Eli5: why does ̸̢̛̞̱͓Z̵̪͙͊̎̌ä̷̳͕̋̚l̵͉̙̓͘ͅg̴̫̠̑̈͜o̴̻͛ text look the way it does?
In: 5073
Some letters can be changed with accents. For example: e can be è, é, ê, ë, etc.
How do computers store letters with accents?
There are two main ways.
1. Store a copy of every letter with every accent combination. Or
2. Store the letters and accents separately.
Because there are lots of different letters and lots of different accents, it is easier for computers to store them separately. Think of letters as little Lego figures, and accents as their hats. You have a box of figures, a box of hats, and you can combine them however you like.
What happens if you put too many hats on your Lego figure? It starts to look a bit silly.
With computer text, you can take an English letter, and then add as many accents as you want to it. Some accents go at the top like É. Some go at the bottom like Ç.
Just like a tower of Lego, it is possible to keep adding accents on to letters. And that gives you the “Zalgo” effect.
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