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What is graphglyph?

tenobrus/graphglyph — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

57PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

In one sentence

A Python command-line tool that hides text inside abstract mathematical graph images, and can decode the text back out again.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((graphglyph))
    What it does
      Hides text in a graph image
      Decodes text from image
      Based on unit distance graphs
    Tech stack
      Python
    Use cases
      Encode a message as an image
      Decode a message from an image
      Export as SVG JSON or PNG
    Audience
      Developers
      Hobbyists

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Encode a piece of text into a blue-and-orange graph image that looks like abstract art.

USE CASE 2

Decode the original text back out of a previously generated SVG or JSON graph file.

USE CASE 3

Choose between three point-set modes to change the density and shape of the generated graph.

USE CASE 4

Customize dot colors, edge colors, and background color of the output image.

What is it built with?

Python

How does it compare?

tenobrus/graphglyphhexsecteam/droidhunterjaideep005/churn_retention_system
Stars575757
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasyhardeasy
Complexity2/54/53/5
Audiencedeveloperresearcherpm founder

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

No notable dependencies beyond Python, PNG output cannot be decoded back to text.

So what is it?

Graphglyph is a Python tool that hides text inside a mathematical graph image. You give it a string of text, and it produces a blue-and-orange diagram of dots connected by lines. The diagram looks like abstract geometric art, but the original text is fully recoverable from the image file. It works in reverse too: feed the image back to the tool and get the original text out. The hiding method works by varying the visual weight of edges in the graph. The graph is built from a specific family of points defined by a mathematical formula (based on research from an OpenAI paper on unit-distance graphs, where every connected pair of points is exactly distance 1 apart in a plane). The tool encodes your text as a series of four-bit values and distributes them through the graph by making one edge in each candidate pair slightly stronger or thicker than the other. A random seed derived from the text also shifts how the graph is structured, so two different phrases produce visibly different-looking images. The tool has three modes for generating the point set that underlies the graph. The default mode produces images that vary noticeably between different inputs. The other two modes follow specific bounded-norm variants from the mathematical paper, producing graphs with different densities and shapes. Output can be SVG (scalable vector format, fully decodable), JSON (data format, also decodable), or PNG (a visual preview that cannot be decoded back to text). Colors in the image are for display only and do not affect decoding. You can customize dot colors, edge colors, and background color. It is a single-script command-line tool with no notable dependencies beyond Python. The README notes that all code was written by GPT 5.5.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me run this command-line tool to hide a short message inside a graph image.
Prompt 2
Show me how to decode text back out of an SVG file produced by this tool.
Prompt 3
Explain how this repo uses unit-distance graphs to encode four-bit values as edge weights.
Prompt 4
Walk me through the differences between this tool's three point-set generation modes.

Frequently asked questions

What is graphglyph?

A Python command-line tool that hides text inside abstract mathematical graph images, and can decode the text back out again.

What language is graphglyph written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python.

How hard is graphglyph to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is graphglyph for?

Mainly developer.

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