a tiny operating system from a timeline that never invented pixels
Live: willbearfruits.github.io/characterworld
The landing page is CHARACTERWORLD/OS — a character-only desktop in the browser. Drag icons. Open windows. Right-click for context. Browse the typewritten internet. Every visible form is a typed glyph: ASCII, Unicode, box drawing, blocks, combining marks. No raster images, no SVG illustrations, no canvas path geometry, no CSS decorative shapes. A font is the only graphics card.
A real desktop, built entirely from typed characters:
- mycelium wallpaper — colored tips that walk a grid, branch, and leave fading heat trails
- draggable icons — positions persisted across sessions
- window manager — drag title bars, resize, minimize/maximize, focus z-order, taskbar pills tinted by program accent
- start menu + right-click context menus everywhere
- boot animation with a CRT-flash log
The OS ships with thirteen of them, all character-only:
| program | what it is | |
|---|---|---|
| ▓ | ATELIER | photoshop-style character paint program |
| ▓ | FILM | character-only video editor (webcam → glyphs, export GIF/PNG/ANSI/MP4) |
| ▓ | GRAIN | generative granular synth, mycelium scheduler, keyboard + gamepad |
| ▓ | TRACKER | 16-voice breakcore tracker, polyrhythmic, glyph knobs |
| ▓ | DELVE | character-only roguelike, every footstep a grain |
| ░ | BROWSER | character-only hypertext reader of the internal CHAR-NET |
| ░ | FILES | two-pane file manager, opens real READMEs in-frame |
| ░ | CALC | four-function calculator |
| ░ | SNAKE | classic, with ▓ walls and ● food |
| ░ | SORT | live sort visualizer · bubble · insertion · selection · cocktail |
| ░ | LIFE | Conway's Game of Life, paintable, with R-pentomino preset |
| ░ | TERM | shell with ls, cat, open, cowsay, sl, matrix, ... |
| ░ | CLOCK | analog face + multi-zone digital strip |
Heavy programs (▓) live in their own directories under this repo. Light accessories (░) are built into the OS.
CTRL+S |
toggle start menu |
CTRL+1..9, 0 |
open the Nth program |
right-click |
context menu (desktop, icon, taskbar pill, window title) |
F1 |
open this repo on GitHub |
ESC |
close menus and popups |
characterworld/
├─ index.html CHARACTERWORLD/OS — the desktop, single file
├─ og.png social card (rendered from the OS)
├─ AGENTS.md shared character-only policy (authoritative)
├─ CLAUDE.md guidance for AI collaborators
├─ skills/
│ └─ character-only-art/ shared policy skill
├─ charactershop/ ATELIER — single-file paint program
├─ characterfilm/ FILM — ES-module video editor
├─ charactergrain/ GRAIN — granular synth, mycelium scheduler
├─ charactertracker/ TRACKER — 16-voice tracker
└─ characterdelve/ DELVE — roguelike with grain footsteps
Each child has its own README. Each is self-contained: no frameworks, no bundlers, no npm. Plain HTML + JS, served as static files.
See AGENTS.md and skills/character-only-art/SKILL.md. Every child inherits the same rule:
Every visible form is a typed glyph. No images. No SVG. No path geometry. CSS only for layout, color, font, and transforms.
The one allowed exception is OpenGraph / social-card PNGs — their pixels happen to depict character art (og.png here was rendered from the OS itself).
Sibling repo: characterglitch established the base style — standalone browser pieces, glyph grids, ASCII/Unicode/Zalgo corruption, dark void palettes, direct canvas rendering.
python3 -m http.server 8000
# then open http://localhost:8000/The root page is the OS. From there you can drag icons, open windows, browse CHAR-NET, or descend into any sibling project at e.g. http://localhost:8000/charactergrain/.
MIT — see charactershop/LICENSE. Future siblings may ship their own LICENSE files inside their subdirectories.
— every glyph a pixel · willbear · 2026