- Tagxedo provides numerous common shapes like heart, star, square, diamond, etc. That can be used to create your word-cloud. Words can be used to generate specific phrases or words as well with Tagxedo. For example, you can type in your text and select the custom shape as 'I Love You' for Tagxedo to create an I Love You word-cloud.
- Find or create a black on white.jpg and save it to your computer - the jpg does not have to be very high resolution. By default, Tagxedo's image editor will put words in the black part of your jpg. Choose 'Add Image' from the 'Shape' options dialog box. When prompted, upload the black on white jpg from your computer.
Gallery
Currently the gallery is under construction, and here are some tag clouds I made myself. Eventually users will be able to submit their artwork to the gallery (though it will be moderated to make this a kids-friendly place).
Tagxedo is a simple word cloud generator which enables you to create stylish word clouds from news articles, websites, Twitter profiles, RSS feeds and more. You can even paste text to.
Still want more? Check out Daily Tagxedo for a daily dose of current events, trending topics, or whimsical ideas... in Tagxedo word cloud. Interested in Tagxedo portraits of famous people and historical figures in Tagxedo? Check out Celebrity Tagxedo.
Michael Jackson
Hardy Leung, July 31, 2010
Paul the Octopus
Hardy Leung, July 11, 2010
Frida Kahlo
Hardy Leung, July 7, 2010
Dalmatian
Hardy Leung, June 8, 2010
Ada Lovelace (Computer Pioneer)
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Rosa Parks
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Martin Luther King Jr.
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Vladimir Lenin
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Flamingo
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Hornbill
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Woodpecker
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Hadada Ibis
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Roadrunner
Hardy Leung, May 26, 2010
Lyrebird
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Egret
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Whooping Crane
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Mallard
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Cardinal
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Blue Jay
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Mute Swan
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Peregrine Falcon
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Owl
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Sparrow
Hardy Leung, May 25, 2010
Peacock
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Andean Condor
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
California Condor
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Bald Eagle
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Gannet
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Dodo
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Moai (on Easter Island)
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Kokopelli
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Grape Leaf
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Bonsai
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Palm Tree
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Fern
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Butterfly
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Forget-Me-Not
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Carnation
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Tulip
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Ivy
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Pine Tree
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Oak Tree
Hardy Leung, May 24, 2010
Rose
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
Cactus
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
Baobab Tree
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
Joshua Tree
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
The Lone Cypress (Monterey)
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Hardy Leung, May 23, 2010
Moped
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Bicycle
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Lion
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Tiger
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Capuchin Monkey
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Baboon
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Warthog
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Boa Constrictor
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Python
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Megan Fox
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Brad Pitt
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
George Clooney
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Napoleon Bonaparte
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Emma Watson (Hermione)
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Titanic
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Zira (Planet of the Apes)
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Shogun
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Albert Einstein
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
John Lennon
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Aphrodite (Venus)
Hardy Leung, May 22, 2010
Freddy Mercury
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Crown
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
A Dancing Girl
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Cattle
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Stegosaurus
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Grand Piano
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Camera
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Bishop (Chess)
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Gibbon
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
The First Kiss
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Train
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Carousel
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Penguin
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Emu
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Cassowary
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Kiwi
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Thoth (Ancient Egyptian God)
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Galaga
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Rooster
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Wind Turbine
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Incandescent Light Bulb
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Blinky in Shock (Pacman)
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Blinky (Pacman)
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Lizard
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
Little Lamb
Hardy Leung, May 21, 2010
The Maple Leaf
Hardy Leung, May 18, 2010
Emperor Penguin
Hardy Leung, May 18, 2010
Flower
Hardy Leung, May 17, 2010
Pi
Hardy Leung, May 17, 2010
Lambda Calculus
Hardy Leung, May 17, 2010
Al Pacino
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
New Zealand
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Robert De Niro
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
SJSU Spartans
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Clint Eastwood
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
North America
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Jack Nicholson in the Shining
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Wayne Rooney
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Matthew Fox (Lost)
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Henry I. Cusick (Desmond, Lost)
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Chinese Dragon
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Kirin (Mythical Chinese Creature)
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Ronaldinho
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Kaká
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Hummingbird
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Pelican
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Tom Selleck
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Compass
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Horse
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Cat
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Infinity
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
Internet Explorer
Hardy Leung, May 15, 2010
South America
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Lynn Minmay (Macross)
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Philippines
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Italy
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Iceland
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Gorilla
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Lemur
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Vietnam
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Antarctica
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Ireland and United Kingdom
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Africa
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Australia
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
China
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Caribou
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
2010 World Cup
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Lionel Messi
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Cristiano Ronaldo
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Camel
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Cobra
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Yoda
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Hawaiian Airlines
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Jacky Cheung
