Tiny 5x3 Font | (Holloway) Chew, Kean Ho's Creative Visuals

Tiny 5x3 font family was originally created over the summer of 2018 as the visual identity for an experimental retail pop-up shop in Chinatown, New York City called “Today in New York”, or Tiny 5x3 for short designed by Jack Halten Fahnestock, and released by The Velvetyne Team. The shop was the result of an intern project at Verdes, a creative agency, between Jack Halten Fahnestock and Théïa Flynn, where they sold T-shirts and tote bags customized on the spot.

This font is based on the smallest type size (using only 5 of the 16 available print heads) of the HandJet EBS-250, the tool used in the shop for immediate printing on textiles. Its variable dot size comes from the HandJet’s adjustable ink output.

It comes as a variable font with a size axis to modify 5x3 dot size from 0—300, as well as 15 separate instances (each increasing the dot size by 20 units). It has 1300+ glyphs covering:

Latin-based languages
Extensive punctuation including case-sensitive forms
Superscript numbers
Unicase letters and small caps
Math characters including fractions
Proportional, oldstyle, and tabular figures
Roman numerals
Arrows for days
Miscellaneous symbols

Tiny 5x3 font's glyph ulitmately inherits from a single component where the user can apply additional kerning in increments of +−100 to achieve grid-perfect layouts easily. Its stylistic sets are programmed as follows where they can be chained together for effects like a wider boxy C with open counters:

Stylistic Set 01: (Mono/duo)spaced forms (kerning must also be disabled)
Stylistic Set 02: (A/de)scenders
Stylistic Set 03: Wider capitals
Stylistic Set 04: Boxy forms
Stylistic Set 05: Open counters
Stylistic Set 06: Shorter diacritic characters (experimental!)

Tiny 5x3 font divides Adobe's auto leading in half for one dot size between lines or refer to the leading formula and table below for specific adjustments:

Leading Formula:
x = font size
y = desired number of dot spaces between lines
leading = x ÷ 10 × (y + 5)

Font Size	Leading (0 dots)	Leading (1 dot)	Leading (2 dots)	Leading (3 dots)	Leading (4 dots)
12pt	6pt	7.2pt	8.4pt	9.6pt	10.8pt
14pt	7pt	8.4pt	9.8pt	11.2pt	12.6pt
18pt	9pt	10.8pt	12.6pt	14.4pt	16.2pt
21pt	10.5pt	12.6pt	14.7pt	16.8pt	18.9pt
24pt	12pt	14.4pt	16.8pt	19.2pt	21.6pt
36pt	18pt	21.6pt	25.2pt	28.8pt	32.4pt
48pt	24pt	28.8pt	33.6pt	38.4pt	43.2pt
60pt	30pt	36pt	42pt	48pt	54pt
72pt	36pt	43.2pt	50.4pt	57.6pt	64.8pt

Artificial Intelligence (A.I) Decrees

This project deploys the use of one or more generative artificial intelligence such as but not limited to large language model (LLM) for the following tasks:

Data Sourcing

Note

Performing enhanced web searches due to polluted search engine indexes.
Performing completely generated media such as but not limited to images, videos, and audios.

Used for data and reading material searching as the search engine across the Internet had collapsed due to A.I publication slops.
Used for grammar and language correction detection on the human-made written script.

Data Processing & Analytics

Note

Performing development via multi-steps queries (also known as vibe coding or agentic AI processing).
Performing data analytics via multi-steps queries (also known as vibe coding or AI vibing).
Performing dedicated and task specific work where conventional technologies could not achieve such as but not limited to upscaling an image verbatim.

No deployment.

Data Testing

Note

Performing end-user use case simulated testings.

No deployment.

Data Visualization

Note

Performing completely generated data visualization via multi-step queries (also known as vibe coding).

No deployment.

Data Archiving & Deletion

Note

Performing data clean-up via multi-step queries (also known as vibe coding).

No deployment.

Maintainers' Notes

Font files are binary objects which are unsuitable for git commits. Use git tag and releases strategy for version control instead. Only keep the git repository for font metadata and display purposes.

DO NOT use git-lfs due to ambiguous storage allocation policies from git service providers.

All fonts MUST be strictly licensed under Open Font License. Some designers modify the license terms arbitrarily without taking its legal consequences into account (e.g. trademarking the font). Hence, DO NOT commit to those fonts to completely avoid downstream having to "use with fear".

For software supply chain, to guarentee the thumbnail generation IS NOT vendor-locked by any expensive or proprietary software, please ONLY USE AND SUPPORT open source image editing software specifically as follows:

Inkscape (https://inkscape.org) - for vector graphics maintenances and exporting SVG plain vector files.

For directory organizations:

The principal canvas MUST BE SAVED in inkscape SVG format and retain all legal attributes (license, copyright, etc). The files MUST HAVE inkscape- prefixes to avoid confusion. They are saved inside /Pictures/principal-canvas directory.
The exported svg MUST BE IN Plain SVG format and retain all legal attributes (license, copright, etc). The files MUST NOT HAVE inkscape- prefixes. They are saved inside /Pictures directory.
The exported svg's text fields MUST BE converted into path data type and then union into a single foreground path layer. This is to make sure end-user can view the sample without needing to pre-setup the font files.

For artificial intelligence:

ONLY USE for internal research or Internet searches internally.
Any automated or "vibe" output commitments are STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
- This is a simple artifact re-distribution project. DO NOT LET ANY A.I. near any of your code and files commitment.
- If you sign-off any A.I. commitment, YOU WILL BE HELD FULLY LIABLE FOR ALL ITS CONCEQUENCES.
- Therefore: STRICTLY HUMAN COMMITMENT.
Use of passive A.I. (e.g. image upscaling) is rare to none since the thumbnail graphic materials MUST be in its vectorized form.

License

This entire repository is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To ensure better understanding of this license, the following sub-sections will briefly describe how to deploy the content.

For registered non-profit organizations (NGO), you are considered a Commercial Entity the same as any for-profit organization by default. However, you will be eligible for the NGO disbursement grant and receive exception privileges from the creator(s).

Attribution

Attribution is OPTIONAL. Whenever required, you MUST attribute back to the creator(s) as follows:

Title: Tiny 5x3 Font
Creators: Jack Halten Fahnestock; via The Velvetyne Team
Packaged-By: (Holloway) Chew, Kean Ho
Contact: hello@chewkeanho.com
SKU: chewkeanho-visuals-fonts-tiny-5x3
UUID: B7670C2F-863F-4854-9F4C-CE1F741DFF1B
License: SIL Open Font License (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
Repository Made On: 2026-03-10
Repository Made From: Malaysia, South East Asia
Procure: https://github.com/ChewKeanHo/visuals-fonts-tiny-5x3

Ownership - Personal

Note

This targets any customer wanting to own a copy of the content and then only he/she is using it without sharing with any 3rd-party entity; AND WITHOUT any monetary intention such as but not limited to:

Saving a local copy and then viewing via his/her own mobile device(s); OR
Saving a local copy and then viewing via his/her own personal computer; OR
Saving a local copy for artificial intelligence data training purposes.