How to create letters made of circles?

[Boldline]

If I wanted to recreate the style of these letters in the word, "Juneteenth" this example, is there a way to do so in VS?

[b77]

@Boldline I don't think there is a fast automated solution… You need to create a few dotted paths and shape them to match some similar handwriting in the background.

If you need to recreate this as vectors, I would trace it. Tracing will indeed generate small irregular shapes, but you can then break them apart and replace each one with a circle object.

[Subpath]

@b77

... replace each one with a reference circle object....

I am a bit curios about that part.
How could that be done that way ?

Do you need to replace any circle by hand ?
Or is there a Automatic search an replace function
with a reference circle ?

Could you please explain the way how to do it ?

[Boldline]

@b77 I had been thinking more on this: I could create a pattern brush with a circle like that example and then create the exterior edges with that pattern brush stroke.... then expand and use merge to fill in the space in between .
this might require some experimentation to see what works best

[Victor Vector]

@Boldline
I was fascinated by this question and it got me thinking about all the tools and ways to approach this problem. Here is my stab at it with just using an array of shapes with the Repeater function. Much more uniform and less organic than the effect you illustrate above, but it has potential.
I was especially focused on how to create dots that are not cut by the boundary of the letter form, which is what makes your question, based on the example, a real challenge. Otherwise it can be handled easily with a pattern as a fill, or the "cut off" dots in the nested letter can be manually deleted; but that is a bit tedious.
So here is a solution that requires only a few deletions, making it a viable choice, in my opinion. Thanks for asking the question and presenting the challenge.

[Subpath]

@Boldline

Here an idea of mine i use "Aligment to Shape"
for this.

Video: see here
.

[Subpath]

@Victor-Vector

nice try, but as you see
the circles dont follow the shape
in Repeater

[Victor Vector]

@Subpath said in How to create letters made of circles?:

@Victor-Vector

nice try, but as you see
the circles dont follow the shape
in Repeater

Yes, I know that. I was offering a possible solution to "letters made of circles" not "letters made of circles that follow the flow of a hand written script", thinking that one might be trying to create the effect with a typeface that was not analogous to handwriting.

@Subpath I like your brilliant solution! Thanks for sharing.

I was going to attempt a script-flow method based on creating a brush made of dots, but I think I'll leave it there.

[b77]

@Boldline It might be that the text in the image was made like Subpath described or similar with a custom brush, but with additional editing here and there after expanding.

But anyway, here's how I replace objects in VS:

• draw the object that will replace the other objects (say, a circle);
• make it a symbol (Styles menu > Create Styles > Create Symbol…);
• select the objects you want to replace;
• give them a 'Shape' role (Object menu > Object Role > Shape);
• open the Find/Replace window (Edit menu > Find/Replace…)
• select Search by 'Role';
• select 'Shape';
• from the Replace dropdown menu select the symbol you just created;
• click 'Replace All'

This method is good if you trace the image and get irregular shapes you want to change to circles.

[b77]

And a faster method:

Just select the objects you want to replace and in the Find/Replace window choose 'Selection' and 'Marker' — no need to assign a role to the objects:

[VectorStyler]

@Boldline How about using a repeater with the Random geometry. Some parameters may need to be tuned a bit.

[Subpath]

@Victor-Vector

Its great how many ways VS offer to solve
something like this