FontFont, the type library with the repetitive name has (ironically, given their name) released a font that takes the guesswork out of typing for the txt-msg world that’s emerging. The unique font, FF Mt, transforms your type into space-saving abbreviations that still stand up to spell-checking (and they’re hip, to boot).

Created by Erik Spiekermann, FF Mt plays on emerging research that reading does not require all of the letters in a word to be printed for readers to recognize and comprehend the word. FontFont claims that the font saves 50% on space through its automatic compression, which largely strips out vowels and reduces capital letters. It’s apparently based on the “seminal” FF Meta (1984), also by Spiekermann.

According to Typographica, the German government is already using FF Mt to save space on the country’s road signs, as illustrated in this before/after comparison. It’s available now for free, so you might as well download a copy and experiment! All you need to do is type — as you find “wrds” that don’t compute without their vowels, just use a capital letter (hold Shift), and you’ll get a letter to fill in.

And sometimes, things just have to be spelled to make sense, of course: “Lf is gd” is either a nice sentiment or a religious one, depending on the quantity of o’s imagined. (Thanks, Typographica)