METABOLTongue

A rose is a rose is a rose?
Type and see the text change into alphabets that can't be read — shape carries the message instead of letters. Explore the message by changing variables; typeface, layers, colours, backgrounds, patterns, movement, blending modes. Build constructions or leave them the way they are. The image is the message now.

Project

Your project is automatically saved in this browser. Save as a file to keep several projects or continue on another computer.

Format

Decide the canvas size. "Free mode" grows with the content. A fixed format locks the canvas to exactly that size — text wraps to fit, and whatever doesn't fit gets clipped.

Text

Enter finishes the text and starts a new, independent layer. Shift+Enter breaks the line within the same layer.

Layers

Font

Without a selection, the font applies to the whole text. With a selection, only the selected characters change — so you can mix several fonts in the same layer.

56

With a selection, only the selected characters' size changes, independently of each other — so a few words can be bigger or smaller than the rest. Without a selection, the size changes for the whole active layer (same as "Size" under Layout).

Selection

Nothing selected — click, shift-click for more, or drag a selection in empty space.

Scales the whole selection (characters and/or shapes together) around its own center point — the rest of the composition stays put.

Shapes

Simple geometric objects. Added to the active layer — hidden, locked, and deleted together with that layer. Click and drag to move, just like characters.

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110
6
6

Color

The background can be solid, a gradient with three colors, or your own uploaded image — e.g. a previous PNG export you want to use as a fixed backdrop.

No image chosen.

The image is scaled to always cover the whole canvas (cropped if needed, never stretched) and saved embedded in the project. It's automatically shrunk on upload so the project file doesn't get unnecessarily large.

Applies to the active layer — so different layers can have different text colors. Mycelium and Metabol only. Organism and Gradient keep their own gradient colors and can't be changed.

Layout

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Applies to the active layer — so different layers (e.g. a heading and a body text) can have different sizes.

Random & position

Applies only to selected characters if something is selected, otherwise the whole active layer.

Effects

Knob
4
Knob
12
56
56
0
0

Width/Height/X/Y control the halftone box by hand — from the small box it starts as, up to the whole canvas. "Fit to content" reverts to the box automatically following the layer's text/shapes.

Knob
100%

Blend mode — controls how the layer's characters/shapes blend with what's underneath, where they overlap.

8

Motion

5

Loops continuously but rests 2 seconds in its original form between each movement. Freeze pauses the motion exactly where it is right now — SVG/PNG export then takes a snapshot of that pose instead of the resting form.

Pattern

3
3
10
6
10

Repeat, kaleidoscope, and mirror fill the view with copies of the composition. You can still select and drag characters as usual — the other copies update automatically.

Export

Filename for SVG, PNG, and video export. An empty field gives the default name.

Exports every filled shape (Metabol, Organism, Gradient, ellipses/rectangles/polygons) as outlines instead of a fill. Mycelium is already line-based and exports unchanged.

SVG and PNG are exported without a background — just characters and shapes, ready to place on top of something else. Video export (WebM) always keeps the background, since that format doesn't support transparency.

Records the active animation for 6 seconds. Requires "Animate" to be turned on to become an actual moving file.