Cat got your tongue? Try Neko Font, the font made of cats, for cats and by cats... well, OK, by people who LIKE cats. Though created in Japan, Neko Font supports roman alphabets and the site home page's test feature is the cat's meow.
Neko Font features the creative contortions of Raizo and Mondo, two cute kittens who have their very own profiles and blog at the Neko Font website. There's no telling how long it took their owners to get Raizo and Mondo – individually or together – to form most of the characters on an average keyboard but the results range from amusing to jaw-dropping.
Not every character lends itself to being expressed by a cat or cats, however, such as the capital B, numbers, and many non-alphanumeric characters such as $ and #. Characters requiring a period or small circle such as i and % work, however, with the help of what appears to be the top view of a styrofoam instant ramen bowl. Hey, nobody said this was a big-budget, high tech endeavor!
As for the big B issue, the creators say this character is too complex to be formed by only two cats. Since the small b is doable, perhaps drafting a third cat (or renting one, as this is Japan) might solve the problem.
But back to Neko Font... unlike many specialty fonts, Neko Font isn't downloadable for you to use for your term paper, sarcastic letter to the editor or party invitation. Instead, the Neko Font website features a small dialog box where anyone can type in a word or words and have them transformed into cats. Any roman language works – sorry Chinese, Russians, Thais etcetera – and you can choose between large, medium, small and “minuscule” font sizes.
Neko Font also offers a range of SNS functions that allow anyone to create avatar pics and website front pages in the Neko Font style. It's a little complex and the “manual” is in Japanese so you'll need either some Nihongo skills or a Japanese-speaking friend to help you make it happen.
Last but not least, Neko Font's creators hint at a future functionality that will allow cat-owners to adapt their own feline to take Raizo and Mondo's place in one's own custom cat font. This feature should have great appeal if the Neko Font team can somehow swing it – the font, not the cat. (via Asiajin and Creative Bloq, kitten image via Slava)
