YJL

Found this word_cloud on GitHub, a Python implementation of word cloud or tag cloud.

Remember Wordle? It was the introduction for me to the real word cloud, not that so-so WordPress-like tagcloud. Six years ago, I used it to generate a cloud for my blog posts. It’s in Java, the only thing I didn’t like about Wordle, I don’t even have any JRE installed at the moment, so couldn’t even create a new one.

All these years, I’d forgot the cloud nor didn’t even bother about those clouds. It looks fancy, but I can’t remember last time I even clicked on any tagcloud. It’s just a decoration. However, that doesn’t mean I’d mind to see them, but be honest, those HTML-styled clouds just nothing can compare with Wordle’s or word_cloud’s.

This word_cloud gives me another chance. It was actually born in late 2012, two years old. It’s written in Python with C extension and PIL, I’d say it’s much better, simply because it’s open source under the MIT License, Wordle isn’t.

It’s created by Andreas Christian Mueller. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have CLI tool, you would have to write in Python. One more thing I noticed is it doesn’t seem to place text other than 0° or 90° angle.

It can generate this kind of boring, standard cloud:

Or my Bash history mapping onto Tux logo with the colors:

Or simple mask for the words of my blog posts onto blog logo (see the favicon):

Or “May the 4th be with You”: