Notes on the hiqh quality printing
This poster is printed from a 1.4GB image file with a resolution of 520 dpi (at 53" wide) on a MAN Roland 900XXL 73" sheetfed
offset press, the first of its kind installed in the US. Stochastic dithering (instead of conventional halftone screening) results
in a razor-sharp image, aided by the high registration accuracy of the press. Frankly I was amazed when I saw the first
sheets off the press: I didn't know it was possible for mass-production printing to look this good.
The images come from my library of over a thousand element samples, many collected or re-photographed specially for
this poster. (A few highly unstable elements show a picture of the person or place after which the element is named, or
a mineral that contains trace amounts of the element.)
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Click the pictures to the left to see larger versions that simulate roughly the detail visible in the largest version of the poster.
The 27" x 53" version is almost four and a half feet wide: Imagine you had a 60" (diagonal), 250 dpi monitor and that should give you an idea of what the
poster looks like in person.
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Every element has a pretty side, and in this poster I have tried to give each one a chance to show
off what makes it unique and beautiful.
For example the noble gases are represented by discharge tubes that display their characteristic
colors in an electric arc. Iodine was photographed while being heated from below to bring out the
distinctive and lovely purple vapor it gives off at elevated temperatures. Niobium is represented
by an ultra-high purity crystal ribbon, an attractive form that few people have ever seen.
Silicon, in contrast, is represented by a relatively low-purity sample, but one that is
just plain good-looking.
Customer comments
They've arrived! They look amazing, much better than any periodic tables I have seen elsewhere.
—Jason Stainer, Teacher, United Kingdom
Oh My God, the periodic table posters made Keith's birthday an event. He couldn't be happier.
—Steve Silberman, Contributing Editor, Wired Magazine
The kids are nuts about it, and there was no talking about anything else until the end of the day,
even then several formerly recalcitrant students came back with their buddies to show it off after school.
Now if there were only a chart like that for algebra....
—David Bishop, Teacher
Extraordinarily lovely. A wonderful job both scientifically and artistically.
—Beth Burnside, Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley
Your periodic table is instructive and fun. I have put it up in my office.
—Martin L. Perl, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Physics
It's simply amazing. Beautiful, elegant and very high quality. Even my wife who's not very keen on this kind of "science"
stuff is very pleased for the beauty of it alone.
—Customer in Brazil
The posters were received and are more beautiful in person than I imagined!
Very exciting for many of the teachers I work with that are currently being held captive by
their outdated, boring periodic tables.
—S. Livesay, Teacher Educator
The Press Takes Note
My poster has generated countless blog posts from slashdot on down, articles in
my local newspaper, a
news item in the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News, etc. But the most dramatic
gesture is the publication in Popular Science magazine (December 2006 issue)
of a three-page tear out special edition of the poster, along with a page describing
my element collection and the making of the poster. Of course even a three page centerfold is only about as big as the 10" x 20" place mat I sell here, and
magazine printing and paper are nowhere near as good as what you get if you order one here. But on the other hand, they printed 1.4 million copies of it, allowing
a huge number of people to see just what they've been missing in the regular periodic table.
When I installed a 33-foot wide version at my old High School the newspaper wrote about it
again.
It's also been featured (which is to say, it's visible on the wall behind the actors) on two TV shows,
MythBusters on Discovery channel and Hannah Montana on Disney Channel.
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