Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

garden-of-flowers.heikkilotvonen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 31 posts

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#21

Post by djmips »

california-og wrote: post #10
softgrow wrote: post #8

At school studying typing there was a class of 66 all manual typewriters except for the two electrics. If you were good and had some spare time, you were given printed instructions to type particular characters and returns. Sometimes shift into red ink. Do it properly and you got an image. So maybe pre ASCII art?

Definitely! Take a look at these books: —Fun with your typewriter by Madge Roemer https://archive.org/details/FunWithTypewriter/mode/thumb —Artyping by Julius Nelson https://archive.org/details/Artyping-HQ/mode/thumb —Typewriter Art by Alan Riddell https://archive.org/details/TypewriterArt-AlanRiddell/mode/t...

I remember being a kid in early 80s typing class and trying to make pictures. Your archive is fantastic.

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#23

Post by quakeguy »

Very nice, i have a book in my library which you’ll find interesting.

Jeremy Adler and Ulrich Ernst

Text als Figur

https://www.amazon.de/Text-als-Figur-Visuelle-Moderne/dp/352...

It is full of pictures like you have collected.

Example:

https://imgur.com/a/mWL4kSs

Sadly it seems this book is rather rare.

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#24

Post by contingencies »

I noticed Asia is severely underrepresented. This is normal in western collections, but there are exceptions. You should find great examples from China, India, Indonesia, Iran (actually Muslim countries in general), Japan, and Vietnam. Some potential leads on works you haven't catalogued: (1) The collection search site for the Dutch 'Wereldmuseum' in Rotterdam, which houses the state collection (they were the first to Japan). (2) The same for Lisbon's Museu do Oriente. (3) International Dunhuang Project, affiliated with the British Library, which has scanned some of the earliest printed works in Asia with a good digital catalogue, some of which have graphic elements. (4) Musee Guimet, Paris. (5) The Print and Graphic Communication Museum in Lyon. (6) The National Technical Museum in Prague (great printing and photography holdings). (7) Asian art auction records. (8) Should you broaden to sculpture, many of the great Buddhist and Hindu carved stone monuments incorporate text with their form elements, though generally not integrally. (9) Chinese folk arts of paper-cut, embroidery (upholstery/cloth/fashion) and new year folk printed door poster art probably have some exceptional examples, as will some cast bronze sculptures such as temple incense burners.

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#25

Post by contingencies »

california-og wrote: post #10
softgrow wrote: post #8

At school studying typing there was a class of 66 all manual typewriters except for the two electrics. If you were good and had some spare time, you were given printed instructions to type particular characters and returns. Sometimes shift into red ink. Do it properly and you got an image. So maybe pre ASCII art?

Definitely! Take a look at these books: —Fun with your typewriter by Madge Roemer https://archive.org/details/FunWithTypewriter/mode/thumb —Artyping by Julius Nelson https://archive.org/details/Artyping-HQ/mode/thumb —Typewriter Art by Alan Riddell https://archive.org/details/TypewriterArt-AlanRiddell/mode/t...

That first one is clearly ASCII art predecessor. Thanks, typing pool, for BBS art!

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#26

Post by california-og »

contingencies wrote: post #24

I noticed Asia is severely underrepresented. This is normal in western collections, but there are exceptions. You should find great examples from China, India, Indonesia, Iran (actually Muslim countries in general), Japan, and Vietnam. Some potential leads on works you haven't catalogued: (1) The collection search site for the Dutch 'Wereldmuseum' in Rotterdam, which houses the state collection (they were the first t…

Yes, I agree. Thank you for the advice and leads, much appreciated! I will dig into these. The archive is scoped to letterpress only, so that will automatically skew it more towards latin based typographic cultures, but I would like to find more non Latin stuff, especially Arabic. Haven't yet found very good archives for that though.

Some Japanese letterpress works I already have catalogued, and they're amazing:

https://garden-of-flowers.heikkilotvonen.com/?filters=japan

A recent blogpost by Jacob Filipp has good info on it:

https://jacobfilipp.com/hana-no-shiori/

Unfortunately the Japanese archives that I've found have mostly poor quality microfilms though, which makes further search a bit unmotivating.

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#27

Post by california-og »

quakeguy wrote: post #23

Very nice, i have a book in my library which you’ll find interesting. Jeremy Adler and Ulrich Ernst Text als Figur https://www.amazon.de/Text-als-Figur-Visuelle-Moderne/dp/352... It is full of pictures like you have collected. Example: https://imgur.com/a/mWL4kSs Sadly it seems this book is rather rare.

Thank you for this! I had come across it by name before but totally forgot about it until you mentioned it again. I'll have to hunt it down, seems like some antique bookshops have it for a reasonable price.

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#28

Post by contingencies »

california-og wrote: post #26
contingencies wrote: post #24

I noticed Asia is severely underrepresented. This is normal in western collections, but there are exceptions. You should find great examples from China, India, Indonesia, Iran (actually Muslim countries in general), Japan, and Vietnam. Some potential leads on works you haven't catalogued: (1) The collection search site for the Dutch 'Wereldmuseum' in Rotterdam, which houses the state collection (they were the first t…

Yes, I agree. Thank you for the advice and leads, much appreciated! I will dig into these. The archive is scoped to letterpress only, so that will automatically skew it more towards latin based typographic cultures, but I would like to find more non Latin stuff, especially Arabic. Haven't yet found very good archives for that though. Some Japanese letterpress works I already have catalogued, and they're amazing: http…

Check London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) library too. https://www.soas.ac.uk/soas-library/special-collections

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#29

Post by quakeguy »

california-og wrote: post #27
quakeguy wrote: post #23

Very nice, i have a book in my library which you’ll find interesting. Jeremy Adler and Ulrich Ernst Text als Figur https://www.amazon.de/Text-als-Figur-Visuelle-Moderne/dp/352... It is full of pictures like you have collected. Example: https://imgur.com/a/mWL4kSs Sadly it seems this book is rather rare.

Thank you for this! I had come across it by name before but totally forgot about it until you mentioned it again. I'll have to hunt it down, seems like some antique bookshops have it for a reasonable price.

I have found a pdf, it was on the InternetArchive, but got taken down there. AA has it!

Re: Show HN: Garden of Flowers – an archive of pictorial typography before ASCII art

#30

Post by jfil »

california-og wrote: post #26
contingencies wrote: post #24

I noticed Asia is severely underrepresented. This is normal in western collections, but there are exceptions. You should find great examples from China, India, Indonesia, Iran (actually Muslim countries in general), Japan, and Vietnam. Some potential leads on works you haven't catalogued: (1) The collection search site for the Dutch 'Wereldmuseum' in Rotterdam, which houses the state collection (they were the first t…

Yes, I agree. Thank you for the advice and leads, much appreciated! I will dig into these. The archive is scoped to letterpress only, so that will automatically skew it more towards latin based typographic cultures, but I would like to find more non Latin stuff, especially Arabic. Haven't yet found very good archives for that though. Some Japanese letterpress works I already have catalogued, and they're amazing: http…

I was going to reach out and share the Japanese type art of the Grand Opera House, but looks like you already found my site :-)

Also check out RTTY art (radio teletype) http://taipeisignalarmy.blogspot.com/2010/09/teletype-art.ht... And Stigmatypie (moving type art, with mostly periods) https://stewf.tumblr.com/post/81162862081/stigmatypie-19th-c...

Post reply on HN