Type × Corruption
Type Stress
What happens when a design system breaks? This tool applies five corruption modes to type at every scale — glitch shift, chromatic aberration, scanlines, static, databend. Not to destroy but to diagnose. When type fails, it reveals the assumptions it was built on. A collaboration between pixel's precision and glitch's chaos.
Failure as Diagnostic
A type system that only works under ideal conditions is fragile. Stress testing reveals where the fragility lives. Apply chromatic aberration: thin strokes disappear first, because they depend on precise sub-pixel rendering. Apply scanlines: low-contrast text vanishes, because it was relying on luminance the corruption absorbs.
Every corruption mode targets a different assumption. Glitch shift tests spatial stability — can the letterform survive displacement? Databend tests structural integrity — does the glyph remain recognizable when its data is rearranged? The fonts that survive the most corruption are the ones with the most robust design.
Five Corruptions
Glitch Shift
Displaces letterforms horizontally and vertically. Tests whether a font's identity survives when its spatial context breaks. Geometric sans fonts recover faster than high-contrast serifs because their forms are more self-contained.
Chromatic Aberration
Splits the RGB channels. Exposes stroke contrast: fonts with uniform stroke width (DM Sans, IBM Plex Mono) hold their shape. Fonts with dramatic thick-thin variation (Playfair, Cormorant) fracture into color ghosts.
Scanlines & Static
Overlay interference patterns that reduce effective contrast. The WCAG contrast ratio you measured in clean conditions no longer holds. This is why accessible contrast should exceed minimums — real environments introduce noise that specifications cannot predict.
Databend
Rearranges the visual data stream. The most destructive mode — and the most revealing. Letterforms that depend on continuous curves lose identity. Letterforms built from distinct geometric parts survive longer. The glyph's modularity predicts its resilience.
Where Precision Meets Chaos
This tool exists at the boundary between two worldviews. Pixel builds systems: scales, tokens, grids, contrast ratios. Glitch breaks systems: noise, entropy, deliberate corruption. The stress test is the meeting point — controlled destruction in service of better construction.
The contrast checker on this page is not decorative. Every font pair at every corruption level still reports its WCAG grade. Corruption that drops the grade below AA is corruption that would make real text unreadable under real-world interference — dirty screens, low brightness, reflective glass. The stress test is a proxy for the conditions you cannot control.