# Letter trace v1 — Reveal

The whole word in view, several pens per outline drawing at once: letterforms materialise from scattered seams, hold, and dissolve back to black.

Source: https://steevepommier.com/motion/letter-trace-v1-reveal/
Section: Motion
Published: 2026-07-07
Tags: 2d, typography, iridescent

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All the letters share the screen from the start, invisible; then coloured
strokes grow along their outlines from several points at once until the arcs
meet and the word stands complete. The letters can reveal together or stagger
left to right, each stroke taking its own slice of a rainbow palette, and after
a hold the drawing retreats to nothing so the cycle can restart.

Every contour is re-spaced to even arc-length steps and divided equally among a
number of pens; each pen owns one arc, starting either at the contour's seam or
at a hashed random offset so the growth looks chaotic. Because the spacing is
even, a single 0-to-1 amount per letter says exactly how many samples every pen
has covered — assemble, hold and dissolve are one envelope, run forward and
then back.