Lectures

Lecture #1 - Book

The book is the oldest format of publishing, and most important advances in publishing were centered around the book. A book is a medium to document and transmit ideas, knowledge, records, history, and so much more.

A discussion session (one-way)

Question: What factors influence and determine the format of a book? (Questioned by Mr. Vinod)

Answer by Mr. Vinod: It depends, as a designer, we have to make sure that our design can work based on its function. In this case, Mr. Vinod gave an example: if he were about to create a book, he would see the target audience. If the book was meant for kids, he would make the size compatible for the kids' hands, also if the book is for babies, the material should be sturdy/strong enough since babies are not aware of the stuff around them. Another example can also be seen on a contact book, a contact book has a thin paper material because it contains a lot of people's telephone numbers.

Highlight: A Making of a book not only considering about the layout, but also material (keywords: size, amount of content, type of binding, paper material).

Book Format Based on Civilization

Iran - Iraq = Mesopotamian civilization
Egypt = Ancient Egyptian civilization
India - Pakistan - Afghanistan = Indus Valley civilization
China = Han Chinese civilization
European (Turkey & beyond) = European civilization

A. Iran - Iraq: Mesopotamian civilization

Keeping before writing method, mentioned in Denise Schmandt-Besserat's (1995) essay on the token system "Record Keeping Before Writing". It is mentioned that the first writing system was correlated with counting. Or more likely, the first writing system was developed from counting technology.

How does this method work?

800 - 7000 BC: People would collect ball-shaped clay of different sizes.
3000 BC: Then it developed into a bigger piece of clay, and the writing/drawing was much clearer and there's a division of place.
2400 BC: Same as in 3000 BC, but there's an enhancement in the material

[insert picture from minute 14]

B. India - Pakistan: Indus Valley

Cuneiform was one of the earliest writing systems. It was a more complex writing system. The people in this civilization mainly wrote about their government, religion, and trade. Cuneiform itself was a symbolic representation of a word that was written on a soft clay tablet using a sharp-pointed tool.

(15:00) -> (2600 - 1500 BC).

Not only is cuneiform on a clay tablet. Indus River Valley people also used palm leaves as a medium to write (15:14 picture) or a so-called palm leaf manuscript that was written using a sharp, pointed tool (stylus) on a dried palm leaf. The oldest surviving manuscript originated from Nepal. There's also a Sanskrit Shaivism text from the 9th century, discovered in Nepal (and a palm leaf manuscript), now it is preserved in the Cambridge University Library.

C. Egypt: Ancient civilization

The only people who could write Hieroglyphics were the scribes who lived in the ancient era. Those Egyptian scribes wrote on a special type of paper called papyrus; the Egyptians also would write on a tomb wall.

Information: The word papyrus refers to a thick type of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus)

(minute 19:53 and 20:44).

In 1600 BCE, Hieroglyphics were written in hieratic (writing from left to right).

D. China: Han Chinese civilization

Chinese characters in the early period were written in vertical columns on thin bamboo strips (thin). To make a longer document, they started to thread the bamboo strips so they formed a page (minute 23:30).

[picture]

From this, the modern Chinese character for a book originated from the bamboo strips threaded together.

The earliest printed book is Chinese, from the end of the Tang dynasty. Discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899, it is a precisely dated document. The paper was in a roll format, paper itself was invented as mentioned earlier in 179 - 41 BCE.

Chinese Publishing: 10th - 11th Century

Printing from a wood block was a work, because they had to carve the text one by one and then stamp it into each page. If there's a typo, they have to redo the carving process.
Despite the hard process, Chinese printers did an amazing job, because they manage to produce a huge amount of important books:

All the Confucian classics (books to educate and train government officials)
Around 5000 scrolls of a booklist and Daoist text.
The official histories of China, going back to Sima Qian (a famous historian from 200 years ago).

Later on, they found a better solution called the movable method, in which each letter was carved separately so it could be reused and didn't have to be re-carved if they do mistakes. This method was invented in China, but it was refined in Korea.
Why was the new method not finished by China? It happened because in China, they used clay or porcelain as the medium, which made the letters disappear or not last long. Meanwhile, in Korea, they invented a new writing system (by making 26-27 characters only, because Chinese characters were too many and it would be hard to track each letter) and used different materials that could make the carving last longer.

E. Turkey: European and Turkey

Parchment (invented in Turkey 197 - 159 BC), which later spread to Europe. This medium was made from animal hide/human skin. But this material is heavy because it was made from skin. Around 50 AD, Europeans made a parchment book. Back then in Europe, books are so expensive because of its material. If someone has it,we can tell that they are a wealthy person.

In 197 - 159, the two leavesof parchment filled with legible text from Al-Qur'an (Islam's holy book), have been carbon dated to close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.

paper becomes commonly available in Europe during 1400 - 1500 CE. Wood pulp is the main ingredients to make paper during 1860s (so the material changed into wood pulp during that time. The first paper that was wood pulp based was used to print the Boston weekly journal.

