Anamorphics are puzzles based on a kind of secret writing. Here are a few examples, some of which are over 100 years old.
Blog reader Karsten Hansky has provided me a scan of an old postcard. In this case, not the message written by the sender but the motive is relevant:
Source: Karsten Hansky
As can be seen, the picture on this card shows two so-called anamorphics. An anamorphic is a kind of writing that uses stretched letters. One can easily read the message by compressing the picture vertically …
Source: Karsten Hansky
… or horizontally.
Source: Karsten Hansky
In this case, the message is: COMPLIMENTS FROM SCOTTON TO PEGGIE WITH LOVE FROM JACK
Scotton is a village in England.
Long-term readers of this blog might remember that I have written about anamorphics before. In 2016, I presented the following postcard provided by Tobias Schrödel:
Source: Tobias Schrödel
Note that the black part of the writing is printed, while the red part was manually added by the sender. Here’s the horizontal compression (turned by 90 degrees):
And here’s the vertical compression:
Source: Tobias Schrödel
In 2014, I presented an advertisement puzzle from 1904 that represents an anamorphic:
Source: Derby Daily Telegraph
Blog reader Horst told me that German comedian Karl Valentin (1882-1948) sometimes signed his name as an anamorphic (source):
Source: Yandex
The following is an encrypted Christmas greeting (source):
Source: iFunny
Here’s another postcard with an anamorphic (source). Can you read the message?
Blog reader Tony Gaffney sent me another puzzle of this kind:
Source: Tony Gaffney
If you know more anamorphics please let me know.
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Further reading: An encrypted postcard with only 17 letters
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