Two hiding places in one letter
Read it and it is a note about the weather and the dog. Every word is real and the message says nothing.
But the gaps are not all the same width, and the letter shapes are not all the same font. Either one, on its own, carries a message.
A wide gap is a one and a narrow gap is a nought. Eight gaps make a letter, exactly as they do in binary, and exactly as Bacon did it four hundred years ago with two handwritings.
Why this one survives the internet
Most hiding falls apart when a file is copied. A message in the last digit of a pixel dies the moment somebody re-saves the picture. A microdot cannot be emailed at all.
But spaces and letter shapes are part of the text itself. Copy the words, paste them anywhere, send them in a message: the pattern travels with them, because it is them.
Modern versions use characters that take up no width at all — invisible marks sitting between ordinary letters, carrying a message through any system that handles text. Some companies quietly mark documents this way, so that a leaked copy can be traced back to the person it was given to.
And that is the honest ending for this whole section. Hiding is not only something you do. It is something that may already have been done to what you are reading.
Bacon's cipher Null ciphers Back to HIPSWhere it comes from
Francis Bacon wrote every letter as five units of two kinds, then hid those units in two typefaces so a page looked ordinary. The modern version uses characters that take up no width at all, invisible marks sitting between ordinary letters. Some companies quietly mark documents this way, so a leaked copy can be traced back to the person it was given to.
Try it away from the screen
Type a sentence and put two spaces after some words and one after others. Send it to somebody. The pattern travels with the words, because it is the words.
Read more elsewhere
Longer, harder and written for grown-ups. Worth a look when this page runs out.