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Charlene Choi (Twins)
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Aishwarya Rai
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Mozilla Firefox
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Toucan
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Puffin
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Howling Wolf
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Romulus, Remus, and the Wolf
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
The Acropolis of Athens
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Taj Mahal
Hardy Leung, May 14, 2010
Yunjin Kim (Sun, Lost)
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Chinese Dragon
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Stop Sign
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Maple Leaf
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Rocky Balboa
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Junk Boat (Hong Kong)
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
U. S. Route 101
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Interstate Highway System
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Fox
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Sea Lion
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
U. S. Postal Service
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Public Broadcasting Service
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Pikachu (Pokémon)
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Great Dane
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Hammerhead Shark
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Witch
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Pegasus
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Narwhal
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Pisces (Astrology)
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Virgo (Astrology)
Hardy Leung, May 13, 2010
Chess
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Bird-of-Paradise Flower
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Flamingo
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Libra (Astrology)
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Sagittarius (Astrology)
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Leo (Astrology)
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Jerry Rice
Hardy Leung, May 12, 2010
Misa Hayase (Macross)
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Madoka Ayukawa (Orange Road)
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Miley Cyprus
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Sonic the Hedgehog
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Kookaburra
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Palm
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
William Shakespeare
Hardy Leung, May 11, 2010
Jorge Garcia (Lost)
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Josh Holloway (Lost)
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Planet Earth
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Cupid
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Water Buffalo
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Kangaroo
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Ostrich
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Bill Clinton
Hardy Leung, May 10, 2010
Texas Longhorns
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
UCLA Bruin
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Crab
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
The Golden Bear (Berkeley)
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Unicorn
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Speed Skating
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Ice Skating
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Horse Racing
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Gas Lamp
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Quarterback
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Hockey
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Shark
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Scorpion
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Rhinoceros
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Star Trek Enterprise
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Dragonfly
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Lion Head of Singapore
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Weedy Sea Dragon
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Beetle
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Giraffe
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Squirrel
Hardy Leung, May 9, 2010
Blue-and-Gold Macaw
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Wall-E and Eve
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Arabian Oryx
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Salamander
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
X-Wing (Star Wars)
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
MacGyver
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Oprah
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Lynn Minmay (Macross)
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Mobile Suit Gundam
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Frog
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
George Carlin
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
Hong Kong Island
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
The Lincoln Memorial
Hardy Leung, May 8, 2010
A Breaching Humpback Whale
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Bald Eagle
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Leonidas (300)
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Gone with the Wind
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Charlize Theron
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Sean Connery
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Barbra Streisand
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
David Letterman
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Jay Leno
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Conan O'Brien
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Uncle Sam
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
David Beckham
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Diego Maradona
Hardy Leung, May 7, 2010
Mona Lisa
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Guy Fawkes
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Bella and Edward (Twilight)
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Jacob Black (Twilight)
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Edward Cullen (Twilight)
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com)
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Love
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Space Invaders
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Mardi Gras Mask
Hardy Leung, May 6, 2010
Anne Hathaway
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Vincent van Gogh
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Recycling
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Deer
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Nicola Tesla
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Elvis Presley
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Muhammad Ali
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
Evangeline Lilly
Hardy Leung, May 5, 2010
The @ Sign (and Typography)
Hardy Leung, May 4, 2010
Yin Yang
Hardy Leung, May 4, 2010
Den Lille Havfrue
Hardy Leung, May 4, 2010
The Laputa Robot
Hardy Leung, April 26, 2010
Audrey Hepburn
Hardy Leung, April 26, 2010
James Dean
Hardy Leung, April 26, 2010
Marilyn Monroe
Hardy Leung, April 26, 2010
Horse
Hardy Leung, April 16, 2010
FIFA World Cup
Hardy Leung, April 15, 2010
Steve Jobs
Hardy Leung, April 14, 2010
Lincoln
Hardy Leung, April 13, 2010
All the World's a Stage
Hardy Leung, April 13, 2010
Bruce Lee
Hardy Leung, April 13, 2010
King of Pop
Hardy Leung, April 12, 2010
Guitar
Hardy Leung, April 12, 2010
LOL Cat
Hardy Leung, April 11, 2010
The Space Shuttle
Hardy Leung, April 11, 2010
USA.Gov
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Chinese Kung Fu
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Superman
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Ballerina
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Buddha
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Pteranodon
Hardy Leung, April 8, 2010
Endangered Animals / WWF
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Che Guevara
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Twitter (@Tagxedo)
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
UCLA (My Alma Mater)
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Statue of Liberty
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Air Jordan
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Elephant
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
The Heisman Trophy
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Fly Like an Eagle (Lyrics)
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Obama's Inauguration Speech
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Orca (Killer Whale)
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Batman
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Fish out of Water
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Cities in the United States
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Hitchcock
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Reddit alien
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Easter bunny
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
USA
Hardy Leung, April 7, 2010
Popular boy names
Hardy Leung, April 1, 2010
Popular girl names
Hardy Leung, April 1, 2010
United States Constitution
Hardy Leung, April 1, 2010
Country Populations
Hardy Leung, April 1, 2010
Q: What is Tagxedo?
