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What an outstandingly beautiful book. The book is strangely familiar yet foreign at the same time - the graphics would work in any modern setting, yet the langu
by fsloth 5y ago
What an outstandingly beautiful book. The book is strangely familiar yet foreign at the same time - the graphics would work in any modern setting, yet the language is adorably dated. For some reason beautiful late 19th/ early 20th century books are astoundingly beautiful in their black and white simplicity, and I am always left yearning something of similar aesthetics in modern setting.
- dynamite-ready 5y agoIf you like this, you should probably get hold of a copy of 'The Visual Display of Quantitive Information' by Edward Tufte, which collects loads of similar examples from various points in history.
- fsloth 5y agoYes, Tufte's work is very good. I also like his war against powerpoint. A futile war unfortunately. Sigh.
- mhh__ 5y agoSpeaking of beautiful books: I have a bunch of old radar books (I assume it was some engineer who passed away), from the 1940s to 60s, and although there are some bits that definitely haven't aged well they are mostly still useful. The things that amazing though is just how nice to hold and read they are. They are astonishingly well typeset, legible graphs, silky paper etc. I checked out some of the prices in the back and they are similar to what one would expect for a new hardback textbook today, sadly. So books have got worse apparently.
- pmdulaney 5y agoI especially love the drawings and the lettering. Modern graphics produced on computers are great, but as a culture we are losing the ability to produce graphics by hand. Some time ago I think HN had links to New York Times graphics from the 1940's. Great stuff but I don't have the link.