Which letter of the English alphabet takes up most

Question

I am trying to do some dynamic programming based on the number of characters in a sentence. Which letter of the English alphabet takes up the most pixels on the screen?

Answer 1

I believe the letter W is the widest.

Answer 2

Hmm, let's see:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

ffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdffffdd

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

W wins.

Of course, this is a silly empirical experiment. There is no single answer to which letter is widest. It depends on the font. So you'll have to do a similar empirical experiment to figure out the answer for your environment. But the fact is, most fonts follow the same conventions, and capital W will be the widest.

Answer 3

Capital "M" is conventionally the widest.

Answer 4

It will depend on the font. I would create a small program in a programming language you're most comfortable with, where you draw each letter of the alphabet into a n times m sized bitmap. Initialize each pixel with white. Then count the number of white pixels after you've drawn each letter and save that number. The highest number you find is the one you're looking for.

EDIT: If you're in fact just interested in which one takes up the largest rectangle (but it looks like you're really after that, not the pixels), you can use various API calls to find the size, but that depends on your programming language. In Java, for example, you would use the FontMetrics class.

Answer 5

Further to Ned Batchelder's awesomely practical answer, because I came here wondering about digits:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111

2222222222222222222222222222222222222222

3333333333333333333333333333333333333333

4444444444444444444444444444444444444444

5555555555555555555555555555555555555555

6666666666666666666666666666666666666666

7777777777777777777777777777777777777777

8888888888888888888888888888888888888888

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Answer 6

Depending on your platform, there might be a way to "getWidth" from a string or DrawText() function somehow with a width property.

I would make a simple algortime that utilized the needed font and then ran through the alfabet and stored it in a small config or just calculated it at initialization as a loop from A to Z isnt that hard.