A: Give it some text, and possibly a shape, Tagxedo will make a beautiful word cloud for you.
Q: How do I pronounce Tagxedo?
A: Tagxedo is pronounced as [tag-SEE-doh], similar to Tuxedo, you know, the stylish formal attire? Hence, the tagline 'Tag Cloud with Styles'. I'm amazed by the large number of misspellings, include tagzedo, tagexdo, taxgedo. But don't worry, Google now kindly suggests Tagxedo even if you misspell (now that Tagxedo is more well-known).
Q: Is the Tagxedo application free to use?
A: Tagxedo is currently in beta for a limited time and you can use all the features in the product for now. After the beta period ends, certain super-duper advanced features -- for example, custom shapes, custom fonts, high-effort mode, and save-as-app -- will require premium subscription. But I promise that the free version will continue to cover a very rich set of functionalities! For example, with the free version you have a choice of over 30 themes, over 30 fonts, and 30 free shapes to choose from.
Q: What is the best way to start?
A: Just click 'Create' and start playing with it! Once you get the hang of it, I suggest the following:
- Check out the gallery, featuring over 300 Tagxedo artworks.
- Read 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo, a must read for anyone who wants to get the most out of Tagxedo.
- Subscribe to the Tagxedo blog, All Things Tagxedo for latest tips and announcements.
- Visit Daily Tagxedo, capturing current events and trending topics in Tagxedo.
- Follow me at Twitter, and Facebook.
Q: How to use a phrase (e.g. San Francisco) instead of a single word?
A: Use tilde (~). For example, San~Francisco. This method, however, only works with the 'load file' and 'enter text' methods, but not by using HTML.
Q: Can I save?
A: Yes you can save the word cloud as an image, either in JPEG or PNG format. You have the choice of many different sizes, from thumbnails to 16 megapixels. To share with friends, you can also save the Tagxedo to web.
Q: Can I print?
A: Yes.
Q: Do I need to sign up to use Tagxedo?
A: Not at all!
Q: Does Tagxedo remove small and common words?
A: Yes. Tagxedo removes common words such as 'is', 'are', 'do', etc. They are collectively called 'Stop Words' and currently only English stop words are supported.
Q: Does Tagxedo treat related words, such as 'State' and 'States', as the same word?
A: Yes. Tagxedo uses a technique called 'Stemming' that combine related words into a single word for the purpose of determining the frequency. For example, 'sting', 'stang', and 'stung' are considered the same word (though Mr. Grinch may object). Similarly, 'fly' pairs with 'flies', 'formula' pairs with 'formulae'. See, the relationship is not limited to words and their simple plural forms (such as 'tree' and 'trees').
At most one word per 'stem' will be shown, and among all possibilities, the one with the most common occurence will be shown.
Q: How do I use create shape from image?
A: It can be as simple as clicking the 'Add Image' button, and load an image of your choice to be used as shape. However, confining words to shapes is in general a very hard problem, and whether Tagxedo can do a good job depends on the image you selected.
Upon loading a picture, you can fine tune how the picture is turned into a shape using the 'Threshold' and 'Blur' sliders. You can also choose whether to use black or white as the interior of the shape.
Tagxedo does not work well with shapes that are complicated or contain delicate curves or corners. In other words, if your shape is very 'fragile' with respect to perturbation -- i.e. the shape will look very different if words stick out or words do not hug the shape outline faithfully -- then it is not a good shape for Tagxedo. Good shapes tend to be robust, simple, and well-defined even when looking at a distance. See the gallery for good examples.
Q: What is 'Tightness'
A: The Tightness parameter tells Tagxedo how tightly the words should fill the shape. Lower tightness helps runtime, because Tagxedo takes extra time if the shape is hard to fit, but small tightness may create 'slack' and your shape is not filled. Higher tightness, on the other hand, makes the shape look fuller, but Tagxedo may run slower.
