "second": "ERROR",
    "coarse": 1,
    "damage": 0.5,
    "mix": "many",
    "density": 0.5,
    "roles": "spots",
    "effect": "both"
  },
  "palette": "emigre"
}
```