Which letter of the English alphabet takes up most pixels?
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
Hmm, let's see:
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
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.
Gist with these character widths in a ratio form (W = 100) captured here using this particular example font:
https://gist.github.com/imaurer/d330e68e70180c985b380f25e195b90c