Q: What is 'Emphasis'
A: Emphasis controls the relationship between the font size of words and the frequency of occurance. The higher the emphasis, the more pronounced (in size) a high-frequency word is. For the Mathematically inclined, if there are two similar-looking words such that one is K times as frequent as the other, the font size of the more frequent word would be Pow(K, Emphasis) that of the less frequent word. Hence, with an emphasis of 1.00, the font size (and hence height of words) increases proportionally with frequency, but the area of the word increases quadratically. With an emphasis of 0.50, the font size increases slower, while the area of the word increases proportionally with frequency. An emphasis of zero means all words have identical font size regardless of their frequencies, and an emphasis above one means even more exaggeration of more frequent words.
Aesthetically, a natural looking word cloud should have emphasis between 0.50 and 1.00. One may argue that the relative size of two letters in two words should reflect their relative frequencies, and hence an emphasis of 0.50 is a good choice. Others may want a more 'Wordle-like' effect emphasis of higher frequency words, in which case an emphasis of 1.00 is appropriate. I believe a compromising emphasis of 0.60 is pleasing to the eyes (hence it is the default), but I also believe in choice, and therefore such option is provided.
By design, the default setting of tightness and emphasis should be good enough for most cases. Sometimes manual tuning of tightness and emphasis may be needed to tame tricky combination of shapes and fonts.
Q: How come Tagxedo sizes the words differently than Wordle?
There are several reasons. First, by default Tagxedo uses a different notion of 'emphasis' than Wordle (See the discussion about Emphasis). You can choose an emphasis of 1.00 to maximize compatibility with Wordle. Second, Tagxedo performs stemming which is to combine related words ('State' and 'States') into one, and this may skew the frequencies. There are also a variety of other minor reasons such as how area is counted (whitespace vs. bounding box), difference in font choices, difference in relative canvas size, and so on.
Q: Is there a way to generate the tagcloud app?
A: This feature is not availble to the public yet. There are several issues I need to figure out, including the use model (whether each app fully contains all fonts it uses, or each app dynamically download fonts from http://www.tagxedo.com), font licensing (how the fonts can be used and how attribution is done), and app licensing.
Q: What is the licensing requirement for using images created or derived from Tagxedo?
A: The images created by Tagxedo, and their derivatives, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License 3.0, and must be attributed to http://www.tagxedo.com. The images created by Tagxedo and their derivatives are free for personal use, including usage on personal blogs, non-profit organizations, and non-profit education institutions, subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License. For more information on licensing please contact licensing@tagxedo.com
Q: Why Silverlight?
A: I'm technology-agnostic and hold the general opinion that the best technologies for the job should be used. For an application like Tagxedo where I deployed fancy algorithms to achieve better quality and faster respins, I believe Silverlight offers the best technology, over other technologies I've considered, including Html5, Flash, Javafx, Java Applet, and Server-side technology.
Q: Why Silverlight, honestly?
A: Well, the previous answer was an honest one :) But let me be more explicit about the choices. I developed Tagxedo as a 'co-project' to its bigger sibling, Coloroke (soon to be released), and the platform decision was made primarily during the development of Coloroke. In particular, for high-complexity applications, Html5 is simply not usable (yet) because of adoption, slow runtime of Javascript compared to Silverlight, cross-browser compatibility issue (I hate debugging scripting languages). Flash is a great platform primarily because of the huge penetration and pervasive cross-browser support, but performance-wise Silverlight is better (by 3X) and the Visual Studio development environment is 10X better. Java (and JavaFX?) has equal or better performance compared to Silverlight but the platform is just awful for web client application. In the old days, I would use a server-side approach, the rise of RIA platforms allows for much better responsive user experience.
I'm sure some will agree with me and some won't. Again, the goal is really to develop an awesome application and whichever technology does the job the best will get my vote.
Q: What about Mac support?
A: Tagxedo is based on Silverlight 3, which is supported on Mac with Intel-based processors. Older Macs that are built on PowerPC won't be supported due to Silverlight's limitation, and unfortunately there is no workaround.
Q: I installed Silverlight on Mac but it didn't work?
A: Often all you need is a reboot, even if you weren't prompted to do so.
Q: What about Linux support?
A: Unfortunately Tagxedo does not work on Linux.
Tagxedo Download
Q: I Love Tagxedo! How can I show my appreciation?
A: Thanks! There are a few things you can do:
Tagxedo Creator Silverlight
- Help me spread the word.
- Tell me how to improve Tagxedo.
- Upgrade to premium when it becomes available.
- Consider making a donation. Your support and enthusiasm are much appreciated!