GoKawiilDeveloper uses ImageMagick and TomThumb font to animate all of Moby Dick in an 88x31 button
A hobbyist web developer documented a method for building an animated 88x31 'website button' — a tiny web graphic format popular on retro and Small Web sites — that scrolls through the full text of Moby Dick. The project uses the TomThumb typeface, designed for legibility at very small sizes, combined with ImageMagick on a POSIX system to generate the GIF frames from a plain text copy of the novel.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The project pushes a niche web decoration format, usually used for a few words or a logo, to an unusual extreme, which could inspire other Small Web and retro-internet enthusiasts to experiment with text-heavy or data-dense button designs. It also serves as a practical, reusable tutorial for combining open-source tools (ImageMagick, TomThumb, plain-text sources) to automate pixel-constrained animation.
- The tutorial shows how to build an animated 88x31 button using ImageMagick and the TomThumb font on POSIX systems.
- GIF files technically support unlimited frames and resolutions up to 4295 megapixels, far beyond the tiny 88x31 button size used here.
- The project reflects a broader Small Web culture of retro web button art, extended here to display an entire novel's text.
Source: k.sosnierz.me — Konstanty Sośnierz, 2026-10-17
Published there as: “Making a 88x31 button book using ImageMagick”
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