Wednesday 29 September 2010

Opera Historica & Intense Seeing

Here is a comparison between the page and textblock proportions of Intense Seeing and the Opera historica et philologica published in 1682 by Marcus Welser - and shown in an earlier posting.


The textblock proportions are almost identical - about 2:1 [H:W] and the ratios of Page Height: Textblock Height are again almost spot on the same at 6:5 [Page H: Text Block H].  The page width of Intense Seeing is a bit wider but allowing for loss due to binding this will end up about the same. 


Note that the absolute dimensions are quite different - the physical size of Opera Historica  is 325 x 202 mm and the Intense Seeing page size is 248 x 171 mm (
Pinched Crown Quarto).


Unbiased Stereology Page Spread

This year we have typeset and reprinted Unbiased Stereology using a short run digital printing set up from MPG Biddles. Here is a typical page spread, all typeset in LaTeX using the Adobe Utopia font and the memoir package. 

 

Frankenstein Book cover

Here is a nice book cover re-design for Frankenstein by Danish designer Julian Hansen


Tuesday 28 September 2010

The Java Scriptorium

The Java Scriptorium is an interactive 3d animation on the theme of desert wandering and the representation of the concept of sanctuary. The text, which plays a central role in this work is based on passages from the Bible and from the sectarian body of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Here is an example;


Joseph Prichard.com

Here is a Trinité Type Specimen from Josephprichard.com that is also an essay about the Ramones!

The images are shown in a small multiple below.



Sunday 26 September 2010

Picturing to Learn

Picturing to Learn is a US based initiative that aims to work with science students on the basic premise; 

undergraduate students can clarify their own understanding of scientific concepts and processes by creating drawings that explain these concepts to non-experts.

The project is part of the Envisioning Science Program at Harvard University. 

 The example below was generated in response to this challenge - "Create a freehand drawing to explain to a high school senior how the motions of large and small particles suspended in a fluid are affected by an increase in temperature of the fluid."






 

Saturday 25 September 2010

US Cold War map - LOOK magazine Sept 1952

Damp Flat Books - Brighton

Here is the site of art book publishers Damp Flat Books - for example How to Running a Secret Society below.


Heart Urchin - Julia McKenzie

‘Heart Urchin’ is a print by Julia Mckenzie selected for the Pushing Print 2010 exhibition  starting on October the 9th at the Pie factory in Margate. She found the heart urchin on Whistable beach just down the road from Margate.

Paul Catherall OXO building Linocut series

And HERE is a set of limited edition OXO building and other London inspired linocuts by Paul Catherall.

Paul Catherall Linocut

The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum have a R100 & R101: Airships at Cardington exhibition - they commissioned an exclusive artwork from print maker Paul Catherall. Below.




Tuesday 21 September 2010

The histological slides and drawings of Cajal

From Wikipedia.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852 – 1934) was a Spanish histologist, psychologist, and Nobel laureate. His pioneering investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain were original: he is considered by many to be the father of modern neuroscience. He was skilled at drawing, and hundreds of his illustrations of brain cells are still used for educational purposes today.


This PAPER is a catalogue of his drawings and slides.  In it the authors quote Cajal on how he did his  drawings;

“The camera lucida, even when one is accustumed to its use through much practise, is only useful to fi x the contour of the principal objects: any labour of detail must be done without the aid of that instrument,
which  has,  in  addition,  the  inconvenience  of  dazzling  the  delicate details….Reproduction  by  freehand  drawing  is  the  best  procedure when  one  has  some  habit  and  liking  for  artistic  painting”. 

An example below - a drawing of Purkinje cells (A) and granule cells (B) from pigeon cerebellum by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1899. Instituto Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain.

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet - Reif Larsen

Sunday 19 September 2010

Mouse, Macaque and Man

Here is a great visual, unfortunately without a scale bar, in which the brain of the mouse, macaque monkey and man are compared - roughly to scale.  The paper it is taken from is Evolution of the neocortex: Perspective from developmental biology by Pasko Rakic - HERE.

Thursday 16 September 2010

How maths was typeset before LaTeX

Here is an example of what used to be required to typeset a page of complex mathematics before computer based typesetting, and TEX and LaTEX in particular, were invented.  




From  T W Chaundy, P R Barrett, and Charles Batey. The printing of mathematics. London: Oxford University Press (1954) p. 4   

Cited in Three typefaces for mathematics. The development of Times 4-line Mathematics Series 569, AMS Euler, and Cambria Math by Daniel Rhatigan. (Which you can get HERE)

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Fraser Island Photo-piece

In the latest National Geographic a piece on Fraser Island - one of my favourite spots in Australia.


Tuesday 7 September 2010

Keenan book-cover designs

Here is the website of Keenan design.
Below is a collection of covers they did for Penguin. 

Monday 6 September 2010

Speaking to the Past

Here is a 75th Anniversary of Penguin book project. Inspired by this here is an Intense Seeing Penguin mock up.


The Crystal Goblet

The Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde. Set in MinionPro using LaTeX. 

Friday 3 September 2010

Process of Printing Wood Engraving, 1956

Process of Printing Wood Engraving (Mokuhan Suritate Junjo), Kyoto, distributed The Red lantern Shop, Kyoto, 8vo (6 7/8 x 9 3/4 in - 17.5 x 24.7 cm), not dated but believed to be ca 1956. From HERE.

FIGURE

The ten small image pairs to the left show the ten steps required to make the finished print on the right. Each small panel shows a pair of images for each additional colour that has been added (the one to the left of the pair shows the blobs of colour, the one to the right the cumulative effect). 


Thursday 2 September 2010

An original Manga

Hokusai is not only famous for his views of Mount Fuji - but also his books of comic images - or manga. Here is an example.