I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
dougmacdowell.com
I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
1–10 of 118 posts
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#2What's been more interesting to me lately than using software to design data visualizations is learning to draw data by hand. It's a time consuming process but incredibly rewarding. The feeling of erasing graphite to reveal clean, crisp lines is something that software cannot recreate.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#3> A professional draftsman of the 1920's may cringe at the imperfections in my line graph above. They can suck it.
I am willing to suck it but the kerning is still killing me. (I love everything about this btw)
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#4And here I thought drawing graphs in TikZ was doing it manually.
Love the article, this is why I browse HN.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#5What's been more interesting to me lately than using software to design data visualizations is learning to draw data by hand. It's a time consuming process but incredibly rewarding. The feeling of erasing graphite to reveal clean, crisp lines is something that software cannot recreate.
What do you use to erase pencil? The words "Using an eraser and a light touch" suggest a gum or a vynil eraser. I make a ball with the kneaded eraser and roll it with the palm against the paper.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#6They look really good. I really enjoy looking at midcentury engineering charts/diagrams and stuff like jeppesen charts. NASA has a lot of good ones. The way the text looks, the line economy, the general aesthetic. Well worth the effort imo!
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#7[flagged]
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#8[dead]
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#9It’s nice to see something on HN that isn’t about writing a prompt so that you can pretend to work.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#10It’s nice to see something on HN that isn’t about writing a prompt so that you can pretend to work.
Username checks out