These scripts generate a large number of simple, visually distinct, open-license images. You can find the ~11,000 output images here, or by using the download link on the right.

Here are some examples of output from version 2 of the generator, which outputs PNG images.

Here are some examples from version 1 of the generator, which outputs vector graphics. These may not display properly if you don't have the right fonts installed.

After watching this video by Matt Parker, I was inspired to make my own version of "Myriad Monomatch" using only open-license images.

Problem: I need over 10,000 such images to make the cards.

Solution: Unicode fonts already contain many visually distinct glyphs. So I multiply several-hundred characters from open-license fonts with a set of backgrounds I made myself.

Varying colors are added as an extra source of visual distinction, but are not themselves used to distinguish between glyphs. That is, there shouldn't a pair of glyphs with the same character and background type, so it should be possible to distinguish between all the images even in black&white. If you find two characters which are too similar to each other (for example, I initially left in both 9 and 6 in the characters list), please let me know under the Issues tab for this project.

All resources in this repo are released into the public domain under CC0 1.0, meaning you can use them in any way you like. Sell them, repost them, remix them, etc. No permission needed. No restrictions whatsoever.

There is no legal obligation to give attribution, but if you make use of these images, a mention and a link would nonetheless be appreciated. Something like the following:

Simple Open Glyph Set made by Robert Winslow https://github.com/RobertWinslow/glyph-generator

• Paul Tol's colorblind friendly color schemes.
• Paul Centore's conversion of Munsell centroids into RGB

The generated svg files for the V1 version depend on the following typefaces to render as intended. The latter 2 fonts are not included in this repo.

• Quivira 4.1, kindly released by Alexander Lange into the public domain
• Ma Shen Zheng, used under the Open Font License
• Computer Modern by Donald Knuth, used under the Open Font License

V2 actually renders the text into an image, so you don't have to have the fonts installed to view the results. I've stuck with public domain fonts as the input for this version, and included these fonts in the repo here, if you'd like to install them and play around with the generator yourself.

In addition to Quivira, V2 also makes use of some goofy public domain fonts by Typodermic Fonts Inc.

There is one font missing from the font folder, though. In reference to this XKCD strip about "capital numbers", I put together my own rendition, which you can see below. But alas, I know very little about font creation tools. And while I was able to just barely mangle another font enough to replace its digits, the resulting file, ComputerMavisSerif-Roman_0.ttf, is currently in too shameful a state to share.