Fine Print

In 1991, researchers at the Japanese firm Hitachi set the record for the world's smallest lettering at 1.5 nanometers tall. Now, a team of physicists at Stanford University have equaled that record using something called holographic script.

The process is way too scientific for a graphics class, so here's the short version. Using a microscope, carbon monoxide atoms are arranged on a copper surface. A flow of electrons is sent through it, which interferes with the carbon monoxide molecules and projects holographic patterns. A computer program works out how to arrange the molecules so that they scatter electrons into waves of a particular shape – letters.

Okay, let's pretend I understood that. So far Stanford has produced an "S", a "U" and an "SU" pair. How fitting.

The people at NewScientist say that being able to write information on such tiny scales could lead to new ways of packing large amounts of data into small spaces.

I think it's typographic history in the making. Though you wouldn't be able to read the tiny typeface with your naked eye, the technological advancement could one day inspire a whole new family of fonts.