False Grammar

False Grammar: Ritual

an instrument for drawing with language that refuses to behave

False Grammar: Ritual is a gestural writing and drawing environment built around the idea that text is not meant to sit still.

At first glance, it looks like a drawing app. You draw paths. You stamp glyphs. You layer marks, mirror them, echo them, animate them, and export high-resolution images.

That’s the surface.

Underneath, False Grammar treats letters as raw material. Characters become particles, rhythms, breath, density, pressure. Writing becomes something closer to ritual mark-making than communication.

This tool is designed to pair directly with The Wrong Alphabet, which generates experimental, non-standard TTF fonts. Fonts exported from The Wrong Alphabet can be loaded into False Grammar and performed live across paths, splines, fields, and generative structures.

I am actively updating and refining both tools. They are still evolving. This release exists so they can be used together sooner, rather than waiting for everything to feel “finished.”

What it actually does

• Draw freehand, lines, splines, sine waves, circles, and generative structures
• Treat glyphs as ink that flows along paths
• Animate writing using gesture-driven XY performance controls
• Layer multiple writing systems and fonts at once
• Load custom fonts, including TTFs from The Wrong Alphabet
• Apply symmetry, echoes, drift, jitter, and transformation stacks
• Generate dense, living fields of asemic writing
• Export high-resolution PNG images

Play Mode vs Tinker Mode

Tinker Mode is for construction. Sliders, tools, systems.

Play Mode turns the app into an instrument. Large XY pads control entropy, flow, presence, intent, breath, wildness, and voice cycling in real time. Writing breathes. Lines pulse. Alphabets slip out of alignment.

Why this pairs with The Wrong Alphabet

The Wrong Alphabet generates alphabets that were never meant to be read.

False Grammar gives those alphabets a body.

Together, they form a pipeline: invent a writing system, then perform it. Fonts stop being static assets and start behaving like organisms.

Who this is for

• Glitch and generative artists
• Experimental typographers and font weirdos
• Asemic writers and visual poets
• Zine, poster, and album designers
• Anyone interested in text as texture, motion, and ritual

If you like tools that feel half instrument, half artifact, this should click.

Price and access

False Grammar: Ritual is free to use in your browser.

A downloadable offline version is available for those who want local access and to support ongoing development.

Notes

Intended for personal and artistic use.
Anything you generate is yours.
Redistribution of the software itself is not allowed.

This is an actively evolving project. Expect changes, refinements, and strange new behaviors over time. Bug reports are welcome, especially with platform and browser details.

On iPhone, the downloaded HTML file runs cleanly in Microsoft Edge.

Built by Dawnia Darkstone
Letsglitchit

Writing is not a sentence. It is a gesture.