@lexiconlang/glyphs

New in v0.3

Deterministic visual writing systems. Render conlang names as SVG runes, Unicode ideograms, or Canvas drawing instructions — driven by the same seeded RNG as the names themselves.

pnpm add @lexiconlang/glyphs

See the glyph system guide for concepts and recipes.

Main API

function glyphsFor(
  name: TranslatedName,
  system: VisualGlyphSystem,
  ctx: Context,
): GlyphSet;

Returns a GlyphSet matching the system's mapping strategy:

interface GlyphSet {
  phonetic?: Glyph[];     // for "phoneme" strategy
  conceptual?: Glyph[];   // for "morpheme" strategy
  holistic?: Glyph;       // for "holistic" strategy
}

interface Glyph {
  id: string;
  meaning?: string;
  svg?: string;                              // for SVG renderer
  unicode?: string;                          // for Unicode renderer
  canvasInstructions?: CanvasInstruction[];  // for Canvas renderer
}

Renderers

Direct access to the three renderers if you want to render without going through glyphsFor:

Function	Signature
generateShapes	(complexity, ctx): ShapeParams[] — deterministic procedural shapes
renderToSVG	(shapes, params?): string — compact inline SVG
renderToCanvas	(shapes, params?): CanvasInstruction[] — replayable drawing instructions
renderToUnicode	(meaning, config?): string — Unicode character lookup with fallback
executeCanvasInstructions	(ctx2d, instructions): void — replay instructions on a real Canvas

Built-in Unicode registry

UnicodeRegistry is a base mapping of common meanings → Unicode characters (strong → 💪, fire → 🔥, stone → 🪨, …). Cultures can override or extend it via unicodeMappings.

Determinism

Same seed → byte-identical glyphs across machines, runs, and library versions. Tested with golden snapshots in the package's test suite.

Performance

• SVG: ~2–5 ms / glyph
• Unicode: <0.1 ms / glyph
• Canvas: ~1–2 ms / glyph

20-glyph page renders comfortably under the 200 ms target.