3 ms·

>"I didn't know the A series of paper sizes was built around the golden rectangle." It's late so forgive me if I'm wrong (and my maths/geometry ended at high s

>"I didn't know the A series of paper sizes was built around the golden rectangle." It's late so forgive me if I'm wrong (and my maths/geometry ended at high school level back in 1985), but I don't think that's correct. 'A' series paper dimensions are based on the square root of two [1] which is a ratio of 1:4142. The golden rectangle has a ratio of 1:1.618 [2]. 'A' series paper sizes are basically halves of the parent size. You can't fit a golden spiral into that geometry. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#The_international_standard:_ISO_216 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#The_international_s... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle

twelvechairs 12y ago
A sizes (1:√2 ratio) are related to the 'silver ratio' (not gold) which is "1:1+√2". Regardless of names of precious metals, its a ratio using simpler numbers than "letter" format, which generally means it's more aesthetically pleasing [Edit] it should be noted that (arguably) many Gothic cathedrals are based on a √2 ratio
- teh_klev 12y ago
  I didn't know about the silver ratio, or rather that 1:√2 ratio is known as the silver ratio. Thanks for enlightening me.
theoh 12y ago
The other constraint is that A0 sheets are one square metre in area. This leads to the neat formula for page sizes in metres being pow(2,(+ or -)1/4 - n/2) where n is the number of the sheet size. It's rounded to the nearest mm. Discussion here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html It's embarrassing but not too surprising that Vignelli confuses root 2 with phi. The culture of design and also architecture places a lot of importance on having things "just so" and much less importance on the reason why. It's an "uncertainty avoidance" thing, to use Hofstede's terms. It's not uncommon to hear strange claims about exact proportions in the human body from architects, which is part of the same attitude. There's a recent book of investigations of phi by graphic artists that is slightly more rigorous: http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2014/feb/25/golden-meaning-graphic-artists-maths-golden-ratio http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numbe...

twelvechairs 12y ago

A sizes (1:√2 ratio) are related to the 'silver ratio' (not gold) which is "1:1+√2". Regardless of names of precious metals, its a ratio using simpler numbers than "letter" format, which generally means it's more aesthetically pleasing [Edit] it should be noted that (arguably) many Gothic cathedrals are based on a √2 ratio

teh_klev 12y ago
I didn't know about the silver ratio, or rather that 1:√2 ratio is known as the silver ratio. Thanks for enlightening me.

theoh 12y ago

The other constraint is that A0 sheets are one square metre in area. This leads to the neat formula for page sizes in metres being pow(2,(+ or -)1/4 - n/2) where n is the number of the sheet size. It's rounded to the nearest mm. Discussion here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html It's embarrassing but not too surprising that Vignelli confuses root 2 with phi. The culture of design and also architecture places a lot of importance on having things "just so" and much less importance on the reason why. It's an "uncertainty avoidance" thing, to use Hofstede's terms. It's not uncommon to hear strange claims about exact proportions in the human body from architects, which is part of the same attitude. There's a recent book of investigations of phi by graphic artists that is slightly more rigorous: http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2014/feb/25/golden-meaning-graphic-artists-maths-golden-ratio http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numbe...