While paper started its journey, the folding format started to settle in the 'west'. First with wooden blocks, with thread sewn to hold them together, then with parchment and later with paper, where paper was sewn and bound together.

Lecture #2 - History of Print

AD = After the death of Christ

BC = Before Christ

BCE = Before Common Era

CE = Common Era (now)

2nd - 8th century AD: The emperor of China used stone to document their script about classic Confucianism by carving the text onto a stone. Later on, they tried to transfer it with the rubbing method, which is how they do it to transfer the text from stone to paper:

They placed a sheet of paper on top of the engraved stone.
Then they rubbed charcoal or graphite over the paper.
The ink only touched the flat surface of the stone, not the carved-in letters.
As a result, the background turned black, and the letters stayed white, forming a reverse copy of the original text.

Fig. Brass-rubbing

Korea and Japan - AD (750-768): Printing on a sutra (the earliest printed document).

Fig. Dharani sutra exhibited at National Museum of Korea

A dharani is a sacred Buddhist chant or spell believed to bring protection, peace, or merit (good karma).

The dharani texts were woodblock printed — carved onto wooden blocks and then pressed onto paper.
Each printed prayer was rolled up like a scroll.
The scroll was then placed inside a tiny wooden pagoda.
A total of one million of these were made and distributed to temples across Japan.

"One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers" refers to a collection of Buddhist prayers or mantras that were printed on paper, rolled up, and placed inside small wooden containers shaped like miniature pagodas—symbolically and visually. While Japan had already encountered woodblock-printed texts from Chinese Buddhist temples as early as the 8th century, the Hyakumantō Darani are the oldest known printed materials produced in Japan. Along with the Korean Dharani Sutra, they are among the earliest surviving examples of printed works in the world (Wikipedia)

Fig. Hyakumanto Darani

The first printed book - AD 868

16 feet long and a foot high, printed from from T'ang dynasty. Discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899 (in the form of a scroll). It's the world's printed illustration, formed by the two sheets of papers that are glued together at their edges.

Fig. Printed roll from the T'ang dynasty

Chinese publishing: 10th - 11th century

Woodblock printing, like what was used for the Diamond Sutra, was very slow and required a lot of effort.

But despite this, Chinese printers did amazing work. In the 10th and 11th centuries, they printed:

All the Confucian classics for scholar-officials.
About 5,000 scrolls of Buddhist and Daoist texts.
And the complete Standard Histories since the time of Sima Qian (a famous early Chinese historian).

To do this, they had to carve each Chinese character in reverse onto wooden blocks — a process that took a huge amount of labor.

But they had no choice, because this was the only method available until movable type printing was introduced.

Movable type was first invented in China, but it was later improved and more widely used in Korea.

To better understand:

Diamond Sutra = a printed Buddhist scripture
Printing method used = Woodblock printing
Importance = World's oldest known printed book with a date

Movable type: from the 11th Century

Simpler printing method.
Made separately (can be arranged in the correct order for a particular text and reused).
More efficient.
The idea was found in China, but because of the material and the system that had too many characters, which was not practical at that time, the material used was also fragile for being reused, which was clay. This method was finalized in Korea.

Type foundry in Korea: C 1380

In the late 1300s, Koreans started using movable type made of bronze, which was stronger and more reusable than the earlier pottery-based movable type from China. At the time, Korea used Chinese characters, which made printing difficult because there were thousands of different characters. In 1443, Koreans created their own writing system, called Hangul, which is alphabet-based and much simpler than Chinese characters. Around the same time (1440s), Gutenberg in Europe was also developing movable type printing. But Europe already had a phonetic alphabet (like A–Z) for over 2000 years, which only needs a small set of letters to form words. This made it much easier for Europeans to use movable type because they didn't have to deal with thousands of characters like in Chinese writing.

Saints and playing cards: AD 1400

Around the year 1400, woodblock printing, a method developed in Asia over 600 years earlier, was introduced to Europe. Just like in the East, the process involved inking a carved wooden block, placing paper on top, and rubbing the back to transfer the image. Early printed items in Europe were mainly religious images sold to pilgrims, and playing cards. By the late 15th century, especially in Germany, new technological improvements turned printing from a small-scale craft into a major force that helped shape Western civilization.

Note:

Pilgrim: A person who travels to a sacred place for religious reasons, often to show devotion, seek blessings, or fulfill a vow.
Playing cards: Small rectangular cards used in games or gambling, often decorated with printed suits (like hearts or spades). In early Europe, they were one of the first printed items sold for entertainment.

Gutenberg & Western Printing: AD 1439 - 1457

Gutenberg first appears in historical records related to printing in 1439, when he was sued by two business partners in Strasbourg. Witnesses described his printing tools, suggesting he had already begun experimenting with movable type, though no printed work from that time survives. By 1450, he had moved to Mainz, where he borrowed money from Johann Fust using his printing equipment as collateral, marking the beginning of the major developments that would lead to the invention of the printing press.

