i kerned the letters as intuitively as possible. i think there's still a problem between the 8 and 4 in the serif font. the sans serif font is perhaps kerned too tightly, however, block sans serif always seems to ask to be kerned tightly...

problem 2

i made a grid from a vector of 1920 elements. the font size is independent of the size of the grid since i thought it might be neat to have the letters "offend" their boundaries. each cell (6p x 9p) is based on a 10pt fixed width font, in this case Courier.

the vector approach i took in problem 2 did not prove fast enough for problem three, and it became too onerous as well. i changed it to a two dimensional grid of ints which proved much faster. had i known how to double buffer to reduce the flashies, i would have. next time. the rules are as follows:
 

• a number entry will set the kerning space between all subsequent words placed in the grid.
• an alphabetic character entry will abide by the kerning rules set by number entry and place a word that corresponds to the character into the grid.
• a symbol entry produces a block of symbols beginning at mouse position and continuing to the right edge minus any previous number entry. It also acts as a boolean to change the writing direction from horizontal to vertical.