An ambigram is a typographic art form that allows you to read a word in different directions. The most common ambigram is rotational, or inverted, and can be read in the same way when the paper is rotated 180 degrees (i.e. when it is flipped horizontally or vertically). Although you think that only a limited number of words can easily be turned into an ambigram, you will find with some tricks that it is possible to create ambigrams using almost any word!
Steps
Step 1. Write the word using uppercase or lowercase only
You can use them both in the same word, but the ambigram will look more pleasant to read if the characters are uniform. In this guide, we will create an ambigram with the word "WikiHow".
Step 2. Write the word backwards
Write the same letters of the word under the one you just wrote, but this time in reverse order, as shown in the image.
Step 3. Match the letters
Once you have written both lines of the word, it will be easy to understand which letters to match. In this case, we will match the letters "W" and "W", "I" and "O", "K" and "H", and "I" and "I". In the next few steps, work with a couple of letters at a time.
In some cases, the two letters of the pair will be identical, such as the "I" in WikiHow, or as in the case of a palindrome, where each letter has itself as a "partner" (see the "Tips" section in bottom of this article). Having pairs of identical letters allows you to create the ambigram more easily, and above all to have a reference point around which to build
Step 4. Write the first letter in the pair
Decide which of the uppercase or lowercase characters will allow you to work more flexibly.
Step 5. Rotate the letter 180 degrees
If you wrote the letter on a piece of paper, you can simply turn the paper over so that the letter is upside down. If you are using a computer you could use an option in your text program to rotate the lettering 180 degrees, or flip it first horizontally and then vertically.
Step 6. Make the upside-down letter look similar to the paired letter
For example, to turn an "I" into an "O", you can create an elongated circle. Leave the dot on the I; the "O" will have a decorative appearance when reading, but will be recognized as the "I".
Step 7. Rotate the letter pair in different directions to make sure the new sign looks like both of the original letters
The resulting image should resemble one of the letters in the pair, while rotating it 180 degrees should recall the appearance of the other letter.
Step 8. Work with the other couples
Combine the new letters together to form the ambigram.
Step 9. Search the internet
If this is too difficult, you can create ambigrams using automatic generators available on the internet (such as FlipScript).
Advice
- Sometimes you may be able to combine two letters upside down to form a single letter.
- A useful trick is to move the letter pairs one space to the left or right. You can rotate the last letter to turn it into an art miniature at the beginning of the word, or vice versa, you can rotate the first letter to turn it into an art miniature at the end of the word. This way you will avoid having to work with the most awkward letter pairs (for example I and W) in the center of the word.
- Don't focus too much on the most obvious letter pairs. Instead, focus on the shape of each letter. You can often make a letter that looks like two or more letters when they are turned upside down. Large letters such as W and M are particularly suitable for this purpose.
- Use a pencil so you can easily erase mistakes when refining details.
- If you can't proceed with creating the ambigram, try using different styles (e.g., serif vs. sans serif, gothic fonts, etc.).
- The ambigram should not be confused with a palindrome, which is a word that can also be read backwards. For example, the name "Anna" is a palindrome in that the sequence of characters remains the same and the word can be read backwards, while by rotating the word 180 degrees, its appearance changes. When converting palindromes to ambigrams, each letter in the word will have itself as a paired letter.
- You can get inspiration for creating your ambigram by looking for examples of combining some pairs of letters.
- Try using computer software that allows you to rotate letters, such as the Paint program.
