A 8-glider synthesis of Loafer.

Glider synthesis (or glider construction) is the construction of an object by means of collisions of gliders and glider-constructible spaceships. It is generally assumed that the gliders should be arranged so that they could come from infinity - that is, gliders should not have had to pass through one another to achieve the initial arrangement (or else it is considered “not fully functional”).

Loafer (also the loafer) is a c/7 orthogonal spaceship found by Josh Ball on February 17, 2013. Its name refers to its slow speed and loaf-pushing behaviour.

It is the fifth smallest known spaceship in terms of cell count (after glider, lightweight spaceship, middleweight spaceship and heavyweight spaceship), being tied with some nontrivial flotillae.

Loafer ranked second place in the Pattern of the Year 2013 competition in a belated vote held on the ConwayLife.com forums, behind the Snark.