Ambigram Generators

Welcome to the ambigram generator comparison page.  Here we will compare all of the paid and free methods of creating an ambigram that exist today, look at their output, and consider the pros and cons of each.

Creating an ambigram generator is a huge task, which explains why not many organizations are jumping at the chance to build one. Doing the job “right” literally requires years and years of work to develop the logic to assemble the letter sequences, create the design and save the output.  The instant output from an ambigram generator makes it look easy, but it is much more difficult than it seems.

In fact, there have only been two attempts at building a computerized tool to create ambigrams: the “Ambimatic” and the “Ambigram Generator” offered from Glyphusion.  Any other software (especially a download) that claims to be able to create ambigrams is a scam, and is most likely a virus, a trojan or some other form of malware.  Do not download any ambigram creator software, or programs that claim to be a download of an “ambigram generator”.  We can assure you that if any new free ambigram creation software becomes available, Ambigram.com will know about it very quickly (and we will update this page if legitimate ambigram creation software becomes available).

To be safe, only trust an ambigram generator that works “on-line”, over the Internet, with no software download required.

Ambigram Creator Comparison

This article will take a detailed look at the two ambigram creation tools that exist today, compare how they work, go into the pros and cons of each, and perform a test ambigram using the words “dream” and “magic” to see how well they perform.

The “Ambimatic”

Also called the “Ambigram-matic”, the Ambimatic was the first ambigram generator, and was released here at ambigram.com in 1996.  It can still be found (and used) here: www.ambigram.com/matic.

How it works.

The Ambimatic relies on inverting one letter of the alphabet to another, so the two input words must be the same length (or be the same word).  There are (26*27)/2 = 351 letter combinations available, so there are no holes or gaps in the letter set.  In other words, every two words of the same length can always be made into an ambigram, and by extension, every word can be made into an ambigram of itself.

The results

Although the Ambimatic will always always produce some result if a word is inverted to itself, the fact that most letters do not naturally invert well to other letters makes the output inconsistent at best.  Picture inverting an “x” to an “o” (totally different shapes), or an “i” to an “m” (totally different lengths) and you get the idea.  You may get lucky and happen to choose a word that is close to a natural ambigram (like “suns”), but most of the time the output from this ambigram generator will be difficult to read.

Test Case

We put the Ambimatic through the “dream / magic” test case, and scaled the output to exactly 200 pixels wide.

Here is the result.

Ambimatic Pros and Cons

Pros

• Will always produce some sort of output from any two words of the same length (including the same word to itself)
• The only free ambigram generator

Cons

• Can not create ambigrams of two words of differing lengths
• In the best case scenario, the words may be readable, but not necessarily pleasing.  In the worst case scenario, the output is completely illegible

The Ambigram Generator from Glyphusion

The ambigram generator offered through Glyphusion was released more than 12 years after the Ambimatic.  This ambigram generator was developed over a span of two years in 2007 and 2008 (and revised in 2009 and 2010) by programmer Mark Hunter and licensed to Glyphusion, and uses artwork licensed from ambigram artist Mark Palmer.

How it Works

The ambigram generator offered through Glyphusion uses software logic to create ambigrams of words that differ in length, and creates ambigrams as vector designs, which allows them to scale perfectly and position much more cleanly than the Ambimatic.  Interestingly, it will not always be able to create an ambigram of two words, even if they have the same length.  Even if two words have the same length and an ambigram is produced, they will not necessarily line up letter-by-letter (as our test case shows)

The Results

Since the ambigram generator offered through Glyphusion is very sophisticated about ambigram creation, it will not be able to produce an ambigram of any two arbitrary words (even if they have the same length).  However, its success rate is very high, and the algorithms that it uses ensures that the ambigrams that it does create are usually vastly superior to the results obtained from the Ambimatic.

Test Case

We put the ambigram generator offered through Glyphusion through the “dream / magic” test case, and scaled the output to exactly 200 pixels wide.

Here is the result.

As you can see, letters are combined where the ambigram generator offered through Glyphusion feels necessary to produce the most aesthetically pleasing output, which is far more complicated than a simple letter inversion tool.

Glyphusion Pros and Cons

Pros

• Can create ambigrams of differing lengths (like “better” and “man”)
• The results are aesthetically pleasing, and in many cases so legible that you may not know that the design is an ambigram at first.

Cons

• May not produce a design if the generator does not feel that the output would be up to its quality standards
• Not a free ambigram generator (but well worth the money for a polished design that would take a day to do by hand)

Many people come to this page looking for a high-quality and free ambigram generator.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing due to the amount of work involved to create high-quality ambigram generator software.

You can learn more about these two tools at their respective web sites:

• Ambimatic – www.ambigram.com/matic
• Glyphusion – www.glyphusion.com

Want to share your own experiences with either (or both) of these tools?  Feel free to comment below.