Quotefalls is a type of puzzle in which a quote (or other string) is presented in multiple lines in a fixed-proportion font. Each character is placed in the correct column, but not necessarily in the correct row. To solve the puzzle, you must determine what the original text was. For example, consider the following puzzle:
EaedheccaanacednheafoaabaeeaebecNeeeiGhdi fiinoeinlaogtiotshor fheiremrngiaesrucol finsttxomfritious os nrtrrr ust bo s mp is t p prrus t t ttwut y nu s ------------------------------------------ ________ ______ ____ _____ ____ __ ______- ____ ____________ __ ______, _______ ___ __ ___ __________ __ _________. __ ____ _____ ________ ___ ________ ________.
Look at E in the first column. The column is correct, but we don't know whether it should appear in the first, second, third or fourth row. Given that it's capitalized, we can safely assume it's the first character of the quote, so we can fill it in and get:
aedheccaanacednheafoaabaeeaebecNeeeiGhdi fiinoeinlaogtiotshor fheiremrngiaesrucol finsttxomfritious os nrtrrr ust bo s mp is t p prrus t t ttwut y nu s ------------------------------------------ E_______ ______ ____ _____ ____ __ ______- ____ ____________ __ ______, _______ ___ __ ___ __________ __ _________. __ ____ _____ ________ ___ ________ ________.
Similarly, there's a capital G near the right hand side, which probably lies at the beginning of a word, rather than in the middle of it, and so we can assume it should be placed like so:
aedheccaanacednheafoaabaeeaebecNeeei hdi fiinoeinlaogtiotshor fheiremrngiaesrucol finsttxomfritious os nrtrrr ust bo s mp is t p prrus t t ttwut y nu s ------------------------------------------ E_______ ______ ____ _____ ____ __ ______- ____ ____________ __ ______, _______ G__ __ ___ __________ __ _________. __ ____ _____ ________ ___ ________ ________.
The word that G is part of is relatively short at 3 letters, and we can assume that the second letter isn't a p, nor an h (because the third letter is either a d or an l). So we know the second letter is o, which means the third letter is probably d, and not l.
aedheccaanacednheafoaabaeeaebecNeeei h i fiinoeinlaogtiotshor fheiremrngiaesruc l finsttxomfritious os nrtrrr ust bo s mp is t p prrus t t ttwut y nu s ------------------------------------------ E_______ ______ ____ _____ ____ __ ______- ____ ____________ __ ______, _______ God __ ___ __________ __ _________. __ ____ _____ ________ ___ ________ ________.
In the last column, there's an i all by itself, so there's only one place where it can go. There's a similar column with an o all by itself near the middle.
aedheccaanacednheaf aabaeeaebecNeeei h fiinoeinlaogtiotshor fheiremrngiaesruc l finsttxomfritious os nrtrrr ust bo s mp is t p prrus t t ttwut y nu s ------------------------------------------ E_______ ______ ____ _____ ____ __ _____i- ____ ____________ __ ______, _______ God __ ___ __________ __ _________. __ ____ _____ ________ ___ _o______ ________.
So I won't walk through the whole puzzle, but you should gradually be able to fill in more and more letters until you get:
Einstein argued that there must be simpli- fied explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer.
Which is the solution to the puzzle.
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