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Text-based Pattern Design

Turn text into geometric patterns

Geistgrid maps every character of a phrase to a geometric shape and lays them out on a grid. Type the phrase again, and the same grid comes back. Type it wrong, and the pattern breaks.

Try it now See how it works

Built on mapping rules

Characters map to blocks. The generator reorders the blocks into every rotation of the sequence, and lays out the result on the smallest square grid that fits.

How it works

Three steps, and only the middle one is secret.

Step one

Every character becomes a block

Each character of the phrase resolves to a block drawn from the selected image set. The mapping table consists of 102 characters, including digits, punctuation and umlauts. The blocks are then re-ordered into every rotation of the sequence: 16 symbols give 240 distinct orderings.

Step two

The grid is public by design

The generated pattern is public. Print it, pin it to a wall, or put it on a login screen. What it does not carry is the mapping rules, and the grid on its own does not hand them over.

Step three

Verification is recognition

Re-enter the phrase, and the service regenerates the pattern from scratch. A correct phrase reproduces the original document exactly. A single wrong character changes the sequence, and with it the picture. Compare the resulting image with the existing one you have downloaded before. If both match, you have proven ownership because you know the initial phrase.

Try it yourself

Type a phrase and the Geistgrid generator draws it, entirely in your browser. No data is sent or stored anywhere. Download the SVG document if the result is fine for you.

Letters, digits, punctuation and umlauts all map to a block. The first 16 characters are used.

Saves the pattern above at 1080 × 1080. SVG is the exact document; PNG is a picture of it.

What this is, and what it isn't

Being upfront about the threat model is part of the design.

Deterministic

The same phrase and the same mapping rules produce a byte-identical grid. Any randomness would have to be seeded from the phrase itself and never from a clock or a random number generator.

Recognizable at a glance

People are far better at spotting that two pictures differ than at comparing two strings of characters. The grid puts verification in the medium humans are good at.

Not a cipher

This is a visual encoding scheme, not a vetted cryptographic primitive. It has not been through cryptanalysis and should not stand in for a real cipher where one is needed. The generator is public and runs in your browser, so a phrase somebody could guess can be found from its own pattern by trying candidates until one matches. Choose a phrase the way you would choose a password.

Use cases

Each one turns on the same thing: the pattern is public, and only someone who knows the phrase can produce it again.

  • Check that you still know a phrase

    Keep the pattern with a backup — a recovery sheet, a seed kit, a safe. Months later, type the phrase you think it is. A matching picture confirms you have it right, and the sheet in the drawer never had the phrase written on it.

  • A maker’s mark you can redraw

    Stamp the pattern on ceramics, prints, bindings or furniture. Anyone can photograph a mark and copy it. What a copier cannot do is stand in front of a buyer and generate it again from the phrase.

  • Hold a name that is not your own

    Work under a handle and put the pattern on the profile and the work. When the account is impersonated, or when you move to another platform, you settle it by drawing the pattern again in front of whoever is asking.

  • Show a notice came from the group

    A club, a co-op, a conference: put the pattern on posters, badges and door notices. Anyone who knows the shared phrase can tell a real notice from one somebody else put up.