Word Art

A friend sent me a link to a new website that looks promising for more than just diversionary efforts. Wordle is a site that takes a block of text that you supply and turns it into word art. Colors, sizes, fonts, and varied direction of the words combine to transform the words into an artistic rendering of your text. You can select the number of words you want Wordle to display.
You really have to experience this to understand what I mean. Try googling a poem or a well-known piece of text and playing with it in Wordle. You'll see what I mean.
My first thought was that this would be useful in creating cards or gifts. Imagine creating this kind of word art with something like a Scripture passage or an essay as a wedding, birthday, or baby gift.
My next thought was Wordle could be an interesting brainstorming tool. Let's say you want to write about something- musical instruments, for example. You type up a couple pages of your thoughts on musical instruments, what you know on the subject, what you'd like to know, what you think about when you think of musical instruments. Wordle highlights key concepts and can put them together in ways that you might not have thought of. This could create some fresh angles for your next writing project.
My last thought, and the one I'm still thinking about, is that Wordle has to have implications for book art. I don't have a fancy letterpress, or graphics editing program. So my options for creating text in interesting formats are limited. My options for editioning books of this nature are even further limited. If I want to create something with elaborate text it's going to be unique and it's going to take a lot of time. With Wordle, the text is adjustable, easily formatted, and there are several ways to transfer it into my book.
Yes, Wordle is my new toy. Did I mention it's free?