Stately is a symbol font that lets you make maps of the United States by typing letters. I do not understand the magic behind it, nor did I make an effort to get under its hood or fully utilize its functionality, but I used Stately to make a map of the U.S. states I have visited as an adult.
I think it’s pretty cool that this map is all font.
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
- a
- b
- c
- d
- e
- f
- g
- h
- i
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- w
- x
- y
I do not include airport-only visits, border-straddling drive-by crossings, or places I was too young to remember now. As a child we traveled cross-country in a Winnebago but I don’t remember much detail of that today (however clear it might have been when I wrote My Life Story). I omit New Hampshire because I simply do not remember being there enroute from Niagara Falls to Maine in 1990. Indiana is included because of a brief but memorable pass through Gary enroute to or from Illinois. I begrudgingly include Mississippi on account of a lengthy stop-over at a gas station there on my way to Texas in 1990, but I can’t really say I visited that state.
Have I really never been to Kentucky? Michigan? I want to put Michigan on this map, and Alaska.
The Stately font is a simple tool for illustating state-level data, suitable for introducing more detailed discussion of nation-wide information. I’ve been to Texas, for instance, but I’ve never been to TEXAS. I am told I would like Dallas, and they say Austin is worth a trip. I made it as far as the East Texas oil fields, in the Tyler and Kilgore area. I made it as far as Devils Tower and Beulah but Wyoming is on the map anyway.
Learn more about the Stately Font, by Ben Markowitz.
