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Typographic Portrait: A Finnish Printer's Remarkable Feat

2025-04-16

In 1937, Finnish typographer Valto Malmiola painstakingly crafted a portrait of Jean Sibelius using tens of thousands of pieces of brass rule and spacing material. This wasn't simple printing; Malmiola treated the type as pixels, arranging them with incredible precision to create grayscale effects. The article details Malmiola's process, his inspirations from international trends and personal experiences, and explores his work's place in both contemporary and modern art. The article also addresses the controversial fact that Malmiola was a Nazi sympathizer.

Design

The Mystery of the IBM PC's 'Little House' Character: The Origins of DEL (0x7F)

2025-04-12

This article delves into the mystery of why the character at code point 0x7F (DEL key) in IBM PC's Code Page 437 is rendered as a 'little house'. It traces the origins of CP437 and IBM's decision to add 'non-serious' graphical characters for undefined control characters. Several theories are explored, including the 'house' as a symbol for home computers, its relation to the delete key, origins in other systems like Wang or Blissymbolics, and even a misidentified Greek Delta. Ultimately, the article suggests internal miscommunication at IBM as the likely cause of the persistent ambiguity. Regardless of its original intent, the 'little house' has found new life in PC ASCII art, becoming a purely visual element.

Tech