Route Art

Type a word, or drop in a drawing, and it will find a route that traces it along real streets. It draws itself as you type — then ask it to find a better spot nearby, or open Refine to set the size and angle yourself.

Drawn in capitals. Use Enter for a second line.
Drop an SVG, PNG or JPG
SVG traces best — it keeps the real lines of the drawing, inside edges and all. A photo or PNG can only give its silhouette.
Searches the streets nearby for somewhere this shape draws better, and moves it there. It always considers where you already put it, so it can only improve on it.
Rotate to line the shape up with the street grid. Finding a better spot does this for you.
Strokes: 0. Every stroke is another piece of route to work out, so less detail means a quicker answer.
Route the gaps between strokes too. Turn off to get each stroke as its own track.
Your shape Close trace Wandered off Between strokes
Artwork
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Between strokes
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Total ride
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Moving time
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Trace score
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Ride vs shape
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Log in to save

Getting a shape that reads

How well this works depends on the streets underneath far more than on anything you can set here. The same word a few blocks away can score twenty points differently, so if the result disappoints, moving it beats fiddling with it.

  • Find me a better spot is the one control that really moves the needle. Nothing you set by hand comes close, and it always considers where you already are, so it cannot make things worse.
  • The size is chosen for your text already. Making it bigger mostly prevents bad results rather than producing brilliant ones — it is insurance, not polish.
  • Expect a long ride. A word large enough to read is a serious outing — five letters across a city is closer to an event than an afternoon, so check the distance before you commit to it.
  • Rotation matters, but not predictably — the same shape can gain or lose a lot for a few degrees either way. Finding a better spot searches angles for you.
  • The score tells you what actually happened. Green means the route followed your shape; red means it found its own way.