Victoria Kumaran and Mark Carney of Quantum Village (QV) introduce an open-source True-Type Font (TTF) specifically designed to create diagrams of quantum circuits. The Quantum Computer Modern Unicode (QCMU) font is based on the widely used Computer Modern Unicode (CMU) font. QCMU’s design facilitates the seamless incorporation of quantum circuit diagrams into written documents, presentations, and publications. As a result, it offers an accessible and user-friendly way for individuals to communicate complex quantum circuit information to a broader audience.
QV aims to foster engagement with quantum technologies by providing a platform for discussion and discourse. The approach includes hosting talks and debates in a Union style, offering hands-on access to Quantum Computers/Devices, and organizing the World’s First Quantum Capture the Flag competition.
QCMU’s open-source nature also allows for its continual improvement and adaptation to the evolving needs of the quantum computing community. Its availability on various platforms ensures its accessibility to users regardless of their device or operating system, making it a valuable resource for those in the field of quantum computing who seek an efficient and versatile method of presenting quantum circuit diagrams in written form.
A User-Friendly Solution for Creating and Sharing Quantum Circuit Diagrams.
Currently, two common methods exist for creating quantum circuit diagrams: using software to create an image or learning LaTeX. However, both have limitations, such as difficulty with scaling and high memory usage.
A new font called Quantum Computer Modern has been developed to address these limitations. This font allows for dynamic and scalable quantum circuit diagrams that can be easily displayed on various platforms, such as desktop and mobile devices.
One advantage of using a font-based diagram is that it can be copied and pasted directly into documents without needing to install any additional extensions. Additionally, this font offers a more intuitive solution for those new to the quantum computing field and may find learning LaTeX too challenging.
Creating Quantum Circuit Diagrams through Text Documents
The Quantum Computer Modern Unicode (QCMU) font was designed to create quantum circuit diagrams within text documents. The font utilizes “liga” or “latin ligatures” to do substitutions for complex gates parts, making it possible to keep the text inline without needing images or other processing.
In addition to simple gates, the QCMU font can also create more complex gates. For instance, control gates can be indicated by using “Cu” and “Cl” to point towards the “upper” or “lower” gate, respectively. The browser then generates the appropriate glyph based on the font’s internal ligature lookup table.
The QCMU font also utilizes ligatures to create various gates for the main rotations or inverse gates. For example, “[2X]” will render as [2X], while “[SR]” (the reciprocal of the S gate) will render as [SR].
When discussing the monospaced nature of the font, it is important to note that three symbols – the space, asterisk, and apostrophe – are half the width of other characters. Using these symbols with gate names, such as in the example ‘[ U* Z’],’ requires some aesthetic adjustments to maintain proper alignment.
For instance, adding a dagger to a gate name would necessitate adding a space before the letter to maintain spacing. This would result in the transformation of ‘[U]’ to ‘[ U’]’, rendering the desired operator from [U] to [ U’].
Read more about it here.
