Directions

  1. Select a text.
  2. Count the number of letters in each word in the text.
  3. Assign a color to each number.
  4. Replace the space taken up by the word with a rectangle.
  5. The color of the rectangle should correspond with the number of letters in the word it replaces.

Example

Mouse over to replace text.

CALABAZO, Colombia — Skinny but imposing with aviator glasses, a bushy mustache and a toothy smile, Julio Henríquez Santamaría was leading a community meeting in this sylvan hamlet when he was abducted by paramilitary thugs, thrown into the back of a Toyota pickup and disappeared forever on Feb. 4, 2001.

Ahead of his time, Mr. Henríquez had been organizing farmers to substitute legal crops like cacao for coca, which the current Colombian government, on the verge of ending a civil war fueled by the narcotics trade, is promoting as an antidrug strategy.

But Hernán Giraldo Serna, or his men, didn’t like it, or him.

Text from 'The Secret History of Colombia’s Paramilitaries and the U.S. War on Drugs'

Try It Yourself

Paste text here to create a color substitution. Mouse over text to replace.