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Ambigram

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A mirror-image ambigram for the word "Wiki"
A rotational ambigram for the word "Wikipedia"
A 3-Dimensional ambigram of the letters A, B and C.

An ambigram, also sometimes known as an inversion, is a graphical figure that spells out a word not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation.

Douglas R. Hofstadter describes an ambigram as a "calligraphic design that manages to squeeze two different readings into the selfsame set of curves." The first published reference to the term was by Hofstadter, who attributes the origin of the word to a friend. The 1999 edition of Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Gödel, Escher, Bach features a 3-D ambigram on the cover.

Ambigram types

Ambigrams usually fall into one of several categories:

Rotational
A design that presents several instances of words when rotated through a fixed angle. This is usually 180 degrees, but rotational ambigrams of other angles exist, for example 90 or 45 degrees. The word spelled out from the alternative direction(s) is often the same, but may be a different word to the initially presented form. A simple example is the lower-case abbreviation for "Down", dn, which looks like the lower-case word up when rotated 180 degrees.
Mirror
A design that can be read when reflected or viewed through a mirror, usually as the same word or phrase both ways, but not always.
Figure-ground
A design in which the spaces between the letters of one word form another word.
Chain
A design where a word (or sometimes words) are interlinked forming a repeating chain. Letters are usually overlapped meaning that a word will start partway through another word. Sometimes chain ambigrams are presented in the form of a circle.
Space-filling
Similar to chain ambigrams, but tile to fill the 2-dimensional plane.
3-dimensional
A design where an object is presented that will appear to read several letters or words when viewed from different angles. Such designs can be generated using constructive solid geometry.
Perceptual shift
A design with no symmetry but can be read as two different words depending on how the curves of the letters are interpreted.
Natural
A natural ambigram is a word that possesses one or more of the above symmetries when written in its natural state, and requiring no typographic styling. For example the words "dollop", "suns" and "solos" are natural rotational ambigrams. The word "bud" forms a natural mirror ambigram when reflected horizontally.

Ambigrams are exercises in graphic design that play with optical illusions, symmetry and visual perception. Ambigram lovers value especially those with a relation between form and content.

Ambigrams feature prominently in Dan Brown's novel, Angels and Demons, of which the first UK release featured an ambigram of the title on the cover. The ambigrams in the novel were designed by graphic artist John Langdon. Since the release of the bestseller sequel The Da Vinci Code, there has been a marked increase in the popularity and awareness of ambigrams, and this has led to a reprint of John Langdon's book on ambigrams entitled Wordplay.

Ambigram examples

File:GEBcover.jpg
G?del, Escher, Bach cover

References

  • Kim, Scott, Inversions, Byte Books (1981)
  • Hofstadter, Douglas R., "Metafont, Metamathematics, and Metaphysics: Comments on Donald Knuth's Article 'The Concept of a Meta-Font'" Scientific American (August 1982) (republished in the book Metamagical Themas)
  • Langdon, John, Wordplay: Ambigrams and Reflections on the Art of Ambigrams, Harcourt Brace (1992, republished 2005)
  • Hofstadter, Douglas R., Ambigrammi, Hopefulmonster Editore Firenze (1987) (in Italian)
  • Polster, Burkard, Les Ambigrammes l'art de symétriser les mots, Editions Ecritextes (2003) (in French)
  • Polster, Burkard, Eye Twisters: Ambigrams, Escher, and Illusions, web-based book available at http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/~bpolster/ambigram.html (date unknown)
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