Generative Greeting Cards

October 28, 2025

I've come up with a fun way to make greeting cards. I started with a javascript algorithm that creates and manipulates points in 3d space to resemble flowers. For example, each petal starts as a simple circle. By stretching it and playing with the formula for its radius, I can get it to look more like a petal. Then, I duplicate that petal many times, placing each one in a circle. Eventually, they start to look like a flower. Similarly, I create a shape that resembles a seed in the middle area of the flower and place many of those in a pattern defined by a Fibonacci lattice. Finally, I add a few more shapes for the stems and leaves.

Because these shapes are all defined mathematically, I can produce a large variety of flower types by changing the petal shapes, the number of petals, the number of seeds, etc. Also, I can apply interesting filters on the points, such as squishing them to fit into a square.

Next, I export the flowers as svg files, and convert them to gcode files using vpype. I pass the gcode files to my pen plotter, and it starts drawing the design directly to paper with a Micron pen.

The interesting thing about producing greeting cards like this is that each one can be unique, and each one is recognizably made with pen on paper, instead of printed.