How much information does a sentence need to contain in order to be readable?

That’s the idea behind today’s puzzles. Listed below are ten common phrases or sayings in the English language. Each letter is replaced by a box the same width and height as the letter. Can you work out what they are?

It’s not easy. Look at the ascenders and descenders for clues. As a help, I have colour-coded consonants as blue, and vowels as green.

Five are famous Shakespeare quotations. If puzzles be the food of love, play on!

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I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solutions.

PLS N SPLRS

Today’s puzzle is based on an original idea by Scott Kim. Thanks to Tom Tanaka for suggesting the idea and creating the images. Tom is an IP attorney in California and can be found on Instagram.

I’ve been setting a puzzle here on alternate Mondays since 2015. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.