Word Aliasing

rasterizeText from Andrew Mollica. Canvas is super fast!

<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset='utf-8'>
<body style='background: #fff;'>
  <canvas width='960' height='300'></canvas>
</body>
<script src='//d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js'></script>
<script>
var width = 960
var height = 300

var canvas = d3.select('canvas').node()
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
var pixels

function renderSize(s, fontSize){
  pixels = rasterizeText('Words', {spacing: s, fontSize: fontSize + 'px', height: height})

ctx.clearRect(0, 0, width, height);
  ctx.beginPath()
  pixels.forEach(function(d){  
    ctx.rect(d[0], d[1], s - s/10, s - s/10)
    
    // draw circles instead
    // ctx.moveTo(d[0] + s, d[1]);
    // ctx.arc(d[0], d[1], s, 0, 2 * Math.PI);
  })
  ctx.fill()
}

d3.select('body').on('mousemove', function(){
  var pos = d3.mouse(this)
  var s = d3.scaleLinear().domain([0, width]).range([2, 20])(pos[0])
  var fontSize = d3.scaleLinear().domain([0, height]).range([50, 800])(pos[1])

renderSize(s, fontSize)
})

function rasterizeText(text, options) {
  var o = options || {};

var fontSize = o.fontSize || "300px",
      fontWeight = o.fontWeight || "600",
      fontFamily = o.fontFamily || "sans-serif",
      textAlign = o.center || "center",
      textBaseline = o.textBaseline || "middle",
      spacing = o.spacing || 10,
      width = o.width || 960,
      height = o.height || 500,
      x = o.x || (width / 2),
      y = o.y || (height / 2);
  
  var canvas = document.createElement("canvas");
  canvas.width = width;
  canvas.height = height;

var context = canvas.getContext("2d");

context.font = [fontWeight, fontSize, fontFamily].join(" ");
  context.textAlign = textAlign;
  context.textBaseline = textBaseline;

var dx = context.measureText(text).width,
      dy = +fontSize.replace("px", ""),
      bBox = [[x - dx / 2, y - dy / 2], [x + dx / 2, y + dy / 2]];

bBox[0][0] = Math.max(0,      bBox[0][0])
  bBox[0][1] = Math.max(0,      bBox[0][1])
  bBox[1][0] = Math.min(width,  bBox[1][0])
  bBox[1][1] = Math.min(height, bBox[1][1])

context.fillText(text, x, y);

var imageData = context.getImageData(0, 0, width, height);

var pixels = [];
  for (var x = bBox[0][0]; x < bBox[1][0]; x += spacing) {
    for (var y = bBox[0][1]; y < bBox[1][1]; y += spacing) {
      var pixel = getPixel(imageData, x, y);
      if (pixel[3] != 0) pixels.push([x, y]);
    }
  }
  
  return pixels;
}

function getPixel(imageData, x, y) {
  var i = 4 * (parseInt(x) + parseInt(y) * imageData.width);
  var d = imageData.data;
  return [ d[i], d[i+1], d[i+2], d[i+3] ];
}

d3.select(self.frameElement).style('height', height + 'px');
</script>

https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js