The world's largest book

Location: Foot of Mandalay Hill, Burma, Myanmar

The book was carved from stone, with each slab placed under a roof Refer to the picture below for a clearer vision:

Fig. The World's largest book taken by Mr. Vinod

Lecture #3 - Typography Redux

Typography = oxygen for graphic designers. To be good in graphic design, we should be good in typography as well, because it's the art of arranging and composing text, it is also a medium for expression, and most importantly, communication.

Characters in a typeface:

Lowercase
Capitals
Small capitals
Punctuations
Non-aligned figures: "non-aligned figures" in a typeface usually refers to numerals (figures) that do not all share the same height or alignment, specifically, old-style figures (also called text figures).
Fractions
Ligatures
Symbols

Fig. Characters in a typeface

X height: from the baseline to the meanline (the space in between those lines).

Exercises

Task 1: Week 01 - Week 07

All exercises prescribed are to be completed and documented (labelled, clean, clear & concise) in your eportfolio.

The exercises are as follows:

Text formatting
Mock-up making
Signature folding systems (8+8=16)
Classical Grid structure
Determining Grids
Form & Movement Exercises (Thumbnail)

1 Colour
2 Colour
2 Colours + Image
Colour + Image + Text

Exercise 1: Mock-up 1 Book Size

In this task, we were told to make a book mockup that has a size smaller than A4 but bigger than A5. In this task what we need are:

2 pieces of A4 paper
Pencils
Ruler
Clear tape

There's a video provided to guide us in determining the size. First, we need to make an A5-size book, and after that, we could do another size. Below is the result:

Fig. 2.1 Different sizes

Fig. 2.2 Mock-up book opened

Fig. 2.3 Mock-up book cutted 185 x 240 mm

Exercise 2: Signatures

In the signatures exercise, we have to fold A4 paper into 8 small parts. The purpose of this exercise is to teach us about how the book works. After folding the paper, we wrote the page number, because there are 8 folds, which means we have 16 pages. Ms. Vitya also mentioned that if we wanted to add pages, make sure that the number of pages is even. The last step is to staple the paper together so it forms a book.

Fig. 2.4 Folding the paper into 8 parts

Fig. 2.5 Added page numbers

Fig. 2.6 Use a stapler to bind the paper

Exercise 3: Van De Graff

In the 3rd exercise, we should draw a Van De Graff structure on paper and then make the digital version of it as well to be used as a guide for putting our text layout.

Fig. 2.7 Van De Graff manual

Exercise 4 - Determining Grid

Exercise 5 - Form & Movement

Practice Form & Movement

Fig. Form & movement practice PDF

1 Color Movement

Fig. Form & movement 1 Color PNG

Fig. Form & movement 1 color with grid PDF

Fig. Form & movement 1 color without grid PDF

2 Color Movement

Fig. Form & movement 2 color with grid PNG

Fig. Form & movement 2 color with grid PDF

Fig. Form & movement 2 color without grid PDF

Picture & Color Movement

Fig. Form & movement color + picture with grid PNG

Fig. Form & movement color + picture with grid PDF

Fig. Form & movement color + picture without grid PDF

Task 2: Week 01 - Week 04

In this task, we were told to write a 3000-word story of ours, later the text will be put into a book of 32 pages in a size smaller than A4 but bigger than A5. We also need to collect illustrations or photographs to complement our text.

For this task, I am not sure that I would produce a good story, since I'm not into writing, so I just put my own experiences. To be honest, I kinda feel that my writing is a bit cheesy, but fortunately, Ms. Vitya doesn't mind it. I wrote about my childhood and how my mom and I migrated to the city where my father is working right now. The main point of the story is how I adapted to the new environment I was in. In week 3, I sent my story to Ms. Vitya, and she said that it sounds good. So I continued to collect pictures for the book as well. I decided to use photographs to add a nostalgic atmosphere, since the background of my story was mostly taken when I was a kid.

FINISHED TEXT

Fig. 2.8 Final text

Below are some of the potential pictures that I will use in the book:

Fig. 2.9 Pictures for the book

Most of the pictures were scanned from an album in my grandparents' house. I'm glad that I scanned them every time I went to my grandparents' house, but since it's a scanned picture, I need to refine some parts, because there are some pictures where I have light reflection on them.

Fig. 2.10 Refine the picture in Photoshop

Other than fixing the reflection, I also added a black and white filter and some effects to the picture to bring a nostalgic feeling. Below is the before and after of the picture:

Fig. 2.11 Before and after editing

This is the final result of all chosen pictures after editing:

FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Fig. 2.12 Photographs

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Aisya Diva Anwagodsa (0365505)

Publishing Design

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