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I think this is the most interesting video in the thread: https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis/status/1438888791905865730

It'd be probably more realistic if it included random noise or used a GAN model to generate a unique looking letter every time.



Hey! Glad you liked that one.

So it does introduce random variation. I had the employee write each letter ~15 times, and then they are plucked at random and then more "wobble" is applied randomly. So each character is slightly altered from what she wrote. Her original stroke actually never shows up anywhere, which is kinda funny to think about.

Letter spacing, word spacing, line spacing (y pos), line starting point (xpos), and baseline drift are all random as well.

I don't know how to write and or use a GAN model so I didn't. Maybe next time!


Really cool. I've seen a lot of handwritten letter writing services, but most lack realistic variations. It's a pretty crowded market, but this definitely has potential as a spin-off service.

Also, thanks for the A in ACCT 229!


Ha! Weird seeing an ACCT 229 student here. You're welcome. Congrats on getting the A!


> Letter spacing, word spacing, line spacing (y pos), line starting point (xpos), and baseline drift are all random as well.

Did you consider varying intraline individual character y pos? The videos look like not.


Yeah, that's the baseline drift I mentioned. The whole line kinda flows on a wavy baseline, like a human does.

It doesn't look like it on the video because we're talking a few millimeters or less. But when you stand back from it you see that the baselines aren't exactly straight.


OK, nice.


Was this custom code that you wrote to do this? Or is this something that we can find out there in the world? I have been working on this off and on for a few years now and I have just not been able to come up with a reliable way to pull this off.

Great work all around!


That's great, I guess you could have a normal printer do the same and make it look like it's handwritten using your method. The only thing left would probably be the pressure applied to the pen while writing if you can vary that.


That only thing left is a pretty big one! We could print it and then apply the pressure with a pen, but at that point I think writing would suffice




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