HAL9000 | Studio Studio

^credits

A standalone, single-file browser typography tool built around HAL 9000 — a pixel-block typeface modelled on the grid-based interface graphics of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
^related
Cult.
^{Demo 1}
^{What is this, Dave?}

In 2018 Studio Studio drew HAL9000 for the cover of Cult, the culture supplement of De Morgen, on the fiftieth anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey, modelling the typeface on the grid graphics of the HAL 9000 computer in the film.
The typeface has since become the basis of a browser-based tool. Text is typed onto the same grid Dave was drawn for, where the glyphs remain editable cell by cell and individual letters can be pulled off the flow of the line. Compositions can be exported as SVG, PNG, GIF or MP4.
The tool has a second state in which the text input is replaced by a live webcam feed. Each cell of the grid samples one region of the camera frame and fills, or stays empty, according to its brightness. The grid that once typeset a single line of dialogue now also works as a sampler.

Test the tool on studiostudio.be/hal9000.
^{Demo 2}
^{Demo 3}
^{Demo 4}
^Webcam