New M51 Poster Set

[lukerichards]

Originally Posted by Microprint314

After I finish the binary version

Binary could be fun - you could use all sorts to represent 1 and 0 - even just a dot and a space.

[Microprint314]

I understand the comments about the high international shipping costs, and I agree. Honestly I was caught off guard since I normally just send individual posters in mailing tubes and the international costs were only a bit higher.

For this 12 poster set though, I can't pack it in a way where I'll have complaints about it not arriving in perfect or near perfect condition. In the US if a customer has an issue I just send a replacement, but that's more expensive overseas so I do what I can up front to make sure the package can survive a star going supernova.

The current issue is the weight of the set, which when all is said and done is about 4.5 pounds, or at least under 5 pounds. I can likely change the way I pack it so it's about 3.5 pounds but the savings are minimal - maybe $5 less on the shipping. The real savings come under 3 pounds but I'm not comfortable changing the product around just for that. The poster set by itself is just under 1.5 pounds since it's 12 big sheets of sturdy paper. Add a box, packing material, magnifier and we're over 3 pounds.

So for now I'm going to keep things as they are BUT:
1-I will look into smarter international shipping options where I use a 3rd party to fulfill my international orders. They will keep the product on hand and fulfill those orders. This is something that will take me some time to research.
2-I can ship > 1 set in the same or similar carton, thus seeing a big shipping discount per set that way. I Know this doesn't help everybody but it could help some folks who are in the proximity of someone else who wants the set. For this option, please get in touch with me, since Amazon and my store may not be "smart" about combining shipping charges.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Something like:

2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349078234907823490782349078

Instead of that, because they are already 'bold' and printing in the CYMK primary colors gives cleaner number, what about a per character 'half-tone' process. Choose a desired final colour, base text, and over lay text. Then let software do the post-script stuff.
Chris, what do you think about that?

Like this:
2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349823490782834900782349078
2394782349234907828349097782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078

Looking from a distance might make it work. This is obviously a really poor lo-fi example.

[Microprint314]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

How does it look, if instead of bold, you change the font color for the large numbers?

I found some design files where I was trying this out with Digits of e. See attached pics with magenta and cyan digits in the e character area. I think it was just a matter of personal preference, where I happen to like how I currently do the posters. There was also a time where non-black text was harder to get really small, but I've since solved that issue. There's one flaw in the pics where there's a super thin white border where the two colors meet, I'd need to fix that.

So I'm up for implementing this concept in the M51 poster set but it won't be until a version 1.1 down the road. It changes the design enough where it takes a lot of time to do it. I'd also have to figure out what text color(s) to use.

What I can do very quickly, rather than the approach in the attached pics, is to take my current approach and just make the blue, red or magenta text (not underlying digits) more transparent. If there are more votes for that, please let me know.

[Microprint314]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Instead of that, because they are already 'bold' and printing in the CYMK primary colors gives cleaner number, what about a per character 'half-tone' process. Choose a desired final colour, base text, and over lay text. Then let software do the post-script stuff.
Chris, what do you think about that?

Like this:
2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349823490782834900782349078
2394782349234907828349097782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078

Looking from a distance might make it work. This is obviously a really poor lo-fi example.

Look like you were posting while I was replying.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Please don't tell me what I meant.

It's a bit like telling me what I know.

I didn't. I wrote what I thought.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Instead of that, because they are already 'bold' and printing in the CYMK primary colors gives cleaner number, what about a per character 'half-tone' process. Choose a desired final colour, base text, and over lay text. Then let software do the post-script stuff.
Chris, what do you think about that?

Like this:
2394782349078234907823490782349078
2394782349823490782834900782349078
2394782349234907828349097782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078
2394782349823493490734900782349078

Looking from a distance might make it work. This is obviously a really poor lo-fi example.

Yellow is to be avoided since it is basically unreadable at small scale. The US Treasury "persuaded" the color printer/copier manufacturers to print equipment serial numbers etc on every page of output, encoded in small yellow dots, to make use of this property of human vision to fight inkjet or laser print engine based counterfeiting, by making every page traceable to a specific printer. (And if the counterfeiter registered the device for warranty coverage, they know where to send the black SUVs.) https://www.instructables.com/id/Yel...er-Spying-on-/ It has other applications and has since been refined. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/0...dots-back-news

[a1call]

That's quite interesting.
It raises the following questions:
How do people driving the black SUV's manage to detect the yellow dots?
Why can't the counterfeiters use the same method to detect and crop out the code or alter it otherwise?

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by a1call

That's quite interesting.
It raises the following questions:
How do people driving the black SUV's manage to detect the yellow dots?
Why can't the counterfeiters use the same method to detect and crop out the code or alter it otherwise?

Blue lighting is the simplest technique for seeing the yellow dots. (That's in the articles.) Recognizing their meaning is another matter. Apparently the EFF has done some research in this area. The counterfeiter or publisher in need of anonymity would need to be able to alter the printer's firmware to suppress the tattletale dots and still have a working printer.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by lukerichards

Binary could be fun - you could use all sorts to represent 1 and 0 - even just a dot and a space.

Haha, for all mersenne primes we found, there is always somebody who doesn't get the joke... In binary, they are all 1. In hex, except the first, they are all F.

[retina]

Originally Posted by LaurV

Haha, for all mersenne primes we found, there is always somebody who doesn't get the joke... In binary, they are all 1. In hex, except the first, they are all F.

I wish we could find primes base 7, k*7ⁿ-1.

So 2 x 7⁴-1 = 16666₇ is prime.

Then we get a poster of all sixes which we can organise in groups of three:

166,666,666,666,...,666